The Gilmore Guide to Books

Connecting Books and Readers One Review at a Time

  • Home
  • About Me
  • Reviews
    • Reviews by Author
    • Reviews by Title
    • Reviews by Genre
  • Podcast
  • Policies
    • Review Policy
    • Cookie Policy
    • Privacy Policy

The Trouble with Goats and Sheep

July 11, 2016

trouble

The summer of 1976 is one of upheaval for the families who live along the Avenue, a seemingly quiet British neighborhood. Mrs. Margaret Creasy has gone missing. Ten-year-old Grace takes the words of the local vicar that “If God exists in a community, no one will be lost” as her cue to find God within their neighborhood and in doing so, bring Mrs. Creasy back. She enlists her ... Read More...

5 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: 1970s, book clubs, childhood, debut, England

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

November 10, 2014

we are all completely

Narrator Rosemary Cooke begins We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves in the middle of her family’s story, which is a quick indication of how this unusual and highly imaginative novel is going to go. The year is 1996 and she’s in her fifth year of college. A gregarious child she has morphed into a quiet and secretive young woman, largely due to the circumstances regarding the ... Read More...

4 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, contemporary fiction, family, literary, mystery, Putnam

Gretel and the Dark

October 15, 2014

gretel

Unless you’re reading a book of short stories it is unusual to get more than one scary plot in a single novel, but that is exactly what happens in Eliza Granville’s debut novel Gretel and the Dark. There is Lilie, the beautiful young patient of Dr. Josef Breuer, Sigmund Freud’s mentor.  She is found beaten, abused and with her head shaved. She only speaks when ordered and ... Read More...

4 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, coming-of-age, debut, Europe, historical fiction, Riverhead Books, WWII

Leaving Time

October 13, 2014

leaving

It’s no small feat, finishing a journey…But no one ever mentions that once you get there, you still have to turn around and head all the way home.  Jenna Metcalf is fourteen years old and has only one goal in life: find her mother. When she was four and living with her parents on an elephant sanctuary an employee was murdered and her mother was injured and later disappeared ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: Ballantine, book clubs, mystery, paranormal

Amity & Sorrow

February 24, 2014

amitysorrow

Earlier in the year I reviewed a novel (The Visionist) where a mother and her children run for safety to a religious compound. In Peggy Riley’s Amity & Sorrow it is the opposite situation. Amaranth and her two daughters, Amity and Sorrow, are running from their compound because its founder, Amaranth’s husband, has decided it is the end days and has set it on fire so they ... Read More...

9 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, childhood, contemporary fiction, Little Brown and Company, religion

The Silver Star

June 14, 2013

The Silver Star is author Jeannette Walls’ latest foray into fiction. Her memoir, The Glass Castle, is an intimate look at her childhood, when benign neglect, became not-so benign, as neither of her parents had the selflessness or aptitude to raise children. The Silver Star treads familiar territory in that the mother, while flamboyant and fun, is a narcissist with no interest ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: 1970s, book clubs, coming-of-age, family, Scribner

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • Next Page »
  • Bluesky
  • Email
  • Goodreads
  • Instagram
  • Substack

Save time and subscribe via email

No time to keep checking for new reviews? Enter your email address to subscribe and receive notifications of new posts by email. No spam!

Bookshop

Currently Reading

Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle
Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle
by Emily Nagoski
The Dutch House
The Dutch House
by Ann Patchett
Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me
Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me
by Adrienne Brodeur

goodreads.com

Affiliate Disclosure

I’m an affiliate for Bookshop. If you click on a link that takes you to their site and make a purchase I’ll earn a small fee, which goes towards the costs of maintaining this site. Your support is appreciated. Thank you!

Archives

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.

Theme Design By Studio Mommy · Copyright © 2026

Copyright © 2026 · Beyond Madison Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in