To call this month’s reading recap a mashup is an understatement. It could also be the library checkout recap or even the non-fiction recap—which is huge because I’m virtually certain I’ve never read more than one non-fiction book a month, much less four. And on all kinds of subjects! But there you have it. May also turned out to be another monster month for how much I ... Read More...
The Women in the Castle
At a German estate in 1938 a summer party turns serious when a group of men discuss their determination to stop Hitler from his ascent to power. Marianne von Lingenfels is the wife of the group’s leader and she makes a promise to take care of the wives and children of the men in the group if they die in their efforts to stop Hitler. They do fail in their assassination ... Read More...
It’s Not You, It’s Me: Mini-Reviews
Back for the first time in 2017, it's the It's Not You, It's Me review extravaganza. All right, maybe not an extravaganza, but I do have two books I read recently that did not ring my bell but might be just right for other readers. Parallel stories of family, art, and loss are at the center of Ellen Umansky’s new novel, The Fortunate Ones. In the present, ... Read More...
Perfect Little World: A Novel
On Monday I wrote about Swimming Lessons, a novel with prose that evinced an emotional response from me, even when the story did not work so well. Today’s review is about a book that is almost the complete opposite. It’s unusual for me to like fiction that didn’t impact me emotionally, but I did with Kevin Wilson’s new novel, Perfect Little World. I was devoid of much ... Read More...
News of the World
Jefferson Kidd is a reader. Not like you or me, but an elderly, retired Army captain who earns his living by riding through Northern Texas in 1870, stopping in towns to read the major newspapers to the townspeople. His is a solo act until he meets a man in Wichita Falls who has recovered a little girl kidnapped four years ago by the Kiowa Indians after they killed her ... Read More...
Commonwealth: A Novel
The Keatings and the Cousins turn into one extended broken family when Mr. Cousins decides to kiss Mrs. Keating at her daughter Franny’s christening. Two divorces and relocation follow and what were two distinct sets of children merge into one unruly tribe in Virginia every summer. This is Ann Patchett’s latest novel, Commonwealth, and it is a story as comforting in its ... Read More...
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