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I Liked My Life

February 2, 2017

i liked

  Shortly after we meet Madeline it becomes clear that she is dead and that I Liked My Life is going to be one of those books about a dead person hovering over the lives of the people they left behind. The good news is that this is not a bad thing. She doesn’t write the novel with much spiritual angst on Maddy’s part—either as to where she is now or why she’s there. ... Read More...

5 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, contemporary life, debut, family, marriage, St. Martin's Press

The Chosen Maiden

January 27, 2017

chosen maiden

  If you’ve ever loved dance, specifically ballet, then you know the name Nijinsky. What you are less likely to know is that the world-famous Vaslav Nijinsky had a sister who was also a dancer. Thankfully, author Eva Stachniak rectifies that in her new novel, The Chosen Maiden, which is the story of Bronia Nijinsky. The novel begins when she is three and follows her life ... Read More...

4 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: ballet, Doubleday, historical fiction, Russia

Girlchild by Tupelo Hassman

January 25, 2017

girlchild

  Well, well, well…finally, after two months of all-right-but-not-great reading I’ve been knocked off my feet. Not by a new release, but by a 2013 novel from my Goodreads to-read list. I’m not going to quibble; I’m just thrilled to have read something I loved so much that it’s hard to find the best words for it. Tupelo Hassman’s Girlchild is a piercing novel of childhood ... Read More...

12 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, childhood, coming-of-age, contemporary life, literary, Picador, social issues

My (Not So) Perfect Life

January 20, 2017

my not so perfect

  Oh, happy day! Sophie Kinsella is back and she still has her fingers on the pulse of the twenty-something woman (and the older women who often like reading about them). To anyone who knows me, Kinsella leads off my chick-lit, make-it-all-go-away reading. And lately, that’s about all I can seem to manage. In My (Not So) Perfect Life it is Katie Brenner (or Cat as she ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: Bantam, chick lit, contemporary life

Bellweather Rhapsody

January 16, 2017

bellweather

  Remember the movie The Shining? If so, forget what you thought about it in relation to Stephen King’s book and just recall its many amazing visuals. Now, turn it into a campy musical, turn it back into a novel and you have Kate Racculia’s Bellweather Rhapsody. Set in the Catskills in early November with a grand old hotel about to be the scene, once again, for a huge ... Read More...

15 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, humor, mystery, teen years

Idaho: A Novel by Emily Ruskovich

January 13, 2017

idaho

  When a mother brutally murders one of her young children in the first quarter of a novel there is an expectation that the motivation behind the act will be a theme or, maybe, her backstory and how it led to such an act, but in Emily Ruskovich’s debut, Idaho, neither happens. I picked up, put down and tried to re-engage this novel multiple times in the course of several ... Read More...

16 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: debut, family, literary, Random House

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