Reviews by Lynn D. (Kingston, NY)

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The Dream Hotel
The Dream Hotel: A Novel
by Laila Lalami
They know what you're dreaming about (1/19/2025)
The Dream Hotel is set in an unspecified future in California, but it seems believable that it isn't so far from the present day. The possibilities portrayed in this story about the consequence caused by the growth of AI, and the mining of personal data are both terrifying …more
Follow the Stars Home
Follow the Stars Home
by Diane C. McPhail
Historic 1811 River Trip (6/1/2024)
This is a well researched story of a little known, but important, event in American history. In 1811, a very pregnant Lydia Latrobe Roosevelt, joins her husband, Nicholas Roosevelt on the first steamboat trip down the Mississippi River to New Orleans. Many details are very …more
This Strange Eventful History
This Strange Eventful History: A Novel
by Claire Messud
This Strange Eventful History (4/30/2024)
I loved this book! This novel tells the story of 3 generations of a French-Algerian family displaced in the 1940's and 1950's by events of history and the effects this has on the family as they make temporary homes in different parts of the world. The author writes …more
The Mystery Writer
The Mystery Writer: A Novel
by Sulari Gentill
A fun mystery (1/11/2024)
This is a very fun mystery. It is fast paced, with lots of plot twists, some of which are quite improbable, but it all adds up to a good story. The main characters' personalities are well written and likeable, even though they are not described in much physical detail.
There …more
Wild and Distant Seas
Wild and Distant Seas: A Novel
by Tara Karr Roberts
Beautiful book cover! (10/16/2023)
In Wild and Distant Seas the ocean is the backdrop for this story inspired by Moby-Dick. Just as Ahab spent years searching for the great white whale, the 4 generations of mothers and daughters spend years in search of the elusive, apparently because this will give meaning …more
Hotel Cuba
Hotel Cuba: A Novel
by Aaron Hamburger
European immigrants in Cuba (4/22/2023)
This is not the familiar story of immigrants arriving through Ellis Island to start their new lives. This is the unfamiliar story of displaced persons being redirected to Cuba and struggling to get into the U.S. from there, in the 1920s. Jewish sisters Pearl and Frieda flee …more
Last House Before the Mountain
Last House Before the Mountain
by Monika Helfer
Family ties (2/24/2023)
This novel is written as a memoir, and is based on the author's own family. A granddaughter is recalling her grandmother's life in a remote Austrian village. When her husband is called to serve in WWI, the family struggles to survive through many hardships and the scorn of …more
Ghost Season
Ghost Season: A Novel
by Fatin Abbas
Heroes amid conflict in Sudan (11/28/2022)
Ghost Season gives us five distinct and sympathetic characters living in an NGO compound on the border between North and South Sudan. I was quickly drawn into the story as their relationships develop and they face political uncertainty and societal differences in their …more
Dinosaurs
Dinosaurs: A Novel
by Lydia Millet
People in glass houses (9/24/2022)
I really enjoyed this quiet, thoughtful novel. The main character, Gil, is looking for a new start and for purpose in his life, having no need to 'make a living.' Along the way he exemplifies his humanity in his daily life with his neighbors and others. He cares for the …more
The Immortal King Rao
The Immortal King Rao: A Novel
by Vauhini Vara
From India to Seattle (4/16/2022)
I recommend this book highly to science fiction fans. What happens when IT is unchecked and the Algorithm controls society? Technology that was designed to connect us and make us equals has led to greater divisiveness. And then there's Hothouse Earth as we failed to solve …more
Activities of Daily Living
Activities of Daily Living: A Novel
by Lisa Hsiao Chen
Life and art in time (1/12/2022)
What an interesting and unusual novel!
There are two story threads. Alice is struggling with her Taiwanese Father's decline into dementia and his need for more and more help. The descriptions of her father's experiences in care facilities seem very true to me.
In her spare …more
The Fields
The Fields: A Novel
by Erin Young
Great crime story ! (10/26/2021)
The Fields is a compelling crime story with many layers. It's a police procedural with a sympathetic and flawed detective (and her family). The author takes on Big-Ag vs, small farmers, political corruption, drug abuse, and the societal challenges of the rural Midwest, …more
Morningside Heights
Morningside Heights: A Novel
by Joshua Henkin
Blood is thicker than water (4/13/2021)
Morningside Heights is an easy and engaging read which explores themes of family dynamics over the time of a long marriage. This is primarily the story of Pru's marriage, although we do at times get the story through the eyes of the daughter and stepson. As her husband, …more
Smalltime
Smalltime: A Story of My Family and the Mob
by Russell Shorto
Mobsters in the Family (2/21/2021)
I enjoyed this book a lot. Shorto begins the story of his grandfather's years as a smalltime racketeer in PA by tracing his family back to their Sicilian roots. The 20th century Italian-American experience is central to this story. Shorto engages the reader by framing the …more
Stories from Suffragette City
Stories from Suffragette City
by M.J. Rose, Fiona Davis
Votes for Women (11/1/2020)
I was drawn to this short story collection because of both the centennial of the 19th amendment and the 2020 presidential election. Stories from Suffragette City did not disappoint!
There are 12 loosely connected, all enjoyable, stories. They are by contemporary fiction …more
Migrations
Migrations: A Novel
by Charlotte McConaghy
Perilous journeys (4/6/2020)
Migrations is an ambitious novel taking on large themes with a strong main character. Bird and animal extinction caused by climate change is major story line. The protagonist, Franny, is compelled to follow the migration of arctic terns from Greenland to Antarctica. It …more
The Mountains Sing
The Mountains Sing
by Nguyen Phan Que Mai
The Mountains Sing (1/21/2020)
This beautifully written historical novel tells the 20th century Vietnamese history of conflict, famine, and corruption, through the lives of a resilient and loving grandmother, born in 1920, and her granddaughter, born in 1960, who long for a world without war. Their …more
American Dirt
American Dirt: A Novel
by Jeanine Cummins
The story for our time (12/3/2019)
This is an amazing novel! We all have heard stories, or known people who have made the dangerous journey to cross our southern border. This novel makes us feel for these migrants with such compassion. Cummins humanizes the people who make this terrifying choice in order to …more
Mighty Justice
Mighty Justice: My Life in Civil Rights
by Dovey Johnson Roundtree , Katie McCabe
Dovey Roundtree's fight for justice (9/24/2019)
Dovey Roundtree's memoir, beautifully co written with Katie McCabe, is an amazing story of a woman overcoming racism and sexism throughout the 20th century. She was raised in the Jim Crow south by a grandmother determined to stand up to the injustices around her, and who …more
The Secrets We Kept
The Secrets We Kept: A novel
by Lara Prescott
There are a lot of secrets (7/27/2019)
The Secrets We Kept is a fast paced historical novel about the writing of Dr. Zhivago, by Boris Pasternak, and the complicated and dangerous struggle to get it published internationally and in the USSR during the Cold War. We meet the women typing pool at The Agency, which …more
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