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A Prayer for Travelers

July 15, 2019

prayer

Cale doesn’t have a lot of people in her life. In fact, there’s only one since her mother left her in a hospital room when she was an infant. Her grandfather, a quiet old man who has no experience with children, who takes her to casinos while he gambles, but whose face, voice, and familiar smells are all she knows of love. It’s a small life in nowheresville Nevada until she ... Read More...

4 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: coming-of-age, debut, literary, Riverhead Books

Cygnet by Season Butler

June 24, 2019

cygnet

The narrator of Season Butler’s debut novel, Cygnet, is known as the Kid. She’s 17 and her parents have dropped her off at her grandmother’s house on an island off the coast of New Hampshire to live while they try and get their lives together. It’s supposed to be for a few weeks, a month at most, but three months later, the Kid’s grandmother has died and she’s never heard from ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, coming-of-age, debut, Harper, literary, New England

Normal People by Sally Rooney

April 15, 2019

ten

Marianne and Connell live very different lives in the same small Irish town. She has a wealthy family and a big house, but is an outcast at their school, while he is everyone’s best friend, a natural athlete, a good student. His mother cleans her family’s mansion, so he comes over every afternoon to pick her up. On one of these afternoons they talk. This innocuous circumstance ... Read More...

7 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, coming-of-age, Hogarth, Ireland, literary, relationships

A People’s History of Heaven

March 18, 2019

history

It’s funny, being a girl. That thing that’s supposed to push you down, defeat you, shove you back, back, and further back still? Turn it the right way, and it’ll push you forward instead. A People’s History of Heaven was one of my winter picks. It’s set in a 30-year-old slum called Heaven in Bangalore, India and centers around the lives of five young girls: Banu, Padma, Joy, ... Read More...

5 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: Algonquin Books, book clubs, coming-of-age, contemporary life, cultural, friendship, India

Northern Lights by Raymond Strom

February 20, 2019

northern lights

Shane’s father has died, his uncle has kicked him out of the house, and he’s decided it’s time to find the mother who left him when he was ten. In the fall he’ll be going to college in Minneapolis, but armed with a postcard, one hundred dollars, and all his belongings in a backpack he heads to the Holm, Minnesota, the only address he has for his mother. In this rugged, rural ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: coming-of-age, debut, literary, Simon & Schuster

The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish

February 18, 2019

deeper the water

After their mother tries to hang herself, 14-year-old Mae and 16-year-old Edie are sent to live with their father, a man they have not seen since they were very small children. For Mae it is a dream come true. Her mother’s depression and obsessive behavior falls on her, meaning long nights driving around Louisiana swamps or following strangers home. Edie, though, wants to be ... Read More...

5 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, coming-of-age, debut, family, literary

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