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Reviews by Cathryn Conroy

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Tom Lake: A Novel
by Ann Patchett
This Is a Great American Novel: Tender, Nostalgic, and a Really Good Read (6/8/2024)
This incredible book by Ann Patchett deserves to be named a Great American Novel. It has everything: an engrossing, multilayered storyline, deeply developed and vivid characters, and embedded literary themes. It's a ten-star book in a five-star world.

Taking place over twomore
The Husband's Secret
by Liane Moriarty
Big (BIG!) Secrets! A Compelling ChickLit Page-Turner with Major Plot Twists and Turns (5/21/2024)
Ooooh! This is delicious ChickLit and a compelling page-turner with a multilayered plot line, well-developed characters, and (of course!) big secrets. Really, really big secrets from two husbands.

Written by Liane Moriarty, this is the story of three women living in Sydney,more
You Have a Friend in 10A: Stories
by Maggie Shipstead
Ten Short Stories: Diverse Settings, Fresh Characters, Surprising Plots Focused on the Dynamics of Sexual Power (5/20/2024)
This literary collection of short stories by Maggie Shipstead should win an award for diversity of settings. The 10 stories take place on a Montana dude ranch, a Midwestern college, Paris, a small California town off the Pacific Coast Highway, the backroads of Easternmore
Night Watch: A Novel
by Jayne Anne Phillips
This Is Literary Fiction at Its Finest: A Mesmerizing Storyline (5/16/2024)
The writing. Oh, the writing. This is one of those books that demands to be reread—even if it's just a paragraph here and a page there. The writing is masterful, lyrical, and nearly poetic. And this is only one of the reasons this profound, haunting novel by Jayne Annemore
State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America
by Sean Wilsey, Matt Weiland
50 States. 50 Essays. 50 Writers: An Unvarnished, True-to-Life, and Occasionally Disturbing Portrait of America (5/13/2024)
Fifty states. Fifty essays. Fifty writers. Sew it all together, and you have a portrait of the United States, but it's not one that would be endorsed by any state chamber of commerce. This is an unvarnished, true-to-life, sometimes full of praise, sometimes denigrating, andmore
Rules of Civility: A Novel
by Amor Towles
A Charming and Imaginative Novel: The Magic of This Book Is in the Remarkable Characters (4/26/2024)
Amor Towles is one of my favorite authors, and it was a delight after 12 years to reread this, his first novel, for my book club. While the plot is compelling, the magic of the book is in the enthralling characters.

The story takes place over one year—1938—opening on Newmore
Happiness Falls: A Novel
by Angie Kim
An Overrated Novel: Disjointed Plot, One-Sided Characters, and Hyped-Up Prose (4/21/2024)
This is billed as a "thrilling page-turner": A married father of three children goes missing. Is he dead? If he is dead, was it an accident or murder? Was he kidnapped? Did he skip town with a possible paramour? If you, like me, choose to read this book thinking it's amore
Euphoria
by Lily King
A Piercing and Perceptive Tale of the Havoc Wreaked When Egos Collide and Sexual Tensions Run High (4/5/2024)
This is a sneaky book. It starts off at a crawl with the characters and plot unraveling at a slow, deliberate, and measured pace…until wham! At about the halfway point, the book just grabbed me in an intense, haunting, and almost disturbing way. I was sucked into it likemore
Fin & Lady
by Cathleen Schine
I Loved This Book! Tender and Sweet, Bold and Brash…and Parts of It Are Hilarious. (4/3/2024)
Oh, I loved this book! Tender and sweet, but also bold and brash. And parts of it are hilarious.

It's the spring of 1964. Fin Hadley is a happy 11-year-old boy who lives on a farm in Connecticut until his widowed mother dies, and he is suddenly an orphan. His only livingmore
Absolution: A Novel
by Alice McDermott
Brilliant! A Story of Vietnam You've Never Heard Before…A Story of the Women, the Wives (3/30/2024)
In a word: brilliant!

This is a book about Vietnam in the very early days of the war, a story you've never heard before. This is a book about the women, the wives of the important men—diplomats, engineers, intelligence officers, attorneys, and military brass. These brightmore
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
by Karen Joy Fowler
An Impressive and Intriguing Novel: Colorful Characters, an Unusual Plot, and Pitch-Perfect Writing (3/14/2024)
What a remarkable book! This is a wildly original spin on that classic novel plot of being part of and then breaking away from a dysfunctional family.

