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Mercy Snow

January 15, 2014

mercy snow

  I’m not a mystery/thriller aficionado so I can’t pretend to know all of the various plot types but from my limited experience there are two ways to go: the-questions-keep-coming, working up to a sonic boom of truth or the reader is in on the mystery and it’s a race to the finish to see if anyone in the cast will figure it out in time. Both ways work, depending on how well ... Read More...

3 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, Grand Central Publishing, mystery, New England

The Death of Bees

December 23, 2013

death of bees

There are times when what is needed is a story so utterly foreign that it plucks us out of our own world and drops us into one for which our background leaves us completely unprepared. I found this with Lisa O’Donnell’s debut novel The Death of Bees: A Novel. Set in Glasgow, it encompasses the world of Marnie and Nelly, two teens left on their own when their parents die. Well, ... Read More...

10 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, coming-of-age, Harper, Scotland

Too Bright to Hear Too Loud to See

December 16, 2013

too bright

  And that’s how it happens. Like a broken record, warped and scratched. Once I was music, now I am just noise.  It requires a special gift to bring forth a largely unlikable character who can also evoke sympathy but Juliann Garey has done just that in her debut novel Too Bright to Hear Too Loud to See. Greyson Todd is from one of the most unlikable genres of men in fiction ... Read More...

13 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, contemporary life, Hollywood, mental health, Soho Press

This is Between Us

December 11, 2013

this is between us

  This is Between Us is an intimate look at the minutia that comprises a relationship. And not in that lovey-dovey, fictional way but in the real, confusing, tedious, painful way. Author Kevin Sampsell navigates the terrain of affairs, blended families, teenagers, and jealousy in quirky little vignettes. The story covers five years that begin as an affair on both sides, move ... Read More...

3 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary life, Pacific Northwest, Portland, Tin House

Want Not

November 26, 2013

want not

In his new novel, Want Not, author Jonathan Miles explores the concept of wanting in contemporary American society. The story moves between the disparate lives of three groups: Elwin Cross, an overweight linguist professor whose wife has recently left him for a chef; Talmadge and Micah, a young freegan couple squatting in a tenement in Manhattan; and Sue, a 9/11 widow, her ... Read More...

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

The Night Guest

October 16, 2013

night guest

  Ruth is a widow who lives alone and is awakened late one night by the sound of a tiger in her living room. As improbable as it sounds she is convinced, to the point of calling her grown son and describing the incident to him. Even after falling back asleep and waking to a normal morning, she wonders if it actually happened. It is this delicate interplay between reality and ... Read More...

4 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, contemporary life, debut, Faber and Faber

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