Reviews by Helia R. (Goodlettsville, TN)

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This Strange Eventful History
This Strange Eventful History: A Novel
by Claire Messud
Not a page-turner... (4/17/2024)
but a languid literary exploration of what family means and what home. The novel spans seven decades and is told in multiple viewpoints from members of the Cassar family. I found some of the voices more engaging than others and some of the chapters dragged for me, but all …more
Bad Animals
Bad Animals: A Novel
by Sarah Braunstein
Already on my top 2024 fiction list! (1/6/2024)
If you love to read about libraries and readers and writers, this book is for you. If you love brilliant, fresh writing, this book is for you. If you love a complex, unreliable narrator, this book is for you. If you worry about privilege, appropriation and who gets to tell …more
This Is Salvaged
This Is Salvaged: Stories
by Vauhini Vara
A heartbreaking and hilarious collection (8/18/2023)
I savored every single one of the ten amazing stories that make up this slim collection -- limiting myself to one story a day -- and still, it was over too fast. I felt slightly bereft when finished. What connects these stories that explore common enough tropes such as …more
Do Tell
Do Tell: A Novel
by Lindsay Lynch
A great book club pick! (6/21/2023)
A fascinating debut novel, told from a place way out of my comfort zone. As someone who doesn't much care for gossip or celebrity, I didn't expect to be drawn so deeply into the life of a B-actress turned gossip columnist covering Hollywood's golden years. But I was, mostly …more
The Montevideo Brief
The Montevideo Brief: A Thomas Grey Novel
by J. H. Gelernter
I shouldn't be reviewing this novel. Or maybe I should? (4/20/2023)
Thomas Grey is a renowned spy in Britain's Secret Service at the beginning of the nineteenth century. He is a daring hero with impeccable ethics, a thousand talents, and charm to boot. It's up to him to prevent Spain from allying with France and declaring war on Britain, …more
The All-American
The All-American: A Novel
by Joe Milan Jr.
A wild and deeply satisfying rollercoaster ride (2/12/2023)
This story pulled me in from beginning to end. Like many poor kids in ramshackle towns with ramshackle families, Bucky dreams of escape by way of a college football scholarship. As setbacks, misfortunes, and misunderstandings pile up, he finds himself deported from the US …more
Ghost Season
Ghost Season: A Novel
by Fatin Abbas
Prediction: The movie rights to this potent novel will be snapped up very soon if they haven't been already (11/20/2022)
Set in a border town between northern and southern Sudan at the center of the looming civil war, this astounding debut is told by a cast of five incredibly well-crafted protagonists. At an NGO compound, Sudanese-American documentarian Dena is filming scenes from daily life, …more
The God of Endings
The God of Endings: A Novel
by Jacqueline Holland
A breathtaking novel that straddles genre and defies classification (10/25/2022)
After losing myself in this extraordinary debut for a solid week (at over four hundred and sixty pages the novel is hefty) I'm very curious how THE GOD OF ENDINGS will be shelved in bookstores: Will it be considered literary fiction given the gorgeous prose and universal …more
Dinosaurs
Dinosaurs: A Novel
by Lydia Millet
We need more men like Gil (9/7/2022)
I love this book so much I'd marry it if I weren't already married. As things stand, my rushed affair with Millet's novel left me feeling bereft when it was over. At 230 pages, the book is slim and easy to gobble up in two sittings. Take your time, reader, to savor this …more
The Poet's House
The Poet's House
by Jean Thompson
Another gem from a favorite author (6/19/2022)
Reading a Jean Thompson novel is like catching up with a friend you've loved for decades because she is witty and kind and endlessly curious about the human condition. She's unbothered by fads and writerly pretenses, and after spending time with her books I always feel …more
The Immortal King Rao
The Immortal King Rao: A Novel
by Vauhini Vara
Too many themes to count (5/1/2022)
As much as I wanted to love this sprawling, inventive, and ambitious novel, it wasn't for me. It reads like five books rolled into one, and I found the frequent scene/time/story-line hopping exhausting to follow. By the time I got into the groove (and just went with it), …more
Peach Blossom Spring
Peach Blossom Spring: A Novel
by Melissa Fu
I didn't want this novel to end (yet I stayed up late and got up early to finish it). (2/19/2022)
The story follows Meilin and her son, Renshu, for a span of almost seventy years, as they make the perilous journey from war-torn, mainland China in 1938 to temporary safety in Taiwan to living different lives on different continents. I was inspired by Meilin's resilience, …more
Fencing with the King
Fencing with the King: A Novel
by Diana Abu-Jaber
hooked from beginning to end (12/14/2021)
Thank you to this book and its brilliant author for transporting me out of my boring, pandemic seclusion. I didn't expect to get so caught up in an American poet's quest to find answers to old family mysteries and issues of identity and belonging in a tale set in 1995s …more
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