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Reviews by Cathryn Conroy

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Zeitoun
by Dave Eggers
Riveting and Compelling: A Haunting, Provocative Account of One Family's Survival After Hurricane Katrina (12/14/2024)
Wow! Wow! Wow! This is a tale that everyone should read. It is important, but it's also so riveting and compelling that I could barely stop reading. Oh, and it's nonfiction.

Written by Dave Eggers, this is the astounding, heartbreaking, and rage-inducing story of one family'more
Time of the Child
by Niall Williams
A Literary Treasure: Exquisite Writing and a Heart-Wrenching Plot (12/10/2024)
Oh, the writing. Oh, the language. The words alone will transport you to December 1962 in rainy, windy, and cold Faha in the far west of Ireland. Read a few pages, and you'll want to snuggle under a blanket just to warm up. To heck with the story, the book should win anmore
Intermezzo: A Novel
by Sally Rooney
A Profound Literary Novel: A Philosophical Study in Grief and Forgiveness (11/30/2024)
This novel cast some kind of spell over me. This is literary fiction at its finest with parts unfolding in ways that seared my soul. It is a philosophical study in grief for what might have been and will never be again, but it is also a study in forgiveness even when themore
Hello Beautiful: A Novel
by Ann Napolitano
A Fierce, Insightful and Wise Salute to Little Women: It's a Nearly Perfect Novel (11/29/2024)
Because I read a lot of books, I am often asked, "What is your favorite book?" Well, that is an impossible question! Who is my favorite child? But I do have a list of my top 10 favorite books, and this one just catapulted onto it. In addition to good old-fashionedmore
The Most
by Jessica Anthony
A Fierce Little Book That Is a Real Literary Treasure (11/24/2024)
Oh, the travails of marrying the wrong person.

It's an unseasonably warm and sunny day on Sunday, November 3, 1957 in Newark, Delaware. The Russians have launched Sputnik 2, and the news is buzzing with it. When Kathleen and Virgil Beckett awaken, she tells him she doesn'tmore
A Cloud in the Shape of a Girl
by Jean Thompson
Written with Great Emotional Insight: A Sad Book About the Inexorable Ties of Mothers and Daughters (11/23/2024)
Oh, this is a sad book. But it's also a book about real life, and some of real life IS sad. Very sad. Author Jean Thompson has written a magnificent story about mothers and daughters over three generations that will resonate with virtually every woman.

The novel, which takesmore
The Armor of Light: A Novel (Kingsbridge)
by Ken Follett
Filled with Intrigue, Violence, and Sex, This Is an Engrossing Historical Novel (11/13/2024)
When it comes to life, the one thing you can be sure of is change. This novel by Ken Follett, the fifth in the incredible Kingsbridge series of historical fiction, embraces this adage as the primary theme of the 750-page book.

Taking place from 1792 to 1824 in the fictionalmore
Tell Me Everything: A Novel
by Elizabeth Strout
An Extraordinary and Brilliant Book About Life, Love, and Hope (10/31/2024)
Oh, I just want to hug this book.

It is a book about nothing. And at the same time, it's a book about everything. It is a book about what people think and say and do. It is a book about how they treat one another in good times and bad. It is a deeply perceptive book aboutmore
Reading Genesis
by Marilynne Robinson
Examining Genesis as Literature: Not an Easy Read but a Profound One (10/29/2024)
What this book is: Literary criticism of the Book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible.
What this book is not: A theological or religious analysis of the Book of Genesis.

Every student of literature, no matter that person's religion or lack thereof, should read the Bible—more
The History of Love
by Nicole Krauss
Strange and Confounding: Imaginative Artistic Literature That's Different from Mainstream Fiction (10/26/2024)
This is a strange book. It gets big points for originality, but it's also confusing and confounding. About halfway through, I was so bewildered, I did something I rarely do: I got online to figure out what the heck it was I was reading.

