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Reviews by Cathryn Conroy

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The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane
The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane
by Lisa See
Gripping and Endearing (and a Great Ending!) (4/21/2023)
This novel does what no other book I have read does: It is 75 percent (or so) fiction and 25 percent (or so) nonfiction. And it works! The story focuses on a Li-yan, a young Chinese woman from the minority Akha tribe in the mountains of Yunnan Province. She violates the …more
In the Midst of Winter
In the Midst of Winter
by Isabel Allende
A Heartrending Tale for Our Times (4/21/2023)
A monster blizzard has shut down New York City in January 2016, and in the process three very different people are brought together—and their lives will forever change because of it. Their stories unfold: Evelyn, a 20-something undocumented immigrant who somehow survived …more
A Land More Kind Than Home
A Land More Kind Than Home: A Novel
by Wiley Cash
All I Can Say Is This: Read It! (4/21/2023)
This book is intense. Very intense. I found I couldn't read it for more than an hour at a time because it just tore my heart in two. Masterfully written by Wiley Cash, this is the story of two brothers, Stump (Christopher) and Jess, who live on a tobacco farm in a valley of …more
Clara and Mr. Tiffany
Clara and Mr. Tiffany: A Novel
by Susan Vreeland
Fascinating in Parts, Loses Its Oomph in Others (4/21/2023)
Colors. Lots of colors. Colors galore--from emerald green to peacock blue to daffodil yellow to ruby red. Author Susan Vreeland describes colors in this book, which is about Louis Comfort Tiffany, in a way that will make you almost see the colors pop off the page.

Tiffany …more
The Monsters of Templeton
The Monsters of Templeton: A Novel
by Lauren Groff
Amazing, Creative and Original! A Perfect Novel (4/21/2023)
What an amazing, creative and outright original book! (And it was Lauren Groff's first novel, too.) This is a two-dimensional story; one part takes place in the present day, while the other takes place some 200 years ago.

Wilhelmina Sunshine Upton, who goes by Willie, is 28 …more
The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted
The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted: And Other Small Acts of Liberation
by Elizabeth Berg
Hilarious and Heartbreaking! A Must-Read (4/21/2023)
This is a book about food. More precisely, this is a book about eating food—or not eating it. It is a hymn to food. It is a testament to our relationship with food and how that relationship sometimes goes wrong. Very wrong. It is both hilarious and heartbreaking.

It is also …more
Pachinko
Pachinko
by Min Jin Lee
Extraordinary Writing, Extraordinary Book (4/21/2023)
This four-generation family saga of poverty-stricken Koreans who are essentially forced in exile to Japan is everything a reader wants in a novel: characters so real they pop off the page, a plot that keeps you reading past your bedtime, and an ending that both breaks your …more
The Ninth Hour
The Ninth Hour: A Novel
by Alice McDermott
Powerful. Formidable. Astounding. Read It! (4/21/2023)
This is a wonderful story about life among the Irish-American Catholic community in New York City in the early 1900s. A nice little story. And then PUNCH! The last part of the book delivers such a powerful, unexpected and wholly formidable if not astounding ending that I …more
The Road from Gap Creek
The Road from Gap Creek
by Robert Morgan
A Story of Family Love and Survival (4/21/2023)
This sequel to "Gap Creek" tells the story of Julie and Hank's marriage years after they moved away from Gap Creek. They are now the parents of four grown (or nearly grown) children, and the life they live is based in large part on what they can raise and grow on their farm …more
Columbine
Columbine
by Dave Cullen
This Should Be Required Reading for Everyone (4/21/2023)
Breaking news! Oh, it's just another school shooting. How sad we can even think like that.

The notion that a child could procure guns and make bombs to take down his high school took on a whole new meaning when Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold did the unthinkable at Columbine …more
An American Marriage
An American Marriage
by Tayari Jones
A Love Story AND a Human Story (4/21/2023)
This is my favorite kind of book: long on characters and short on plot.

Expertly written by Tayari Jones, the book's characters are so real and so fully developed that they just pop off the page. The plot is heartbreaking: Celestial and Roy have a passionate and fiery …more
Baker Towers
Baker Towers
by Jennifer Haigh
A Powerful, Expertly Written Book That Will Transport You Back in Time (4/21/2023)
This book will transport you to the 1940s, '50s and '60s to the imagined—but, yet, oh so real—mining town of Bakerton, Pennsylvania where the good times come and go based on the coal industry. This is the story of the Novak family. He works in the coal mines, while she …more
City of Light
City of Light
by Lauren Belfer
Secrets. Lies. Innuendoes. Betrayals. Oh, What a Delicious Book! (4/21/2023)
Secrets. Lies. Innuendoes. Betrayals. More secrets. A murder mystery. And great tragedy. Oh, and enough of a lesson on how electricity is generated from Niagara Falls that it (almost) masquerades as nonfiction. Written by Lauren Belfer, this is one of those utterly …more
Code Girls
Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II
by Liza Mundy
A Must-Read—But Not an Easy Read (4/21/2023)
What this book is: A prodigiously researched, well-written and cogent historical account of the heretofore unrecognized accomplishments of the so-called "code girls," the incredibly smart young women who successfully deciphered the coded secret messages sent by Japan and …more
The Teachers
The Teachers: A Year Inside America's Most Vulnerable, Important Profession
by Alexandra Robbins
A Treasure! This Is a Page-Turner Filled with Compelling Storytelling and Cutting-Edge Research (4/21/2023)
This book inspired me, angered me, filled me with awe and wonder, and made me really and truly think—think about our public schools, the educators who work so hard, the students who depend on the schools, and the parents who can make life so wonderful or challenging for …more
The Aviator's Wife
The Aviator's Wife
by Melanie Benjamin
An Oh-So-Sad Story of the Private Life of a Very Public Couple (4/20/2023)
This book is so sad. At times, it was almost too sad to keep reading. It is a fictionalized account of the life of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, the painfully shy wife of the famous pilot Charles Lindbergh. Lauded as a hero for flying solo from New York to Paris in 1927, he was …more
The Hour I First Believed
The Hour I First Believed
by Wally Lamb
A Beautifully Written, Intelligent Book (4/20/2023)
There is only one word that can adequately describe this phenomenal book: Genius.

That said, this work of literary fiction by Wally Lamb may not appeal to everyone. (English majors will love it!) Narrated in the first person by Caelum Quirk, this multilayered book is …more
Behold the Dreamers
Behold the Dreamers
by Imbolo Mbue
This Remarkable Book Pierced My Heart and Soul (4/20/2023)
The time: 2008

The place: New York City. Well, to be exact a corner office on Wall Street with floor to ceiling windows offering a breathtaking view, a posh Upper East Side apartment that is decorated to the nines and a one-bedroom, cockroach-infested fifth-floor walk-up in …more
The Female Persuasion
The Female Persuasion: A Novel
by Meg Wolitzer
Profound and Moving, This Is a Sheer Joy to Read (4/20/2023)
Somehow this book, which is all about the characters—and I mean ALL about the characters—somehow has a plot. And that is the genius of author Meg Wolitzer!

This is the story of Greer, a shy, confused college freshman and her journey to adulthood. It's also about Cory, her …more
The Art of Hearing Heartbeats
The Art of Hearing Heartbeats
by Jan-Philipp Sendker
Enchanting, Passionate and Profound: Read and Enjoy (4/20/2023)
Magic. Pure magic. This book—with prose that reads more like poetry—is a sheer delight. I have no idea how to classify it. It's a haunting fable. And a passionate love story. And an enchanting mystery. I wanted to hurriedly read to find out what would happen next, but I had …more

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