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Favorite Debuts of 2013

December 30, 2013

2013 Debuts

If you’ve stumbled on this because you’re looking for the prettiest (and/or richest) debutantes of 2013 then you’ve got the wrong blog. Which doesn't mean you can't stay (please do!) but although I love all things girly and fashionable I’m writing about the best debut authors of 2013. So, even though there is bling in this list, it is the literary sparkle of outstanding writing ... Read More...

7 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: debut, lists

The Death of Bees

December 23, 2013

death of bees

There are times when what is needed is a story so utterly foreign that it plucks us out of our own world and drops us into one for which our background leaves us completely unprepared. I found this with Lisa O’Donnell’s debut novel The Death of Bees: A Novel. Set in Glasgow, it encompasses the world of Marnie and Nelly, two teens left on their own when their parents die. Well, ... Read More...

10 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, coming-of-age, Harper, Scotland

Farewell, Dorothy Parker

December 20, 2013

farewell dorothy parker

  Have you ever played the history game where you can choose points in history you’d like to visit? For me, the era of the Algonquin Round Table in Manhattan is one such time. Men of great wit and intelligence drinking cocktails and being dominated by one of the greatest wits of all: Dorothy Parker. Given that choice, finding Ellen Meister’s novel, Farewell, Dorothy Parker was ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: Berkley, chick lit, humor, Manhattan, pop culture

The Lion Seeker

December 18, 2013

lion seeker

  The son of Lithuanian Jews who left the country in the 1920s and moved to South Africa, Isaac Helger grows up believing the only way to have self-worth is through money. “Working” for a living, as his watch repairman father does, is embarrassing. As the protagonist in Kenneth Bonert’s novel, The Lion Seeker, Isaac embraces his mother’s credo of “Are you a stupid or a ... Read More...

8 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, cultural, historical fiction, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, South Africa

Too Bright to Hear Too Loud to See

December 16, 2013

too bright

  And that’s how it happens. Like a broken record, warped and scratched. Once I was music, now I am just noise.  It requires a special gift to bring forth a largely unlikable character who can also evoke sympathy but Juliann Garey has done just that in her debut novel Too Bright to Hear Too Loud to See. Greyson Todd is from one of the most unlikable genres of men in fiction ... Read More...

13 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, contemporary life, Hollywood, mental health, Soho Press

The Abominable

December 13, 2013

abominable

  Our valley is in darkness, but Everest blazes far beyond and above us in a cold, powerful, self-contained isolation. That strikes me as terrifying.  In 1924 the British alpine climbing community was dealt a serious blow when George Mallory and his partner Sandy Levine disappear high on Mount Everest. At the same time a lesser known but titled Brit disappears and his mother ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: Little Brown and Company, Mount Everest, mystery, suspense

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