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Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

November 27, 2023

tom lake

I’m not sure I’ve ever started a review with an apology to the book and, possibly, the author. There’s a story here, so please be patient. I’ve always enjoyed Ann Patchett’s books, both fiction and nonfiction so I thought I was ready for her latest, Tom Lake, when it came out in August. A friend kindly loaned me their print copy. I tried it and loved its beginning, but print ... Read More...

9 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, family, literary

The Berry Pickers: A Novel

November 14, 2023

berry

For one Mi’kmaq family summers in Maine have always been about sunshine, campfires, and reunions with old friends amidst long days of picking blueberries as migrant workers. Until 1962 when Ruthie, their youngest daughter, disappears, irrevocably changing the lives of the two main characters in Amanda Peters’ stunning debut The Berry Pickers. For Joe it begins a cycle of loss ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, debut, literary, Native Americans

Belgravia by Julian Fellowes

November 2, 2023

belgravia

I decided to leave the gloom of October behind and start November with an uncomplicated, lovely novel that opens in a time that seems quiet to us, but was tumultuous for those living it. The novel is Belgravia and it begins with a very real event, the Duchess of Richmond’s ball in Brussels in 1815. In history, this glamorous event, attended by some of the highest aristocrats ... Read More...

8 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: 19th century, historical fiction, London, vacation reading

One Woman Show

October 16, 2023

wrapping

Caroline Margaret Brooks Whitaker Wallingford de Braganza Deen (aka Kitty), the epitome of 20th century American wealth, is depicted through art in the novel, One Woman Show. How does one represent a woman as art in a written format? Author Christine Coulson, whose imagination is as expansive as the art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art where she worked, makes it look simple in ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: 20th century, art, book clubs, literary, women

Bright Young Women

October 10, 2023

bright young

Pamela Schumacher is the president of her sorority at Florida State University, a job she takes so seriously she doesn’t go out with her friends one Saturday night because she has too much work to do. In the early hours of the following morning this same sense of responsibility will uproot her life from its carefully laid out path, depositing her in the dark swamp of one of ... Read More...

4 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: 1970s, book clubs, historical fiction, suspense

The River We Remember

September 5, 2023

river

Summer is just beginning in the small town of Jewel, Minnesota when the body of Jimmy Quinn, one of the town’s wealthiest citizens, is discovered in the nearby river. Given that he was also one of the most disliked there are plenty of people in William Kent Krueger’s The River We Remember who wanted him dead and little enthusiasm on the part of Sheriff Brody Dern to find the ... Read More...

6 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: 1950s, book clubs, historical fiction, Midwest, mystery

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