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Ruby: A Novel

April 28, 2014

ruby

  Ephram Jennings has been in love with Ruby Bell since they met as children fishing in a lake near their hometown of Liberty, in east Texas. When Ruby returns to Liberty after escaping as a young woman to the high life in New York City, she has lost all the shine that made her a beauty and seems to have no control over her own body, spending nights howling and screaming, ... Read More...

8 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, debut, Hogarth, magical realism, Southern life

Casebook: A Novel

April 21, 2014

casebook

  From the time he is nine years old Miles Adler-Rich is a snoop. Not just a hanging around snoop, a hiding walkie-talkies and wiring-an-extension-into-the-family’s-phone-line snoop. Initially, he just wants to know if his parents are going to relent and let him watch Survivor but when his efforts to know all fail and they announce they’re getting divorced, it becomes ... Read More...

10 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, coming-of-age, contemporary life, Knopf

Woke Up Lonely: A Novel

April 11, 2014

woke up lonely

Many people have experienced loneliness in their life but for Thurlow Dan it was a call to organize a movement. The Helix is his solution to the isolated insulated lives we live—a reach-out-and-connect-with-someone group with no ideology beyond sharing and human interaction. Unfortunately, it is this lack of forethought that has landed Thurlow in some big trouble in Fiona’s ... Read More...

4 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, contemporary life, Graywolf Press, literary

The Ballad of a Small Player

March 31, 2014

ballad of a small player

Lawrence Osborne is a travel journalist in addition to writing fiction, which may be why I read his novels so slowly. His words describe far-off places in a way that makes them appear before my eyes. His novel The Forgiven was one of my favorites in 2012 and now he is back with his latest, The Ballad of a Small Player. Whereas Forgiven took place in the hot, desolate landscape ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, contemporary fiction, cultural, gambling, Knopf, Southeast Asia

Hunting and Gathering

March 28, 2014

hunting and gathering

For every one of us there is a point when we know we are in love with a book and for each of us it is different. For me, it was page 17 in Hunting and Gathering when the anorexic Camille crumpled up a note from a well-meaning young doctor asking her to call him so he could take her to dinner. One sentence, no special words and yet, to me, it so perfectly encapsulated this ... Read More...

8 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, contemporary fiction, France, literary, Riverhead Books

Kinder Than Solitude

March 7, 2014

kinder than solitude

  A trio of friends haunted by a mysterious accident are the key characters in Yiyun Li’s new novel, Kinder Than Solitude. They all live within the same housing compound in Beijing, where life moves along without much disturbance, until an older girl living in one of their houses is overcome by a mysterious illness that later turns out to be chemical poisoning. She is not ... Read More...

5 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: China, contemporary fiction, cultural, debut, Random House

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