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Reviews by Cathryn Conroy

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Varina
by Charles Frazier

Ingeniously Plotted, Lyrical Language…But the Storyline Is Confusing and Can Be Difficult to Follow (4/18/2023)

This is the elegiac story of people living in and somehow surviving the perilous crisis, conflict, and calamity in the days, weeks, and years following the end of the American Civil War. But what makes this particular tale unique is that it is told through the eyes of one …more

Women Talking
by Miriam Toews

Emotionally Charged and Haunting. Not an Easy Book to Read, But Vitally Important (4/18/2023)

This is a novel that will haunt you. It is not only deeply disturbing, but also an ominous warning about the powerful authority and absolute control some men exert over women — both their minds and their bodies.

Taking place in a tightly-knit and isolated Mennonite …more community, virtually the entire book is the minutes of several secret meetings a group of women is holding in a hayloft. They are discussing their future. All of them, along with almost every other woman and girl in the colony, were repeatedly raped over five years by eight men in the community, who stole into their bedrooms in the middle of the night, knocking them out with an animal anesthetic, and then having their way with them. The women and girls would awake in the morning groggy and confused and covered in blood, feces, and semen. Even a three-year-old girl was violated in the same way. The women were told that Satan had visited them to punish them for their sins.

But that is not the story of this book.

The story is what happens after the women finally figure out what is going on. Because one woman attempted to kill one of the men with a scythe, the police were called to take the men to jail in the nearby city — for their own safety. And now the women are trying to discern what they will do to protect themselves in the future, including possibly leaving the community — a bold and intimidating step, since they have no idea where they are geographically. However unlikely it is, the narrator of the story is a man. The women trust him, and since they are illiterate, they want him to write what happens at the meetings.

There are many ways, some of which could have been quite salacious, that author Miriam Toews could have written this story, which is (shockingly) based on true events in a Mennonite community. What she did was to zero in on how women everywhere solve their problems: by talking about it. These hayloft discussions, filled with anger and deep-seated psychological pain, are heated with diverse opinions, sometimes unfocused, but always fruitful. Above all, the discussions are philosophical reflections on the meaning of their lives.

And at the root of it all is the question the women must eventually answer: Can they forgive the rapists, who are, after all, their husbands, brothers, uncles, and nephews, for the evil deeds they did? Is forgiveness even possible? And if not, how can the women remain in community with the men?

Because it is so emotionally charged, this is not an easy book to read. But it is an important one…a vitally important one. (less)

News from Heaven: The Bakerton Stories
by Jennifer Haigh

Big Stories About Small Town Life: Touching, Insightful, and Haunting (4/18/2023)

This touching, insightful, and haunting book of short stories by Jennifer Haigh continues the story of Bakerton, Pennsylvania, a fictional coal-mining town, that she introduced in "Baker Towers: A Novel" and continues after "News From Heaven" in "Heat and Light: A Novel."

…more

The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11
by Garrett M. Graff

To All the Unsung Heroes: This Is the Story of Ordinary People Who Did Extraordinary Deeds (4/18/2023)

This book will make you cry. A lot. As in, you had better have a tissue in hand when reading it.

While it is emotionally draining, this is such a vitally important book that I think everyone should read it. If you were alive on 9/11, you should read it. If you have children …more

This House is Haunted
by John Boyne

Goosebumps and Shivers! A Chilling Ghost Story for Literary Types (4/18/2023)

I think this book is brilliant! It is a chilling ghost story for literary types, complete with a cameo by Charles Dickens.

Written in the Dickensian style by the inimitable John Boyne, this gothic tale opens on a cold and rainy night in London in October 1867 when Eliza …more

All He Ever Wanted
by Anita Shreve

A Powerful Book! Deeply Disturbing Psychological Study About the Possessiveness of Marriage (4/18/2023)

Author Anita Shreve is such a surprise! While none of her books — other than the "Fortune's Rocks" series — can be said to be similar to the others, this one is a true outlier. And while it took me a good while to get into the story, once I did, I was mesmerized by it.

Quite …more

The Poisonwood Bible
by Barbara Kingsolver

An Imaginative Work of Genius: A Must-Read Book (4/18/2023)

Oh, this is a sneaky book. As in, it starts out just fine — OK, but not fabulous — and then bit by bit it sneaks its way into your heart and soul. And then when you're going about the business of life, you'll find yourself thinking, "When can I stop what I'm doing and read …more again?"

This masterpiece by Barbara Kingsolver takes us deep into the jungle of the Congo beginning in 1959 when Southern Baptist preacher Nathan Price embarks on a risky missionary post in small village located on a smelly, crocodile-infested river on the edge of a lush, snake-infested jungle. He brings with him his Bible, his arrogant, holier-than-thou approach to saving souls, and his reluctant family: his obedient, meek wife Orleanna and teenage daughters Rachel, Leah, and Adah along with five-year-old Ruth May. To say they are wholly unprepared for such a primitive lifestyle is an understatement. Assimilating—from learning to cook on a wood stove to having to haul water for a mile—is a Herculean adjustment. Great tragedy strikes, and the lives of all six of the Prices radically change forever.

The book is divided into seven sections. Except for the last section, the first part of each is written by Orleanna looking back on their time in the Congo. Each of the other chapters is written in the first person by one of the four daughters. One of the things that makes this book such an imaginative work of genius is the distinct voice Kingsolver gives each of the girls. Once you get into the book, you will know just by reading the first paragraph of a chapter who has written it without even looking at the chapter heading. And each of girls' perspectives of the same life they are living is absolutely riveting—sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes hilarious, and always poignant.

