Daisy Shoemaker lives one of those perfect-on-paper lives. She has her own small successful cooking business, her marriage and life are comfortable, and she has a reasonable relationship with her teenage daughter, Beatrice. All good until Jennifer Weiner scratches the surface and removes the shine in her new novel That Summer. The cracks start to show when Daisy and ... Read More...
Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty
I often talk about fiction that evokes strong emotion, but I’m not as likely to find it in nonfiction. Until now. Patrick Keefe’s Empire of Pain has left me angrier than I’ve been in a long time. The book’s subtitle should clarify things: The Secret History of the Sackler Family Dynasty. If you’ve never read Dopesick or any news on the opioid crisis in America the name Sackler ... Read More...
Fast Fiction: Mini-Reviews
Fast fiction may sound like a pejorative, but I don’t mean it that way. Sometimes, particularly after deeper literary fiction I’m happy to jettison character development and lyrical prose for books that go down like any of my favorite sugary snacks—easily, mindlessly, and with no nutritional value. Empty calories, but yummy, and just how much kale should any one person ... Read More...
The First Day of Spring
“I am here. I am here. I am here. You will not forget me.” These are the words painted on a wall by 8-year-old Chrissie, a girl so desperate for attention in a world that gives her none that she commits a reprehensible act. She lives alone with her mother and everything, including love, is in short supply. She is starving for the things a child needs to thrive, powerless to ... Read More...
Olympus, Texas: A Novel
When the word Texas is in the title there’s an automatic expectation that what lies between the covers is going to be as bold, brash, and over-the-top as the state itself. In this way, Olympus, Texas does not disappoint. The Briscoes are the stars in the novel’s firmament, even if their shine is due to their bad behavior. Patriarch Peter can’t keep his hands to himself, which ... Read More...
What Comes After
When a novel begins with a shocking act of violence it often indicates more dramatics, more action, to come. In the case of What Comes After, author Joanne Tompkins opts to go a different route, turning the novel inward to the lives of the characters left behind. A small Washington town is rocked when childhood best friends are found dead in a murder-suicide. The murdered ... Read More...
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