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Chrysalis: A Novel

April 13, 2023

chrysalis

Ready to switch reading gears? On Tuesday I reviewed Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club, a novel that was all heart and humor. Today I’m back with Chrysalis which was neither, but is a unique little novel that held my interest. It’s split into three parts, despite there being four characters. Author Anna Metcalfe leaves her protagonist unnamed and never speaks for ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, contemporary fiction, debut, literary, women

Rules for Visiting: A Novel

March 29, 2023

visiting

May Attaway is given a monthlong sabbatical from her job as a gardener at a local university. At 39 she worries about her lack of relationships so decides to split the month into four non-consecutive weeks and go visit four friends she’s lost touch with in the hopes of kickstarting her personal life again. This is Rules for Visiting, a quiet novel that won me through its ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, friendship, women

Hello, Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

March 27, 2023

hello beautiful

William has known life with only one love, basketball. Due to a family tragedy when he was born his parents refused him love or any kind of interaction beyond his physical needs. Discovering a place where he’s accepted is the only lifeline he has to normalcy. His basketball talent leads to a scholarship to Northwestern where he meets Julia.  Her attention changes his life, not ... Read More...

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

The Shadow of Perseus

March 21, 2023

shadow

For some, the retelling of Greek myths may have run its course, but for others (me!) I’m still on board to read mythology from a different perspective. My first 5-star novel of the year was Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes, a fiercely feminist, wickedly funny adaptation of the Medusa myth. Now, author Claire Heywood is tackling the same subject in her new novel, The Shadow of ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, Greece, historical fiction, literary, women

The Queen of Dirt Island

March 8, 2023

queen

The week Saoirse Aylward is born her father is killed in an accident, leaving her mother, Eileen alone to raise her. Their lives in a small village in western Ireland are at the heart of Donal Ryan’s boisterous, tender novel The Queen of Dirt Island. Although the novel stays within the village’s borders it’s an expansive story encompassing four generations of Irish women with ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, cultural, humor, Ireland, literary

This Other Eden

February 21, 2023

other eden

In 1911 there was a small island off the coast of Maine comprised of a group of families who were the descendants of the island’s original 1792 settlers—an escaped slave, his Irish wife, and later, other refugees from society. The island is still there, but its inhabitants are long gone. Paul Harding’s novel, This Other Eden, is the elegiac recounting of their history, lives, ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, historical fiction, literary

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