When Clay, Amanda and their children, Archie and Rose, arrive at the secluded house they’re renting on Long Island they’re thrilled to be escaping Manhattan for a week in the summer. The house is beautiful with a pool, woods, and the ocean not too far away. No people, no noise, and barely any cell phone reception. The family quickly shifts into vacation mode. This is the ... Read More...
The Book of Two Ways
Jodi Picoult’s new novel, The Book of Two Ways, straddles the worlds of death and life choices, both in the present, and in the case of death, all the way back to ancient Egypt. Dawn is a woman fifteen years into a marriage when she decides she wants to know what might have happened in the life she had as a graduate student. Unlike other alternate lives novels (Life After Life) ... Read More...
Homeland Elegies: A Novel
These days, I’m attuned to fiction that takes my mind off reality. Not necessarily easy or soothing, but novels that grab me with their drama (Against the Loveless World) or distract me with their lovely prose (Monogamy). It’s with some surprise then that I’m reviewing Homeland Elegies, a complex novel I’m still not sure I fully understand. Ostensibly, it’s about Sikander, a ... Read More...
September Reading Wrap-Up
I’ve been tired of 2020 in virtually all my end-of-month posts, but Justice Ginsburg’s death in September pretty much broke me. I found some solace in reading, but some of my nonfiction choices indicate just how far this year has pushed things. There is no ‘normal’ in my reading right now as shown by my September stats: 15 books read, 7 of which I rated as great or ... Read More...
A Girl is a Body of Water
I came upon Jennifer Makumbi’s novel, A Girl is a Body of Water, in my efforts to further diversify my reading. It’s a multi-generational saga centered around a young Ugandan woman named Kirabo. The novel begins in the 1970s when she’s 12. She lives in a sprawling rural compound with her grandparents and many relatives. Although she is surrounded by family, her parents are not ... Read More...
Monogamy: A Novel by Sue Miller
Recently, my reading has involved both unusual plots and characters. Today I’m back with Sue Miller’s Monogamy, a novel that is, appropriately for this week, about grief. Annie McFarlane’s husband, Graham, dies of a heart attack in the night next to her in their bed. A large, boisterous man with an appetite for life he leaves a gaping hole in the lives of everyone who ... Read More...
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