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Everyone Brave is Forgiven

May 23, 2016

everyone brave

Novels about World War II have opened with any number of emotions but I’m relatively certain that Chris Cleave has the market cornered in Everyone Brave is Forgiven, when he begins with eighteen-year-old Mary North gaily volunteering fifteen minutes after Britain declares war on Germany. It will be exciting and a lark! Even after she finds out that all she’ll be doing is ... Read More...

9 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: historical fiction, London, WWII

Back to Moscow

May 9, 2016

back to moscow

  Having recently read and adored The Tsar of Love and Techno I wasn’t sure I needed another book about contemporary Russian life. Happily, I ignored myself and read Back to Moscow anyway. Guillermo Erades’ novel looks at the modern day Russian experience from the microcosm of a young man in Moscow. Martin is twenty-four and has arrived from Europe as a graduate student ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: coming-of-age, contemporary fiction, debut, Farrar Straus Giroux, literary, Russia

Miller’s Valley

May 2, 2016

miller's valley

Miller’s Valley is both the title and location of Anna Quindlen’s new novel. It is a tiny community where Mimi Miller’s family has owned and farmed their land for hundreds of years. Now it’s under threat because the government has decided to use a dam they put in decades ago to divert the river, flooding the town and turning it into a reservoir and a source of hydroelectricity. ... Read More...

10 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: 1960s, book clubs, coming-of-age, family, Random House

Eligible: A Modern Retelling of Pride and Prejudice

April 27, 2016

eligible

  In case you weren’t aware or hadn’t noticed the subtitle, Curtis Sittenfeld’s new novel Eligible is a retelling of the Jane Austen classic Pride and Prejudice. If you’re a purist about your classics, then you probably ought to stop reading now, pour yourself a glass of sherry and go back to your needlework by candlelight. If, on the other hand, you’re in the mood for ... Read More...

13 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: chick lit, contemporary fiction, family, humor, Random House, retellings

Before the Wind

April 24, 2016

before the wind

  At the most basic level Jim Lynch’s new novel Before the Wind is the story of the Johannssens—a sailing family in Seattle, Washington. Or as Josh Johannssen’s younger sister Ruby liked to claim “And there’s a reason we’re so good with boats: we have a higher salt content in our blood!”  A fact which his long suffering older brother Bernard would point out was based on ... Read More...

6 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, contemporary fiction, family, Knopf, Pacific Northwest

Rare Objects: A Novel

April 20, 2016

rare objects

  Before we’ve even met her Maeve has lived a lot of life for a twenty-five-year-old woman in the 1930s. After secretarial school she leaves Boston for New York City, using the lie of a big job opportunity as a way to get out of marriage and town. But because no such job existed in Depression era NYC Maeve ends up working in a dance hall on Broadway where only alcohol ... Read More...

1 Comment
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: 1930s, chick lit, historical fiction, New England

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