This is an intelligent, multilayered novel with vividly drawn characters that are so real they pop off the page. The detailed descriptions of the Congo are so remarkably realistic that I felt as if I were transported there along with the Price family. And the plot is riveting—not a page-turner as such, but I was fully engaged in it—as it zeroes in on the complex moral question that is the backbone of the book: Do white people — no matter how well meaning — have any right at all to invade a culture and attempt to change it? And what are the long-term ramifications of such audacity? (less)

Cutting For Stone
by Abraham Verghese

Reading This Book Is the Literary Equivalent of Being Swept Off My Feet! (4/18/2023)

Oh, this book! Reading it was the literary equivalent of being swept off my feet!

Masterfully written by Abraham Verghese, this is the story of identical, conjoined twins Marion and Shiva, born in Ethiopia of a disgraced Roman Catholic nun from India and a talented, but …more

Love and Ruin: A Novel
by Paula McLain

Slow-Moving Story That at Times Is Brilliant and Convincing, Except When It's Forced and Artificial (4/18/2023)

This is a novel that feels like a biography…that is, if biographies were written in the first person. This is a novel that also feels like a history book…that is, if history books were written in the first person.

Written by Paula McClain, this is a novel about Martha …more

Into the Water: A Novel
by Paula Hawkins

A Scary and Intriguing Literary Thriller! And Quite the Mind-Challenge to Figure Out the Mystery (4/18/2023)

Written by "The Girl on the Train" author Paula Hawkins, this is part psychological thriller and part who-done-it, and it's one of those books you won't be able to put down once you start reading it.

Taking place in Beckford, a small river town in England, the story focuses …more

The Underground Railroad: A Novel
by Colson Whitehead

Gripping and Intense: It Is Impossible to Read This Book and Not Be Profoundly Moved (4/18/2023)

The best way to describe this remarkable book by Colson Whitehead is: gripping and intense. The plot is so gripping that it will keep you turning the pages long past your bedtime, and it's so intense that if you do dare read it before sleeping, the vivid descriptions of …more

Beloved
by Toni Morrison

The Plot Will Break Your Heart, But the Writing Will Make Your Soul Sing (4/18/2023)

The plot of this book will break your heart, but the writing will make your soul sing.

Masterfully written by Toni Morrison, this is a book that is destined to be a classic and still avidly read generations from now. While it is the story of a runaway slave named Sethe, it …more

The Library Book
by Susan Orlean

Compelling, Gripping, and Absolutely Fascinating! Few Nonfiction Books Are So Readable (4/18/2023)

When libraries burn, it is more than a building and its contents that are aflame. It is our ideas, our beliefs, our culture, our history, and even our very humanity that is also caught up in the inferno. The largest library fire in the United States occurred on April 29, 198 …more

The Dutch House
by Ann Patchett

Oh, This Book! It's Magnificent! Read It. Savor It. It's Very Special. (4/18/2023)

Oh, this book! This book! This is one of those rare books that I not only enjoyed from the first sentence to the last, but also it touched my heart and soul in a way I always hope will happen with each book I read but only rarely does.

Magnificently written by Ann Patchett, …more

Winter of the World: Book Two of the Century Trilogy
by Ken Follett

Great Literature This Is Not. But Great History It Is. In Fact, It's a First-Rate History Lesson. (4/18/2023)

Great literature this is not. But great history it is.

This is a first-rate lesson in history—from 1933 to 1949 with most of the emphasis on World War II—told with real facts and imaginary characters in a plot-driven novel that will place you, the reader, on the ground in …more

The Chelsea Girls
by Fiona Davis

An Inspired Story That Is Interrupted by Too Many Eye-Rolling, Soap Opera Moments (4/18/2023)

Oh, this book is such a dichotomy! Much of it is absolutely wonderful, if not inspired, but just enough of it is an eye-rolling, soap opera that these melodramatic moments distract from what could have been such a powerful novel.

It's 1950. The United States won a war, the …more

Next of Kin: A Novel
by John Boyne

This Is One of Those Rare Novels: A Literary Delight with a Page-Turning Plot (4/18/2023)

This is one of those rare novels that has all the components of great literature as well as a gripping, page-turning plot. Irish author John Boyne, who is one of my favorite writers of all time, has penned an extraordinary story filled with twists and turns that will keep …more

Clock Dance: A Novel
by Anne Tyler

An Endearing and Enthralling Tale About the Families We Create to Fill Our Hearts (4/18/2023)

This is not your typical Anne Tyler book—until suddenly, it is.

Anne Tyler has a rare gift among writers in that she can perfectly capture the minutiae of life, providing a close-up look at those tiny details that add up to something very important. In addition, she creates …more

Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive
by Stephanie Land

Powerful and Heartbreaking: It's Impossible to Read This Book and Not Become More Compassionate (4/18/2023)

This is a hard book to read. Let me amend that a bit. It is an engrossing, gripping, and frightening book to read. It is hard to read not because it is difficult to understand or written in a mind-boggling way; it is hard to read because it is heartbreaking. It is also one …more

The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells
by Andrew Sean Greer

Impossible, Implausible Plot, But It's a Boldly Imaginative Story and Very Much Worth Reading (4/18/2023)

Even though this book is most definitely not science fiction, the only way to truly appreciate it is to suspend your belief in reality. Be prepared to enter a dreamlike world and just go with it. That said, this literary time-travel novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning author …more

BookBrowse Book Club

The Lilac People
by Milo Todd

For fans of All the Light We Cannot See, a poignant tale of a trans man’s survival in Nazi Germany and postwar Berlin.

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Daughters of Shandong
by Eve J. Chung

Based on the author’s family story, comes an extraordinary novel about a mother and her daughters’ escape from Taiwan.

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Lessons in Chemistry
by Bonnie Garmus

Praised by Parade and The New York Times Book Review, this debut features a 1960s scientist turned TV cooking star.

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