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Everybody’s Son by Thrity Umrigar

June 22, 2018

son

This month Thrity Umrigar's novel, Everybody's Son, was released in paperback so I'm revisiting my review of this entertaining and  thought provoking book. Even more good news: Umrigar has a new novel, The Secrets Between Us, coming out later this month. It's a sequel to her novel, The Space Between Us, which is my favorite of her novels.   When a novel opens ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: coming-of-age, contemporary life, family, Harper, racism, social issues

The Book of Essie: A Novel

June 20, 2018

essie

For most young girls, being seventeen and pregnant is not a good place to be. For Esther Hicks it’s even worse because she is the youngest daughter of a fundamentalist pastor and part of a reality TV show about their family. With a life played out in front of the camera and the nation, how can this be anything but catastrophic for Essie, and more importantly, for the show's ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, contemporary life, debut, family, Knopf, religion

Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture

June 15, 2018

bad

I feel like a broken record for all the times since 2017 that I’ve said, “Important reading. Timely reading. Everyone should read.”, but here I am again. Not That Bad, with its essays from women around the world, talking about their experiences of rape, harassment, intimidation, and violence is the kind of reading that goes beyond tears. In Roxanne Gay’s foreword we learn that ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Non-fiction Tagged: book clubs, contemporary life, essays, HarperCollins, social issues, women

The Stranger in the Woods

May 30, 2018

stranger

In case this news slipped by you, as it did me: In 2013 a man was apprehended at a children’s summer camp in northern Maine stealing food and supplies. Not particularly interesting except that when asked by the police he can tell them his birth date, but not how old he is—he has no idea what year it is. Further questioning reveals he has no address, no vehicle, no mail, none of ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Non-fiction Tagged: biography, book clubs, Knopf, life, New England

The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner

May 23, 2018

mars

  There isn’t any status in it unless you’d be impressed to know that the Mars Room is not a middling or mediocre strip club but is definitely the worst and most notorious, the very seediest and most circuslike place there is. In stark contrast to all that was warm and lovely in Monday’s book, Tin Man, I’m back today with a book that probably worked because it was ... Read More...

12 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary life, Scribner, social issues, women

The Map of Salt and Stars

May 14, 2018

map

Making maps is the fulcrum for Jennifer Joukhadar’s debut novel, The Map of Salt and Stars. Rawiya and Nour are young women who tell their stories side by side even though they are separated by almost a thousand years. Rawiya is a sixteen-year-old in ancient Ceuta who longs to see the world beyond her village so she leaves home in the guise of a young man and becomes an ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: coming-of-age, contemporary life, cultural, Middle East, mythology, Touchstone, war

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