The Gilmore Guide to Books

Connecting Books and Readers One Review at a Time

  • Home
  • About Me
  • Reviews
    • Reviews by Author
    • Reviews by Title
    • Reviews by Genre
  • Podcast
  • Policies
    • Review Policy
    • Cookie Policy
    • Privacy Policy

Under the Udala Trees

October 5, 2015

under the udala trees

  In Under the Udala Trees Ijeoma is only twelve years old when the civil war in Nigeria begins and her mother must leave her behind while she tries to establish a life for them in the north, a safer part of the country. It is 1968 and they live in Biafra, a southern state that has seceded from the nation. The war has already claimed her father and now her mother asks a ... Read More...

6 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: Africa, book clubs, cultural, debut, historical fiction, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, literary, nigeria

Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights

October 2, 2015

two years

  Salman Rushdie is back with Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights, a story about the strangeness that resulted from a seam being opened between the world of humans and the world of the supernatural, as embodied by jinns and their female counterparts, jiniri. Of the jiniri there was none more powerful than the Lightning Princess, a spirit who back in the 1100s ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: fantasy, literary, magical realism, New York City, Random House

A Window Opens

September 30, 2015

a window opens

  It seems that I stumbled into a payload of modern American life fiction. Two weeks ago I reviewed Days of Awe and now I’m back with A Window Opens by Elisabeth Egan, a female centric novel that may seem as if it is weighted with an overload of heavy events but it’s not. What it is is real, messy, complicated, and confusing with new jobs, shifting marital ... Read More...

11 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: chick lit, contemporary fiction, debut, Simon & Schuster

It’s Monday, September 28th: What Are You Reading?

September 28, 2015

Monday

It’s the first Monday of fall, which means we are heading into prime curl-up-with-a-book weather. At least for me. There is something about cooler days that makes me want to immerse myself in a book. How about you? Is this the beginning of reading weather or do you have fall activities that keep you busy? If you do have time for reading, what are you reading now? Our house is ... Read More...

12 Comments
Filed Under: Feature, Reading Tagged: lists

Fear of Dying: A Novel

September 23, 2015

fear of dying

  It has been so long since I read Fear of Flying that I can’t claim to remember anything about it, except being left with the feeling ‘wow, that is one gutsy author’, writing about sex and relationships in a way I’d never read before. The author was Erica Jong and 40 years after that novel she is back with Fear of Dying, her new fictional take on sex, relationships, and ... Read More...

3 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary life, dying, life, marriage, St. Martin's Press

Did You Ever Have a Family

September 21, 2015

did you ever have a family

  If you take a major event and separate out all the people involved in that event—whether responsible for it or impacted by it, you get wildly divergent impressions about what actually happened. This is what author Bill Clegg does so soulfully in his debut novel, Did You Ever Have a Family. June’s daughter Lolly, her daughter’s fiancé, June’s ex-husband, and her ... Read More...

6 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, contemporary fiction, debut, family, literary, Scout Press

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 202
  • 203
  • 204
  • 205
  • 206
  • …
  • 294
  • Next Page »
  • Bluesky
  • Email
  • Goodreads
  • Instagram
  • Substack

Save time and subscribe via email

No time to keep checking for new reviews? Enter your email address to subscribe and receive notifications of new posts by email. No spam!

Bookshop

Currently Reading

Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle
Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle
by Emily Nagoski
The Dutch House
The Dutch House
by Ann Patchett
Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me
Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me
by Adrienne Brodeur

goodreads.com

Affiliate Disclosure

I’m an affiliate for Bookshop. If you click on a link that takes you to their site and make a purchase I’ll earn a small fee, which goes towards the costs of maintaining this site. Your support is appreciated. Thank you!

Archives

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.

Theme Design By Studio Mommy · Copyright © 2026

Copyright © 2026 · Beyond Madison Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in