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Take It or Leave It: Contemporary Life

August 3, 2016

summer

Contemporary life almost always makes for good fiction, but needs to be done right. That’s why the 'take it or leave it' theme today. I recently read two light fiction novels and only one struck the right note.   Take It Nine Women, One Dress by Jane Rosen fits perfectly from beginning to end. The title is fairly self-explanatory, but in case you want to be ... Read More...

6 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Feature, Fiction Tagged: chick lit, contemporary life, debut, Doubleday, mini-reviews, New York City

Break in Case of Emergency

July 17, 2016

break in case

  Poor Jen. She was an artist while in college, but gave up after school and got a communications job at a non-profit. Which then hit hard times and laid her off. Now she’s at a new foundation started by Leora Infinitas (that’s not a typo on my part), a former sitcom star who achieved her wealth by marrying old money. Literally, her husband was old. And then he died and ... Read More...

4 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: Brooklyn, debut, friendship, Knopf, literary, marriage, satire

How to Set a Fire and Why

July 5, 2016

how to set a fire

You may be wondering why I am giving you this account. Well, I don’t know really. A bunch of things happened and I’m just putting them in order. I’m doing it for myself. You are just a construction—you’re helping me to put things in order.  You are my fictional audience and as such, I appreciate you very much. I figure when I finish, I will throw this out. Lucia Stanford ... Read More...

6 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: coming-of-age, contemporary fiction, literary, Pantheon, teen years

The House of Hidden Mothers

June 29, 2016

monday reading

  The House of Hidden Mothers is a melting pot of a lot of timely themes, but author Meera Syal manages them without overwhelming the flavor of the story. Forty-eight-year-old Shyama owns a successful beauty salon in London where she lives with her thirty-four-year-old boyfriend Toby and her daughter Tara, who’s attending university. By and large she is happy with her ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary fiction, family, Farrar Straus Giroux, India, London

The World Without Us

June 22, 2016

  Tess Müller hasn’t spoken in six months. Her mother, Evangeline, pushes a pram around all the time. Her younger sister draws trees and more trees. In most places they would stand out, but in the Australian town of Bidgalong strange is a relative concept. For decades the hills near the town were home to a cultish commune known as The Hive with its alpha male leader ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: Australia, Bloomsbury, family, literary

Dear Fang, With Love

June 8, 2016

dear fang

Because she wasn’t a trendsetter. No one could hope to be like her. She was one of a kind and, because of this, very much alone. About whether she was pleased with this state of affairs or saddened, I was never entirely sure. Maybe she would have liked to belong. ‘She’ is Vera, Lucas’s teenage daughter. For most of her life he’s been absent; she was the result of a wild whim ... Read More...

12 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: coming-of-age, contemporary fiction, family, Knopf, literary, mental health

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