Written by Nicole Krauss, this is amore
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
by David Grann
A History Book That Is Also a Page-Turner and Will Keep You Reading Long Past Your Bedtime (10/24/2024)
This is a history book. I had to keep reminding myself of that because it reads like a mystery novel. But it's all true. All factual. And that makes it all the more horrifying.

Written by David Grann, this is the story of the brutal murders of hundreds of people, many in themore
Weyward: A Novel
by Emilia Hart
It's REALLY Good! A Powerful, Ingenious and Captivating Story with a Riveting Twisty-Turny Plot (10/23/2024)
Oh, this book is good. Really, really, really good. As in, once I got into it—about three chapters in—I could barely put it down. It just consumed me with its creative and electrifying twisty-turny plot.

Infused with a touch of magical realism, this is a suspenseful novelmore
Yellowface: A Novel
by R. F Kuang
A Can't-Put-It-Down Satirical Literary Thriller That Is Also an Uneasy, Stomach-Churning Read (10/5/2024)
This is a can't-put-it-down satirical literary thriller that is also an uneasy, stomach-churning read that left me twitchy and nervous, but anxious to keep turning those pages. This book should come with a bottle of aspirin.

Written by R.F. Kuang, this is the story ofmore
Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket
by Hilma Wolitzer
Fabulous Collection of Short Stories That Resonate with Insight and Wisdom (And a Delight to Read!) (10/5/2024)
Okay, I admit it. I bought this book for the title, which should win an award for being so clever and evocative. And while the eponymous short story in this collection of 13 stories by Hilma Wolitzer (mother of novelist Meg Wolitzer, in case you wondered about the same lastmore
Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End
by Atul Gawande
A Must-Read Book on a Terrifying Topic: Aging and Dying (10/1/2024)
This is a frightening book to read—so frightening that most people will avoid it. The terrifying topic? Aging. And dying.

Most of us envision living a long life. What most of us avoid thinking about is getting old, frail, and dependent on others. The hard truth is that wemore
Bury Your Dead: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel, #6
by Louise Penny
Every Louise Penny Book Is a Delight to Read, but This One Is Especially Outstanding (9/21/2024)
Louise Penny's incredible 20-book (and counting?) series of Chief Inspector Gamache mystery novels are a reader's delight, and I think this may be the best one yet. I say that having read just six of them because THEY MUST BE READ IN ORDER, so I reserve the right to changemore
The Secret History
by Donna Tartt
This Psychological Thriller Is Everything a Novel Should Be: Great Literature and a Page-Turner (9/16/2024)
This psychological thriller is everything a novel should be: great literature and a page-turner that will keep you up past your bedtime.

Written by Donna Tartt, this is the story of six college students in the 1980s who attend the small (fictional) Hampden College in Hampden,more
The Spinning Heart: A Novel
by Donal Ryan
A Short and Powerful Novel: A Brilliant Story About Real Life in Contemporary Rural Ireland (9/10/2024)
This is a short but powerful novel—so powerful that I had to occasionally stop reading and just breathe. It's a story about real life in rural Ireland around 2010 when the economy collapsed in a severe recession. Jobs were hard to come by, making money tight and livesmore
Homecoming: A Novel
by Kate Morton
A Compelling and Complicated Mystery, but Not as Good as Kate Morton's Previous Novels (9/7/2024)
I was weirdly disappointed in this book, the seventh novel written by Australian Kate Morton. Don't get me wrong. This is a good book—and parts of it are really good—but it's not a great book and not up to the same quality as Morton's previous novels.

This is a murdermore
The Berry Pickers: A Novel
by Amanda Peters
A Chilling Psychological Study of Two Lives Forever Changed in a Heartbeat and a Love That Never Ends (8/22/2024)
It is July 1962. Joe is six years old. Ruthie is four. They are the part of the Mi’kmaq tribe and live in Nova Scotia, Canada. Every summer, the family—mom, dad, and the five kids—come to Maine to work as blueberry pickers. But this summer is different. This summer Ruthiemore

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