Nothing like waiting until the last week of the year to put out best-of lists. Today I want to share five gems that I adored that didn’t get as much love and attention as they deserve. Hopefully, you got gift cards and pick up at least one of these remarkable novels. Title links go to my full review This debut novel from a Native American author ... Read More...
All the Broken Places
What better way to start the last month of 2022 then with a 5 ⭐️ book. It’s John Boyne’s mesmerizing novel, All the Broken Places. Where some novels entertain by skating along the surface, this book plumbs the deepest depths of the human psyche, hunting the meaning of complicity during one of history’s darkest chapters. Gretel is a widow in her 90s living in a ... Read More...
Dark Fiction: A Ladder to the Sky
So far this week I’ve reviewed two very dark, but outstanding novels. It’s time to wrap up the week and I’m back with a surprising (to me) author: John Boyne. His last novel, The Heart’s Invisible Furies was one of my favorites from last year so it’s with a heavy heart I say that I didn’t care for his newest, A Ladder to the Sky. This may count as an It’s Not You, It’s Me ... Read More...
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
Bruno is nine years old and lives with his parents and his annoying sister in Berlin. His father is a very important man in the German army and after his boss, the Fury comes to visit, Bruno and his family have to leave Berlin and move to a new home. Bruno is understandably upset—their home is a marvel of hidden rooms, places to hide and an amazing bannister for sliding ... Read More...
The Heart’s Invisible Furies
Cyril Avery’s birth was not a propitious one. He came into the world onto the floor of a tiny apartment, next to the unconscious body of his mother’s roommate, with the roommate’s lover lying dead on the stairs below. It was Ireland in 1945 and the roommate and the lover were also teens, but they were men and as such had been hunted down by one’s father. From this ... Read More...
