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The Miniaturist: A Novel

August 25, 2014

miniaturist

Set in 1686 The Miniaturist by debut author Jessie Burton is the spellbinding story of an eighteen-year-old girl married off to an older merchant who lives in Amsterdam. She arrives on his doorstep with no idea of what marriage entails or the fact that she has been procured to enhance his reputation, for her family is poor but with a pedigree. Little does she know that her ... Read More...

16 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: 17th century, book clubs, ecco, historical fiction, Holland, magical realism

A Dancer in the Dust

August 22, 2014

dancer in the dust

  Ray Campbell is a risk assessment manager when A Dancer in the Dust begins but it is his time as an aid worker in Africa decades ago that forms the foundation of the novel. As a young man assigned to the newly independent country of Lubanda he is filled with idealism and a desire to help the people of this arid, under-developed country. When he meets Martine, a white woman ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: Africa, book clubs, Mysterious Press, mystery

Dear Committee Members

August 20, 2014

dear committee members

  If every member of the human race evinced a fondness for literature and even a moderate level of dexterity with the written word, I would be a happier, if not more well-adjusted, man. Jay Fitger is an underpaid, tortured and tenured English professor at Payne University. His professional life at this B-level college has largely devolved into writing letters of ... Read More...

7 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary life, Doubleday, humor

The Story Hour

August 18, 2014

story hour

  When it comes to the workings of the human heart there are few who tell tales so consistently unexpected and with such depth as Thrity Umrigar. Her newest novel, The Story Hour, is about the lonely Lakshmi and Maggie, the psychologist assigned to work with her after she tries to kill herself. Lakshmi came from India six years ago with her arranged-marriage husband. Her life ... Read More...

6 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, cultural, Harper, India

Vintage: A Novel

August 15, 2014

vintage

Hourglass Vintage is a charming used clothing shop in Madison, Wisconsin. It is also where three women at very different stages of life meet in Vintage, the debut novel from author Susan Gloss. Violet is the owner,  Amithi is a middle-aged Indian woman, who brings in much of her jewelry and clothes to sell, and April is a pregnant eighteen-year-old who thought she would be ... Read More...

4 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: chick lit, debut, fashion, William Morrow

Friendswood: A Novel

August 13, 2014

friendswood

Friendswood, Texas is a good, old oil-based community. Rosemont is a small suburb built near a refinery and life is good there, until funny greasy black coils of goo start appearing in people’s yards like fat worms after a rain. Friendswood by René Steinke begins years after the fallout from the leakage of deadly chemicals in the field around which the houses of Rosemont were ... Read More...

7 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary life, Riverhead Books

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