The Gilmore Guide to Books

Connecting Books and Readers One Review at a Time

  • Home
  • About Me
  • Reviews
    • Reviews by Author
    • Reviews by Title
    • Reviews by Genre
  • Podcast
  • Policies
    • Review Policy
    • Cookie Policy
    • Privacy Policy

Housebreaking: A Novel

May 22, 2015

  Benjamin is forty-four and finds himself kicked out of his house and life by his wife for cheating on her yet again. With nowhere to go he moves in with his father only to discover that his high school crush Audrey just moved in down the street with her husband and their teenage daughter. Because nothing is ever as it seems Benjamin’s not-so-subtle efforts to reconnect ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary fiction, debut, Simon & Schuster

Emma: A Modern Retelling

April 13, 2015

  Alexander McCall Smith takes a turn at adapting Jane Austen in his newest novel, Emma: A Modern Retelling. Don’t call for the smelling salts diehard Austen fans, he does not commit the unpardonable sin of veering too far off course from her classic. Emma is still Emma as are all the other characters right down to their names. What have changed are the times. Now the ... Read More...

3 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: chick lit, England, Pantheon, retellings

A Reunion of Ghosts

April 1, 2015

  The Alter sisters, Lady, Vee, and Delph, have decided that, given their family history and their current life situations, it’s time to step off the planet. They’ve picked a date six months away (New Year’s Eve 1999) leaving them time to write a memoir detailing their family tree and the accomplishments of their forebearers. The result is A Reunion of Ghosts, a ... Read More...

8 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary fiction, family saga, Harper, historical fiction, Manhattan, World War I

The Madwoman in the Volvo

November 14, 2014

madwoman volvo

I don’t generally begin a review by telling people to stop reading but if you are a man hand the laptop/iPad to your better half and go watch ESPN because I’m about to talk about a book about m-e-n-o-p-a-u-s-e. And, really, not even we women want to talk about it so I’m saving you a world of hurt. Now go away. Yes, it’s a natural part of life but while pregnancy is something ... Read More...

3 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Non-fiction Tagged: book clubs, memoir, midlife, W.W. Norton

Dept. of Speculation

October 8, 2014

dept of speculation

  Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill is a tiny slip of a novel, small in size, only 156 pages long, and yet it chronicles a young woman’s life with as much intimacy as novels of greater length. Somehow, Offill uses words to their maximum advantage in a minimum of space. The narrator, who remains unnamed throughout the novel, recounts her life from her days as a single woman ... Read More...

6 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, contemporary life, family, Knopf, marriage

Dear Committee Members

August 20, 2014

dear committee members

  If every member of the human race evinced a fondness for literature and even a moderate level of dexterity with the written word, I would be a happier, if not more well-adjusted, man. Jay Fitger is an underpaid, tortured and tenured English professor at Payne University. His professional life at this B-level college has largely devolved into writing letters of ... Read More...

7 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary life, Doubleday, humor

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • …
  • 11
  • Next Page »
  • Bluesky
  • Email
  • Goodreads
  • Instagram
  • Substack

Save time and subscribe via email

No time to keep checking for new reviews? Enter your email address to subscribe and receive notifications of new posts by email. No spam!

Bookshop

Currently Reading

Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle
Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle
by Emily Nagoski
The Dutch House
The Dutch House
by Ann Patchett
Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me
Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me
by Adrienne Brodeur

goodreads.com

Affiliate Disclosure

I’m an affiliate for Bookshop. If you click on a link that takes you to their site and make a purchase I’ll earn a small fee, which goes towards the costs of maintaining this site. Your support is appreciated. Thank you!

Archives

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.

Theme Design By Studio Mommy · Copyright © 2026

Copyright © 2026 · Beyond Madison Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in