Goodbye, July! My first full month of real summer in the Midwest. What I loved: fireflies, thunder and rain storms that last for hours. What is not so much: humidity that flattens me but makes my hair explode. And flies. So many flies! Why? The natural world aside, even with the increasing crazy that is America, July was an outstanding reading month. I finished 15 ... Read More...
The Woman Before Wallis: A Novel
My love of British royalty is old news. Earlier in the month I read, The Heir Affair, about the fictional modern-day travails of a newly married Prince of Wales and his American bride. I loved it and am happy to be back today with historical fiction about the real royal family. Bryn Turnbull’s The Woman Before Wallis is the best of both worlds—scandal encompassing the royals ... Read More...
Mexican Gothic: A Novel
Sometimes it requires a bit of effort to tease out a book’s theme or premise based on the title. That’s not the case in Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s debut novel, Mexican Gothic. It is exactly that, a noir horror novel set in 1950s Mexico. Noemi is the pampered daughter of a wealthy family whose her father asks her to go to a remote town to visit her newly married cousin, Catalina. ... Read More...
Utopia Avenue: A Novel by David Mitchell
‘Utopia’ means ‘no place.’ An avenue is a place. So is music. When we’re playing well, I’m here, but elsewhere, too. That’s the paradox. Utopia is unattainable. Avenues are everywhere. Derek, Elf, Jasper, and Griff each has a dream: make it big in the music industry playing music they love. So far, it hasn’t panned out for any of them. But when manager Levon Frankland ... Read More...
Smacked: A Story of White-Collar Ambition, Addiction, and Tragedy
Last week I shared a review first for me. Today I’m back with another one: Smacked is my third 5-star nonfiction book in 2020. At the halfway point of the year? That’s nuts. You know me—I don’t read a lot of nonfiction, so to be reading it and to have it be outstanding is a delight at a time when finding delight is not easy. Smacked is written by Eilene Zimmerman, a business ... Read More...
Crooked Hallelujah
Texas and Oklahoma, during the 1970s and 1980s oil boom and bust, is the setting for Crooked Hallelujah, a debut novel about the lives of three generations of Cherokee women. Lula is the matriarch, Justine her daughter, and Reney her grand-daughter. The times were difficult, but even more so if you were a Native American and a woman. Against this arid backdrop their lives are ... Read More...
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