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Lookaway, Lookaway

August 21, 2013

lookaway lookaway

I’ll do my best not to overindulge in Civil War metaphors but I tore through Lookaway Lookaway faster than Sherman went through Atlanta. Wilton Barnhardt has written an addictive novel of the contemporary south. He combines the best and the worst of old and new in a way that is expansive and intimate. The story is about the Johnston family. Matriarch Jerene is the epitome of ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, humor, Southern life, St. Martin's Press

Night Film

August 19, 2013

Night Film

  Stanislas Cordova is a filmmaker of mythic proportions, his films so dark, so intense they are ultimately given X-ratings and so slip off the main screen to be shown only in random locations at night. His following grows and finally, when he disappears from the world onto his 300 acre estate in the Adirondacks, he achieves a mystical cult-like status. Scott McGrath is a ... Read More...

1 Comment
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, mystery, Random House, suspense

The Lighter Side of Reading

August 16, 2013

lighter side

This may not be a burning question in your mind but I thought maybe, after a year of putting my thoughts out there about books, you might like a sense of where I’m coming from in what I read and, ultimately, decide to review. Earlier this week I covered what I need when I read but that was at the micro level. There is also the macro level of what kind of books. If compared to ... Read More...

6 Comments
Filed Under: Reading Tagged: chick lit, writing

What I Need When I Read

August 14, 2013

What I need to Read

When I read Claire Messud’s The Woman Upstairs I loved it. The protagonist was a middle-age, single woman who was angry about a lot of life. For some this anger was off-putting and there were reviewers who found the woman (Nora) disagreeable and depressing. I certainly felt sympathy for her situation but by and large, even when she made me uncomfortable, Nora was a character I ... Read More...

4 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: chick lit, Knopf, women

The Engagements

August 12, 2013

The Engagements

J. Courtney Sullivan returns, this time turning her insightful eyes to a subject dear to many women’s hearts and one that epitomizes the eternal hope of love, diamonds. In her latest novel, The Engagements, we meet Frances Gerety, the woman who, in the 1950s, created one of the most celebrated slogans of the century: A Diamond is Forever. Frances and her work with DeBeers ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, family, historical fiction, jewelry, Vintage

Happy Any Day Now

August 7, 2013

happy any day now

  Happy Any Day Now begins with the approach of Judith Soo Jin Raphael’s fiftieth birthday and in addition to the normal aging nerves, she is dealing with the return of her college love (who dumped her because his blue-blood mother didn’t think she was good enough for their family), the return of her father (who left her and her mother when she was still a little girl), and ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary life, cultural, NAL, women

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