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The Snow Queen

May 14, 2014

snow queen

  People are more than you think they are. And they’re less, as well. The trick lies in negotiating your way between the two. Michael Cunningham’s new novel, The Snow Queen: A Novel, has an opalescent blue-green cover that shimmers with the same light Barrett Meeks sees above his head one stormy winter night in Central Park. Is it real or a product of his imagination? That ... Read More...

7 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, contemporary fiction, fairy tales, Farrar Straus Giroux, literary

Wonderland

May 12, 2014

wonderland

In fact, I was in wonderland then, but only in some hazy amber of memory. At the time, I wasn’t anywhere. I was reaching for the train as it disappeared, flash of silver, around a curve. Now I’m trying to go back to a place I’ve never been.   Anna is a rock star. Not the classic variety but the indie variety. On her way to the top, with a record deal in hand and three albums ... Read More...

3 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, contemporary life, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, literary, women

Astonish Me

April 14, 2014

astonish me

Joan Joyce is a dancer who has wanted to be a ballerina her entire life. Unfortunately her desire outweighs her talent and so she is relegated to the corps. The center stage she longs for does not become hers until she is the woman who helps a young Russian dancer escape from the Soviet Union to the United States. She had seen Arslan Rusakov dance in Paris and had kept in touch ... Read More...

5 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: ballet, Knopf

Woke Up Lonely: A Novel

April 11, 2014

woke up lonely

Many people have experienced loneliness in their life but for Thurlow Dan it was a call to organize a movement. The Helix is his solution to the isolated insulated lives we live—a reach-out-and-connect-with-someone group with no ideology beyond sharing and human interaction. Unfortunately, it is this lack of forethought that has landed Thurlow in some big trouble in Fiona’s ... Read More...

4 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, contemporary life, Graywolf Press, literary

Be Safe I Love You

April 2, 2014

be safe i love you

Even before she decides to go to Iraq Lauren Clay is fighting a war. A war created by two parents who, for different reasons, are unable to care for her and her nine-year-old brother, Daniel. Instead, Lauren is left, at age 14 to take care of herself, her brother and her father, who lies in bed and cries. Despite having a prodigious talent as a coloratura soprano and having ... Read More...

1 Comment
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, combat, contemporary fiction, Iraq, Simon & Schuster, war

The Ballad of a Small Player

March 31, 2014

ballad of a small player

Lawrence Osborne is a travel journalist in addition to writing fiction, which may be why I read his novels so slowly. His words describe far-off places in a way that makes them appear before my eyes. His novel The Forgiven was one of my favorites in 2012 and now he is back with his latest, The Ballad of a Small Player. Whereas Forgiven took place in the hot, desolate landscape ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, contemporary fiction, cultural, gambling, Knopf, Southeast Asia

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