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Reviews by Cathryn Conroy

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Little Gods
by Meng Jin
This Is a Strange Story with a Cumbersome Structure, But It's Also Beautiful and Compelling (4/18/2023)
Oh, this is a strange little book. It's also strangely beautiful and strangely compelling.

Who ARE you…really? Ask that question of anyone who is close to you, and you'll probably get different answers. That's because we are perceived differently by different people. Andmore
Such a Fun Age
by Kiley Reid
An Important Message About Prejudice and Forgiveness Wrapped Up in a Fabulous, Intriguing Story (4/18/2023)
This book grabbed me on page one and never let go. It's a riveting page-turner not because it's a thriller or a whodunit but because it's a compelling story about people…people who are acting up, while trying to do the right thing for all the wrong reasons—and utterlymore
Olive, Again: A Novel
by Elizabeth Strout
What a Treasure! This Is a Book About Life and Death That Is Filled with Wisdom and Grace (4/17/2023)
This is a 10-star book in a five-star world. With an imaginative structure, a riveting storyline, and incredibly vivid characters, this book by author Elizabeth Strout is one to read slowly, fully savor, and treasure.

This is the sequel to the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Olivemore
The Ice Queen
by Alice Hoffman
An Imaginative, Spellbinding Fairy Tale for Grown-Ups (4/17/2023)
This is a fairy tale for grown-ups. And quite a tale it is with the suffering heroine, the monster with whom she falls in love, and a desperately unhappy life that happily turns around.

As a little girl, our heroine said something almost every angry child utters at one timemore
Slammerkin
by Emma Donoghue
A Gripping, Historical Saga That Reveals the Underbelly of a Brutal World (4/17/2023)
This is a difficult book to read because it is so very sad. But even though this historical novel by Emma Donoghue is raw and emotionally draining, it tells an important story about the 18th century: the plight of girls and women who were abandoned and the degrading, awfulmore
Elevation: A Novel
by Stephen King
Disappointing! A Lesson in Tolerance, But Told Without Nuance or Subtlety (4/17/2023)
If the front cover didn't list Stephen King as the author, I would never have guessed he wrote it. Mind you, I don't read horror novels, so I dance around the edges of King's oeuvre, and this one is definitely on that edge. No horror at all, but also not much of a story.

more
The Book Thief
by Markus Zusak
Innovative, Imaginative, and Inspiring: A Brilliant and Unforgettable Must-Read Novel (4/17/2023)
If someone were to ask me to describe this incredibly creative book in three words, this is it: Innovative. Imaginative. Inspiring. It may take you a few pages to become accustomed to the highly original writing style, but the payoff is so worth it. This is one of thosemore
America for Beginners
by Leah Franqui
I Just Want to Hug This Book! A Delightful and Charming Story About Life, Love, and Truly Living (4/17/2023)
When I was about halfway through reading "America for Beginners" by Leah Franqui, I had the (admittedly odd) thought: I just want to hug this book. In addition to being a delightful story—more enchanting than a page-turner—this book is filled with pithy wit and wisdom aboutmore
Wolf Hall: A Novel
by Hilary Mantel
Old-Fashioned Storytelling at Its Best: The Life and Drama of Thomas Cromwell (4/17/2023)
History comes vitally alive when it's told not with facts and dates and lists but rather through the drama of the people who lived it. And author Hilary Mantel does a magnificent job of bringing to life Thomas Cromwell, a man long cast as a cunning Machiavellian villain butmore
Miller's Valley: A Novel
by Anna Quindlen
If You Grew Up in the 1960s, This Book Will Likely Resonate with You (4/17/2023)
If you grew up in the 1960s, graduating from high school in the early 1970s, this coming-of-age story is likely to resonate with you. While the novel recounts a girl's passage into adulthood during a somewhat turbulent time, it also pays homage to the power of Mother Nature,more
This Is How It Always Is
by Laurie Frankel
Oh, This Is SO Good! It's Almost a Perfect Book. Bonus: You'll Be a Better Person for Reading It (4/17/2023)
This book grabbed my heart on page one and never let go. Exquisitely written by Laurie Frankel with aplomb, humor, and a rare insightful emotional intelligence, this is a book about a subject that is so difficult—and to some so disgusting—it's easier to ignore it or, worse,more
The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the 1918 Pandemic
by John M. Barry
Prodigiously Researched and Expertly Written, This Book Has Ramifications for Today and Covid-19 (4/17/2023)
History DOES repeat itself. I read this book about the 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic during the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic, and the similarities are chilling—especially the many elected officials who first mocked it and later denied it, not only radically increasing themore
Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood
by Trevor Noah
A Book That Alternates Between Shock and Incredulity and Tragedy—But Will Still Make You Laugh (4/17/2023)
You will never again watch Trevor Noah tell a joke or go on a political tirade without asking yourself this question: How did he do it? How did he grow up to become a functioning human being? Even with the fierce, protective love his mother, Noah lived a precarious andmore
The Red Lotus
by Chris Bohjalian
Hold onto Your Reading Chair! This Intelligent Thriller Takes You on an Exhilarating Ride (4/17/2023)
This novel, written long before "Covid-19" or "coronavirus" were in our everyday lexicon, has an eerie ring of verisimilitude. So if the daily headlines aren't scary enough for you, grab this book—but don't plan on getting anything else done for a while because you won't bemore
Purple Hibiscus
by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
An Unforgettable Tale of the Power of the Human Psyche in That Liminal Space Between Love and Hate (4/17/2023)
This is a heartbreaking book. And while I believe this may very well be great literature, it is not a book one should read lightly. It is absolutely devastating.

Written by the inimitable Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the lyrical, sometimes gritty prose will take you on amore
The Good Life
by Jay McInerney
This Is the Literary Equivalent of a Bottle of Champagne—Fizzy and Fun but Not Much Substance (4/17/2023)
This book is the literary equivalent of a bottle of Champagne. It opens with a pop, and while it's fizzy and bubbly and fun, there ultimately isn't much substance to it. Still, it's pretty amazing!

Written by Jay McInerney in his witty and intelligent style, this is themore
The Gathering
by Anne Enright
Extraordinary, Lyrical Writing, but a Dark and Desolate Story That Is Just So Very Sad (4/17/2023)
Oh, this book is dark. Very, very dark. It is about dying and grief—grief in the myriad ways that the deaths of those we love bruise the human psyche. Adding to the complexity of the story, the death in question is a suicide, which means the "why" will never be answered andmore
Between the World and Me
by Ta-Nehisi Coates
The Power of This Book: Empathy, Understanding, and a Sense of the Right Questions to Ask (4/17/2023)
The essential power of books is both simple and majestic: Knowledge can change lives. That is the power of this short book by Ta-Nehisi Coates that succinctly and poetically recounts America's racial history both nationally and in the author's own life. And it is absolutelymore
Fruit of the Drunken Tree
by Ingrid Rojas Contreras
An Emotionally Searing Book That Is Ferocious, Gritty, and Tender—And a Really Good Read (4/17/2023)
This is a book about a specific time and place and horror. This is a book about Colombia at the height of the terror-filled reign of drug lord Pablo Escobar. This is a book about a privileged, affluent little girl, as well as her impoverished teenage maid who is the solemore
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek: A Novel
by Kim Michele Richardson
SO Good! A Gripping, Authentic Saga About Poverty, Prejudice, and the Resilience of the Human Soul (4/17/2023)
In the 1930s in the hardscrabble mountains and hollers of eastern Kentucky food was scarce and jobs were backbreaking, but thanks to President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Kentucky Pack Horse Library Project, there were books. Think of it as a bookmobile on a mule. Women (and amore

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