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Banyan Moon: A Novel

July 28, 2023

banyan

The complex and delicate relationships between mothers and daughters is at the center of Thao Thai’s debut novel, Banyan Moon. Towards the end of the Vietnam War, Minh and her daughter, Huong, left Vietnam for America to settle in Florida. Huong’s daughter, Ann, is born there and the three live together in a decrepit mansion called Banyan House until Ann leaves home. Now, Minh ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, cultural, family saga

Juno Loves Legs

July 26, 2023

juno

With a personality as incendiary and out of control as her flaming red hair, Juno bursts onto the pages of Juno Loves Legs like a wildfire. She and Legs, her best friend, live in a housing estate in Dublin and in an abbreviated 300 pages the novel follows them from childhoods where even home isn’t safe to an adulthood that comes far too fast and too hard. And yet, through it ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: 1980s, Ireland, literary

Lady Tan’s Circle of Women

June 9, 2023

lady

Lisa See’s depictions of the women of China and Southeast Asia have always been entertaining and educational reading so I was pleased to hear about her new novel, Lady Tan’s Circle of Women. Set in 15th century China it’s the story of one of China’s first female doctors. Yunxian Tan is a little girl when, her mother dies at the age of 28. She is sent to live with her ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: 15th century, book clubs, China, historical fiction, women

Symphony of Secrets: A Novel

May 11, 2023

symphony

When Bern Hendricks is asked to authenticate a piece of music believed to written by his hero, famed 20th century composer, Frederic Delaney, it’s the chance of a lifetime. A scholar of his works and a new professor, it will be a triumph for Hendricks, both personally and professionally. But when he discovers documentation about a woman never acknowledged anywhere in Delaney’s ... Read More...

1 Comment
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: historical fiction, music, racism, social issues

The Covenant of Water

May 1, 2023

covenant

Abraham Verghese is back with a new novel 14 years after his critically acclaimed bestseller, Cutting for Stone. The Covenant of Water is a saga spanning 70 years about one family with an unusual history—in every generation there is a family member with an aversion to water who ends up drowning. Verghese uses this mysterious affliction as the thread woven through a sprawling ... Read More...

20 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: 20th century, historical fiction, India, literary

Search: A Novel

April 20, 2023

search

I don’t read a lot of fiction with religion at its core, but Search by Michelle Huneven was recommended to me after a spate of heavy, challenging nonfiction. I knew nothing about the story, but was initially apprehensive about the premise of a woman joining the search committee for a new minister at her church. Thankfully, Huneven writes the realities of what happens when eight ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, contemporary life, religion

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