After almost five years of writing about books I kind of thought I’d seen it all. Not literally or in every way, but I firmly believed that plot and prose were inextricably intertwined. The best prose couldn’t save a bad plot and vice versa. Today I have to back off that belief because I just read a book that I really liked, but with writing that made me a little nutty. ... Read More...
Salt Houses: A Novel
There are plenty of times when fiction ventures into territory that is unfamiliar—in fact, that’s one of the reasons I love it so much. But Salt Houses, the debut novel from Hala Alyan is about a subject that I almost can’t wrap my mind around. The fact of having been driven out, by force or war, from not just your home, but virtually every country where you’ve settled. For ... Read More...
Burntown: A Novel
When you are eight-years-old the lines between what is real and what is imagined can still get blurred. So, it might be difficult for Miles to explain to police that he saw a man wearing a chicken mask kill his mother. Except that his statement isn’t even needed—the mask is found in the family’s garage and his father is booked on a murder charge. He commits suicide in ... Read More...
Into the Water: A Novel
Somehow I ended up reading two books recently on the same esoteric subject—witch hunting in England in the 1600s. Earlier this week I reviewed The Witchfinder’s Sister and now I’m back with Into the Water, Paula Hawkins’s new novel. The title is a reference to the test of tying a woman to a chair and dropping her in a pond. If she sinks, she’s innocent. If she floats, ... Read More...
The Witchfinder’s Sister
The Witchfinder’s Sister is Beth Underdown’s dark novel of dark times. It’s 1600s England and Alice is pregnant, her husband is dead and she must return to live with her brother whom she hasn’t seen in five years. Her brother who wanted to become a minister, but due to their father’s death had to earn a living as a scribe. Now grown, he has become the man charged with ... Read More...
April Reading Recap
Safe to say that April stayed more true to form than March, in that we had A LOT of rain, which is fine because now we have flowers everywhere. My reading was not quite so productive. I did have a 5 star winner with The Takedown, but beyond that I was stuck with hit or miss books. Desperation Road by Michael Farris Smith: One of those novels ... Read More...
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