Plausibility is a subjective concept, especially in reading. There are premises, plots, and characters in novels I love that make other readers put the book down. Today’s mini-reviews exemplify the term because both novels contain characters and situations that I could not believe in and so impacted my ability to enjoy the book as much as someone else might. In other words, ... Read More...
Touch: A Novel by Courtney Maum
The almost biological certainty that the more often you checked your cell phone, the more likely you were to find that one wondrous message or notification that would improve your entire life. In Touch Sloane Jacobson is a well-regarded trends forecaster (which is a real thing) best known for forecasting what is the now ubiquitous swipe used with all touch screen ... Read More...
Lucky Boy: A Novel
Despite its upbeat sounding title Lucky Boy is a novel saturated in desperation. Desperation for a better life, desperation for a child, for success…for happiness. Solimar is eighteen, lives in a dying town in Mexico and with money her parents procure she leaves with a man who is supposed to get her to California where she will meet up with a cousin who has already ... Read More...
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
Narrator Rosemary Cooke begins We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves in the middle of her family’s story, which is a quick indication of how this unusual and highly imaginative novel is going to go. The year is 1996 and she’s in her fifth year of college. A gregarious child she has morphed into a quiet and secretive young woman, largely due to the circumstances regarding the ... Read More...
May Mini-Reviews
If, like me, you’re not overly involved in politics you’ll read the title of Bridget Siegel’s new novel, Domestic Affairs, and think it is some kind of tell-all fiction like The Nanny Diaries or any of Amy Sohn’s looks at life in upper echelon households. You’d be wrong. It is the story of an idealistic fundraiser, Olivia, who gets the chance to manage the fundraising portion ... Read More...
From Scratch: Inside the Food Network
A bit of backstory: in the early 2000s when my husband was traveling a great deal for work, we would talk at the end of the day. Several trips in a row, when we spoke, he said he had either grabbed something to eat on the way to the hotel or had room service (which he hates). I noticed that every time the television was on in the background so I finally asked, “What is so good ... Read More...
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