Jodi Picoult is a seasoned pro at presenting both sides to highly charged and complicated issues—which is one of the reasons I love her books. She moves me out of my comfort zone and gives me perspectives that I might not come to on my own. Generally, she finds hot-button topics shortly after they’ve hit the mainstream news, but in her latest, A Spark of Light, she is prescient ... Read More...
September Reading Wrap-Up
What a month! I read much less, but found some great, less publicized books that were exactly what I needed. Sadly, the end of the month has found me floundering as American politics have taken over. Despite knowing it would be difficult I felt I owed Dr. Ford the respect of listening to her testimony. It broke my heart and brought back a lot of very painful memories—as I’m ... Read More...
Katerina: A Novel by James Frey
Last week I wrote about The Golden State, a novel that literally flowed, with very little punctuation or grammar, from the protagonist’s mind. Oddly, enough immediately after that book, I read James Frey’s Katerina and he utilizes the same style. The good news? In both cases it works. Katerina is the story of Jay, a writer at two very different points in his life. In 1992 he is ... Read More...
The Silence of the Girls
Whether you read The Iliad in the original Greek, in an academic translation, or watched Brad Pitt and Eric Bana glisten as they warred on a sandy beach what everyone knows of the Trojan War is the men. And why not? It’s a story of men told by men. Author Pat Barker is having none of that. Instead, she’s looks at the war that lasted nine years and was set off by one man’s pride ... Read More...
The Golden State
At first glance, Daphne has a great life. She’s in her early thirties, lives in San Francisco, is mother to a beautiful 16-month-old daughter, Honey, and is happily married, with a job that may not be the most satisfying, but pays well. The only problem? Thanks to Immigration officer intimidation at SFO airport her husband, Engin, had his green card taken away and was deported ... Read More...
She Would Be King
An unlikely trio comes together in the fight for a new nation in She Would Be King, Wayétu Moore’s debut novel about Liberia. There is 18-year-old Gbessa, exiled from her small West African village as a witch, who survives the bite of a poisonous snake. June Dey is a 15-year-old Virginian slave, who kills two men while trying to save the woman who raised him. When others try ... Read More...
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