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In the Language of Miracles

August 31, 2015

in the language of miracles

The American Dream is portrayed in any number of novels, often from the perspective of the struggle to reach it, but In the Language of Miracles Samir and Nagla Al-Menshawy are Egyptians who have already achieved the dream. He is a doctor and they live in a nice New Jersey suburb with their three children. They have been close friends with their next-door neighbors the ... Read More...

3 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: American life, book clubs, contemporary fiction, cultural, debut, literary, Viking

We Never Asked for Wings

August 24, 2015

we never asked for wings

  For those of us who loved Vanessa Diffenbaugh’s debut novel, The Language of Flowers, her new novel has been a long time coming. Not actually, it just felt that way. Flowers was one of the first novels I read where the protagonist did bad things and yet, I was drawn to her and to the reasons why she was drawn to doing these things. It is a beautifully satisfying novel ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: American life, Ballantine, book clubs, contemporary fiction, family

The Ambassador’s Wife

August 3, 2015

ambassador's wife

Miranda is a free-spirited artist and explorer living in Mazrooq, a country that is not open to either. That she also has a girlfriend makes her the most suspect of women, right up until she meets Finn, the British ambassador who steals her heart and gives her a life considered by all around her to be safe and normal. This not a romance novel—far from it. It is Jennifer Steil’s ... Read More...

3 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, cultural, Doubleday, Middle East

The Star Side of Bird Hill

July 29, 2015

star

  It’s time for summer vacation but rather than spend it at home in Brooklyn Dionne and her sister Phaedra have been shipped off to Barbados, which may sound like paradise to many of us, but not for Dionne. At sixteen this was going to be the summer she broke out of childhood and into the fun life of leading the cool group of girls at her school. Instead, she is stuck ... Read More...

5 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: Barbados, coming-of-age, cultural, debut, Penguin Press

Dietland: A Novel

July 22, 2015

dietland

  Once I had a taste of real food, I always wanted more. I spent my days tiptoeing around food, the way one might tiptoe into a baby’s room while it’s sleeping. One wrong move and the baby wakes up and screams. That’s how it was with hunger, too. Once it awakes, it screams and screams and there’s only one way to quiet it.  First of all, I promise to restrain myself from ... Read More...

5 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary fiction, debut, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Our Souls at Night

July 20, 2015

souls

I’m talking about getting through the night. And lying warm in bed, companionably. Lying down in bed together and you staying the night. The nights are the worst. Don’t you think? This is the crux of the proposition Addie Moore puts to her neighbor, Louis Waters, in Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf. Both are in their seventies and widowed and Addie is lonely enough that she ... Read More...

5 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: American life, book clubs, Knopf, literary

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