Written by Karen Joy Fowler, this is the story of Rosemary Cooke, the younger of two children—or three children, dependingmore
Lazarus is Dead
by Richard Beard
Powerful and Profound! An Ingeniously Plotted Novel That Creatively Combines Fiction and Theology (3/13/2024)
Wow! This is a profound and powerful novel that is an extraordinary hybrid between fiction and theology that left me stunned (in a good way).

Deftly written by Richard Beard, this is the story of the biblical Lazarus—before, during, and after his death. The raising ofmore
The Water Museum: Stories
by Luis Alberto Urrea
Imaginative and Exceptional Collection of 13 Short Stories: Smart, Perceptive, and Thought-Provoking (3/7/2024)
Written by the incomparable Luis Alberto Urrea, this collection of 13 short stories alternates from heartbreaking to hilarious. Almost all of them are about identity and community—those who are safely on the inside and those who are left outside.

Many conclude open-ended,more
The Long Haul: A Trucker's Tales of Life on the Road
by Finn Murphy
An Eye-Opening, Intriguing Insider's Account of What Really Happens When You Move (2/14/2024)
What an eye-opener this is! This is an intriguing book for anyone to read, but especially for those who are planning a move be it locally or long-distance. You'll find out what really happens once the movers cross your doorstep--and it's not all good.

The author is Finnmore
A Vast Conspiracy: The Real Story of the Sex Scandal That Nearly Brought Down a President
by Jeffrey Toobin
Not for the Prudish! A Well-Researched and Balanced Historical Account—Except for the (2/13/2024)
This is not a book for the prudish.

While author Jeffrey Toobin has written a deeply researched and (in my opinion) balanced account of the two sex scandals that enveloped President Bill Clinton in the late 1990s—Paula Jones and Monica Lewinsky—there is a definite "ick"more
The Frozen River: A Novel
by Ariel Lawhon
Magnificent Storytelling! Page-Turning Historical Fiction Wrapped Around a Riveting Whodunit (2/10/2024)
Oh, what a novel! It just pulled me in and wouldn't let go.

Before you read this book, know two important things:
1. Clear your schedule! Once you start reading, it will be really (really!) hard to stop. Yes, it's THAT good.
2. When you finish it, you will have a whoppingmore
The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible
by A. J. Jacobs
One Man Spends a Year Living the Bible Literally: It's Laugh-Out-Loud Funny and Deeply Spiritual (1/31/2024)
This book should come with a warning! Beware reading it in public places because you will be laughing out loud—repeatedly—and you risk getting the same wary looks from strangers that author A.J. Jacobs endured for the year he decided to live biblically. That is, he livedmore
The Funeral Cryer: A Novel
by Wenyan Lu
So Disappointing! A Thin Plot, One-Dimensional Characters, and a Stilted, Jarring Writing Style (1/30/2024)
With stilted, almost awkward writing, a thin plot, and one-dimensional characters, this dark and sorrowful book by Wenyan Lu is a disappointment because it has the potential to be so much more.

Taking place in modern-day China but in a remote, rural village that hangs on tomore
The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper
by Hallie Rubenhold
An Important and Fascinating Fact-Filled Entry into the Myths of Jack the Ripper and His Victims (1/18/2024)
Jack the Ripper, a brutal, evil, psychotic murderer who stalked the foggy nighttime streets of London's East End slums in 1888 is the stuff of legend. He was never caught and still hasn't been identified more than 135 years later. And the women he killed? Oh, they were justmore
Five Tuesdays in Winter
by Lily King
An Impressive Collection of Short Stories: From the Delightful to the Dark, Each One is a Gem (1/17/2024)
I read a lot of short story collections, and it's rare that almost all the stories in the collection are excellent. This is one of those rare collections. Each of the 10 stories has a compelling plot, characters that seem real, and just the right amount of tension ormore

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    Let's Call Her Barbie
    by Renée Rosen
    She was only eleven-and-a-half inches tall, but she would change the world. Barbie is born in this bold new novel by USA Today bestselling author Renée Rosen.
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Help Wanted by Adelle Waldman

From the best-selling author of The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P. comes a funny, eye-opening tale of work in contemporary America.

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    Going Home
    by Tom Lamont

    Going Home is a sparkling, funny, bighearted story of family and what happens when three men take charge of a toddler following an unexpected loss.

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    Beast of the North Woods
    by Annelise Ryan

    When a local fisherman is mauled to death, it seems like the only possible cause is a mythical creature.

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    The Secret History of the Rape Kit
    by Pagan Kennedy

    The story of the woman who kicked off a feminist revolution in forensics, and then vanished into obscurity.

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