One of the downsides of reading a lot is the feeling that, while you still enjoy most of what you read, some of it tends to sound familiar—as if you’ve read it before. Which is not unreasonable, as ‘how many truly distinct plots there are in fiction’ is a subject of debate even among critics. Still, it makes it that much more exciting when I come upon something wholly ... Read More...
A Place for Us: A Novel
A Place for Us opens just before the beginning of an Indian family wedding in California. The bride, Hadia, is hoping that her brother, Amar, will show up. No one in the family has seen him for three years, but Hadia hopes their bond is strong enough to bring him back, despite the problems with their father that made him run away. Amar does attend—marking the wedding as both an ... Read More...
Everybody’s Son by Thrity Umrigar
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...
The Book of Essie: A Novel
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...
How Hard Can It Be?
You know how sometimes you see a trailer for a movie and it is fantastic, then you go see the movie and realize all the best bits were in the trailer? The cover for How Hard Can It Be? is like that. Every woman I know who’s seen it has laughed out loud, but does that mean that what lies behind the cover is any good? It’s the modern-day story of Kate Reddy, who after an absence ... Read More...
Us Against You by Fredrik Backman
There’s a loser in every relationship. We may not like to admit it, but one of us always gets a little more, and one of us gives up a little more readily. Given that I have very little interest in sports related fiction, it was no small feat on Fredrik Backman’s part that he made me care so much about hockey. But, in his novel, Beartown, I did. Mostly because it ... Read More...
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