Reviews by Gail B. (Albuquerque, NM)

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Migrations
Migrations: A Novel
by Charlotte McConaghy
MAGIC (4/9/2020)
On a mission to track the migration of Arctic terns from the Far North Atlantic to West Antarctica, Franny Stone, wanderer, joins the crew of Saghani, the last vessel certified to fish for wild Atlantic herring. Part Franny's search for family, part love story, part a …more
Miss Austen
Miss Austen
by Gill Hornby
Miss Austen (2/16/2020)
This novel will appeal to Jane Austen fans, of which there are multitudes over 200 years later. Aside from insight into romance in Georgian England, MISS AUSTEN gives an interesting glimpse into the Austen family dynamics. Cassandra, older sister of Jane, stands as the …more
The Yellow Bird Sings
The Yellow Bird Sings: A Novel
by Jennifer Rosner
A SUCCESS (12/3/2019)
THE YELLOW BIRD SINGS might have been just another World War II book, but this one is spectacular. A prodigy violinist who was able to develop in the midst of chaos, amazing. The loving connection between mother and daughter, extraordinary. The mother's work to keep her …more
Remembrance
Remembrance
by Rita Woods
A WRINKLE IN TIME (10/24/2019)
Is voodoo real, or is there truly a portal between time and space? REMEMBRANCE demands a leap of faith -- but then the reader is in for a treat. The novel begins in a modern-day nursing home and spans time from the 1791 slave rebellion in Haiti, to mid-19th century …more
You Were There Too
You Were There Too
by Colleen Oakley
Who Was There Too? (8/19/2019)
Colleen Oakley's novel is a good enough summer-at-the-beach read. Who wouldn't be caught up when Harrison whispers "Dios Mia" into his wife's hair? The couple has lived a seemingly perfect relationship for eight years, spoiled only by Mia's inability to carry her …more
Ellie and the Harpmaker
Ellie and the Harpmaker
by Hazel Prior
A Match Made in Exmoor (4/15/2019)
In the words of Shakespeare, "If music be the food of love, play on." The promise of ethereal harp music made me want to read on. Ellie the Housewife and Dan the Harpmaker both need compassion and understanding. Ellie's marriage to a manipulative alcoholic is on the brink …more
Courting Mr. Lincoln
Courting Mr. Lincoln
by Louis Bayard
A Tale of Politics, Love and Rivalry (2/19/2019)
On Mary Todd's twenty-first birthday, her sister Elizabeth whispers to her, "Don't panic," implying that SURELY some man would come along to save Mary from a lifetime of spinsterhood. There is nothing "wrong" with Mary. She is attractive, vivacious, talented in womanly arts. …more
The Night Tiger
The Night Tiger: A Novel
by Yangsze Choo
A Real Ghost Story (12/8/2018)
The Night Tiger follows parallel adventures for 49 days in 1930s Malaya. The paths of main characters: Ren, an 11 year old houseboy and his dead twin, step-siblings Ji Lin and Shen - and a host of other characters, are woven magically through the story. A tale of love, …more
Gone So Long
Gone So Long
by Andre Dubus III
Gone So Long (10/1/2018)
Raw emotions... love and hate, rage and tenderness.... The characters -- Daniel/Danny, Lois/Noni, Susan/Suzie Woo Woo -- all six tell their stories. Lost, lost, everybody lost except the one steadying force, a genuine nice guy who loves discordant, broken things and might …more
Fly Girls
Fly Girls: How Five Daring Women Defied All Odds and Made Aviation History
by Keith O'Brien
No Powder Puffs Allowed (6/17/2018)
Like some of the early flights, Fly Girls got off to a slow start, but when a man (Cliff Henderson) entered the picture and organized the 1929 Air Race from Santa Monica to Cleveland, the book picked up speed. The reader will recognize some names (Earhart, Beech, Cessna), …more
The Milk Lady of Bangalore
The Milk Lady of Bangalore: An Unexpected Adventure
by Shoba Narayan
Going Home to India (1/2/2018)
Expat and long-time resident of New York City, Shoba Narayan returns to her native home in southern India. As she moves into her new apartment, she is preceded into the elevator by the neighborhood cow, there to attend another resident's housewarming. Thus begins her …more
Mothers of Sparta
Mothers of Sparta: A Memoir in Pieces
by Dawn Davies
Motherhood (9/28/2017)
Who are Mothers of Sparta? Dawn Davies, in a series of essays about motherhood, writes, eventually, about her own experience of refusing to be a Spartan Mom willing to sacrifice her own damaged son.

Some chapters drew her as a self-indulgent hypochondriac with miserable …more
The Almost Sisters
The Almost Sisters
by Joshilyn Jackson
Sisterhood (5/17/2017)
Almost Sisters gives us all sorts of "sister" connections -- Narrator Leia and her half-sister Rachel and grandmother Birchie and her companion Wattie are obvious. Violence and Violet are characters in Leia's comic book; Leia and her niece Lavendar perhaps sisters under the …more
The Barrowfields
The Barrowfields
by Phillip Lewis
Wanted to Like It Better (3/3/2017)
Sad to say, Barrowfields may belong in the burial ground of coming-of-age novels. On the plus side, the author created some elegant passages describing North Carolina's Great Smokey Mountains, the misty Blue Ridge Parkway, the magnificent night sky.
His character development …more
Castle of Water
Castle of Water: A Novel
by Dane Huckelbridge
Castle of Water (12/6/2016)
Two perfect strangers, American Barry Bleecher and French Sophie Ducel, live through a plane crash near a tiny island between Tahiti and the Marquesas. In a captivating modern day Robinson Crusoe talk, each contributes his/her experience to survive in most inhospitable …more
Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk
Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk
by Kathleen Rooney
A Walk through Manhattan (9/17/2016)
Lillian Boxfish/real life Margaret Fishback, the highest paid ad writer in 1930s New York, as she often reminds us, decides to take a walk around Manhattan on New Years Eve 1984. We travel from her apartment in Murray Hill to Delmonico's Restaurant to a party in the old …more
The Book That Matters Most
The Book That Matters Most: A Novel
by Ann Hood
Attn: Bookies (6/14/2016)
What book matters most to you? If your book club is searching for a good reading list, here you are.

Even in childhood Ava thought of herself as inferior to her perfect sister Lily, who died so young. Then her perfect mother Charlotte could not survive the loss, Ava's …more
A Certain Age
A Certain Age: A Novel
by Beatriz Williams
A Certain Age (3/14/2016)
Beatriz Williams borrows freely from the opera Der Rosenkavalier while she modernizes the setting to 1920s Manhattan. On page one, she invites us to relax and read "in the comfort of our armchair," as we meet the cast of characters in her captivating, jazzy style of prose. …more
Fallen Land
Fallen Land
by Taylor Brown
Brutality vs Love (12/8/2015)
If anyone still has a romanticized view of war, the Civil War novel FALLEN LAND will certainly dispel it. One reviewer called it a tale of "the worst and best of humanity." The worst: at times, the brutality is almost too difficult to read. A band of renegade bounty hunters …more
Natchez Burning
Natchez Burning: A Penn Cage Novel, Natchez Burning Trilogy #1
by Greg Iles
Natchez Burning (9/25/2015)
Exciting to meet Greg Iles at last. Natchez Burning explores the complexity that still exists in the Deep South, plus strengths/weaknesses of family relationships. Interweaving of history and mystery is masterful -- though at times a bit bloody. Such evil exists, but her …more
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