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Cygnet by Season Butler

June 24, 2019

cygnet

The narrator of Season Butler’s debut novel, Cygnet, is known as the Kid. She’s 17 and her parents have dropped her off at her grandmother’s house on an island off the coast of New Hampshire to live while they try and get their lives together. It’s supposed to be for a few weeks, a month at most, but three months later, the Kid’s grandmother has died and she’s never heard from ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, coming-of-age, debut, Harper, literary, New England

Searching for Sylvie Lee by Jean Kwok

June 5, 2019

searching

All her life Amy has looked up to her older sister Sylvie. She is the opposite of how Amy sees herself—pretty, intelligent, with a handsome husband, and fabulous job. She glows with success while Amy feels like lead—an inert, grey blob who still lives with her parents and has yet to make up her mind about what to do with her life. Add to this that Sylvie lived with their ... Read More...

6 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: mystery, William Morrow

May Midmonth Mini-Reviews

May 13, 2019

may

I know it’s not the exactly the middle of May, but I’m hoping you all can cut me some slack. I’m on a hamster wheel of hurry-up-and-wait regarding our move to Michigan and so have to write when I can find time to disengage my analytical brain and tap into my creative mind. I used to be able to activate both at once, but those days are long gone. Anyway, here are some bit and ... Read More...

6 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Feature Tagged: contemporary life, family saga, historical fiction, science fiction, social issues

Mothers’ Week: A Woman is No Man

May 8, 2019

woman

It’s easy to become outraged about the treatment of women in the Muslim world when it takes place far away, as in the memoir Daring to Drive or fiction like Song of a Captive Bird or The Pearl that Broke its Shell. It’s ingrained through centuries of custom and dogma, but debut author Etaf Rum shreds any sense of complacency about American values superseding cultural ones in ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: debut, Harper, New York City, religion, social issues, women

The Better Sister by Alafair Burke

April 18, 2019

better sister

Chloe Taylor is on top of her game. She is the editor of a small but prestigious women’s magazine, has just been honored in the field of journalism, and lives the glamorous life in NYC with her handsome lawyer husband, Adam, and her stepson Ethan. It’s all oh-so lovely except for one small fact she never talks about: Adam was her older sister Nicky’s husband and Ethan is her ... Read More...

5 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: family, Harper, mystery, New York City, thriller

The Affairs of the Falcóns: A Novel

April 8, 2019

falcons

Life for Ana Falcón is walking a high-wire above a field of razors. She works long days at garment factory hunched over a sewing machine, while her husband, Lucho drives a cab at night. They live with their two small children in the bedroom of a cousin’s apartment in Brooklyn. A cousin who has made it clear they need to move on, but their jobs don’t bring in enough income to ... Read More...

6 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, cultural, debut, ecco, social issues

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