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What Could Be Saved

January 18, 2021

saved

The word “normal” ceases to exist in families who lose a child. Either they re-form together into a new unit or they separate. After 8-year-old Philip disappears in What Could Be Saved, the Preston family is the latter. They shatter, with the four remaining members—father, Robert; mother, Genevieve; daughters, Beatrice, and Laura, leaving Thailand to return home to the U.S. ... Read More...

4 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: cultural, family, Southeast Asia

Waiting for the Night Song

January 15, 2021

waiting

We first meet Cadence ‘Cadie’ Kessler as she’s illegally harvesting mountain pine beetles off a tree in the New Hampshire forest. A researcher, she needs proof that the beetles have arrived to their area, threatening the death of trees and the heightened likelihood of rampant forest fires. But within pages, mutilating a tree on public lands is the least of her concerns. The ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: coming-of-age, debut, mystery, social issues

The Fortunate Ones: A Novel

January 13, 2021

fortunate

Things are starting to turn around in Charlie Boykin’s life. The child of a single mother who works as a cocktail waitress, he’s been one of the only white boys at his school and in their Nashville neighborhood. Now, he’s gotten a needs-based scholarship to Yeatman, a prestigious, private high-school. Even better, he’s assigned an upper classman mentor who turns out to be the ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: family saga, Southern life, wealth

The House in the Cerulean Sea

January 11, 2021

cerulean

Often when it’s time to begin a book review I try and draw from the facts—plot, place, biographical details. Because I read so much (and don’t have the discipline I should) specifics tend to blur by the time I sit down to write so in starting there I bring the book back to me. All of that is moot when it comes to novels like The House in the Cerulean Sea. I can sum up the book ... Read More...

4 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, children, fantasy, young adult

The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins

January 8, 2021

wife

I’m a fan of modern retellings of classics. I realize they can risky and there are times they don’t work (I’m looking at you Anna K), but when I saw someone was taking on Jane Eyre I was ready. The Wife Upstairs is set in Birmingham, Alabama not England, and is about Jane, a young woman trying to build a new life for herself. She walks dogs in a wealthy neighborhood, ... Read More...

4 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary life, mystery, wealth

Winter 2021 Books I’m Ready to Read

January 6, 2021

winter

New year, new books! As much as I’m ready for things to be different in 2021, there is a change I’m not looking forward to in the book world. A combination of COVID and the economy means publishers have been getting a lot stingier about sending advance copies of books to book bloggers. For the first time in a long time my 2021 winter preview includes books I haven’t received ... Read More...

10 Comments
Filed Under: Feature, Reading Tagged: Africa, contemporary life, literary, Middle East, mythology, social issues

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