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The Leftover Woman by Jean Kwok

October 13, 2023

leftover

From the time she was a child Jasmine has known she was leftover. Born in a small village in China during the years of its restrictive One Child Policy she wouldn’t even be alive if her twin sibling hadn’t been a boy. Marriage could have been her way out, but instead, in Jean Kwok’s new novel, A Leftover Woman, her husband makes it clear that her only value is in providing him ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, contemporary life, literary, Manhattan, suspense

Shark Heart: A Novel

September 19, 2023

shark

Today’s review needs a bit of a preface: My husband doesn’t read (I know, I know, I love him anyway). He teases me about my obsession with books by noting there are only so many stories and I’ve read them all so how can I keep reading? Theoretically, this is true. Most novels revolve around the same basic themes: love, family, secrets, experiences. But within those parameters, ... Read More...

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

All That is Mine I Carry With Me

September 12, 2023

all that is mine

The scene is cleanly set when in the simpler times of 1975 10-year-old Miranda arrives home from school to find the house locked and, after she uses the hidden key to get in, empty. Her mother should be there. Her mother is always there to greet her after school. Her car, keys, handbag all in their proper place, but Jane Larkin is gone. And that’s the last of clean, simple ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: 1970s, book clubs, childhood, family, literary, marriage, mystery

Where There Was Fire

August 28, 2023

where there was fire

The verdant, extravagant beauty of Costa Rica hosts the three-generation family saga found in Where There Was Fire by John Manuel Arias. The Valaverdes are a united family in 1968 until the night a fight leaves their lives in ashes. Now, the remaining family members, Teresa and her daughter Lyra, reluctantly reunite almost 30 years later, both looking for answers before it’s ... Read More...

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

The Librarianist: A Novel

August 10, 2023

librarianist

Bob Comet has lived a quiet life, immersed in his one great love: books. A voracious reader he became a librarian, sharing that love with the patrons he helped. Now, in his early 70s, retired, but still living in the house he grew up in in Portland, Oregon he wants to share the joy of books again in Patrick deWitt’s quirky new novel, The Librarianist. It's the inadvertent ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary life, literary, senior life

Juno Loves Legs

July 26, 2023

juno

With a personality as incendiary and out of control as her flaming red hair, Juno bursts onto the pages of Juno Loves Legs like a wildfire. She and Legs, her best friend, live in a housing estate in Dublin and in an abbreviated 300 pages the novel follows them from childhoods where even home isn’t safe to an adulthood that comes far too fast and too hard. And yet, through it ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: 1980s, Ireland, literary

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