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May Reading Recap

May 31, 2021

May

  I’ve only experienced one Michigan spring, but this May felt very different. We’ve had almost no rain and the temperatures jumped from the 50s to the 80s in days. Ugh. Except, as I write this, the heat is on again (after a/c for two weeks), I’m wearing a sweater and it’s pouring. Go figure. As far as reading goes, I was on a tear this month. Lots and lots of books, ... Read More...

6 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Feature Tagged: contemporary life, friendship, mini-reviews, mystery, women

Sorrow and Bliss: A Novel

May 5, 2021

sorrow

Sorrow and Bliss opens after Martha and her husband Patrick have returned from a party he threw for her 40th birthday. It did not go well and two days later Patrick says he’s leaving. It’s both an ending and a beginning for Martha as she grapples with what to do next in a life that often feels like too much to bear. When she’s 17 Martha is suddenly under such physical, ... Read More...

10 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary life, debut, mental health, relationships

Good Company: A Novel

April 12, 2021

good company

A happily married woman discovers her husband’s engraved wedding band in an envelope buried in a filing cabinet. Fifteen years ago, he told he lost it. Now, it’s the night of their daughter Ruby’s high school graduation and Flora sets aside her emotions to attend a party for Ruby, given by Flora’s oldest and best friend, Margot. After that, she’ll deal with what feels to be the ... Read More...

10 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, friendship, literary, marriage, women

Sparks Like Stars by Nadia Hashimi

March 12, 2021

sparks

When Sitara is 10 years old her life is flipped upside down. She goes from being the beloved only daughter of a high-ranking Afghan advisor to the country’s president to an orphan on the run. It’s 1982 and Communist backed forces stage a military coup in Nadia Hashimi’s new novel, Sparks Like Stars. Sitara’s family is killed in front of her, but she manages to hide from the ... Read More...

3 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: cultural, Middle East, war

We Run the Tides

February 24, 2021

tides

I'm not sure it's an actual publishing trend for 2021, but it's fairly unusual for me to read three novels on the same subject in one year. In this case, it's private girls' schools—always fascinating to me, but to the general public? I guess so. In January, there was The Divines and this month, All Girls. The final novel in this trifecta is today’s review: We Run the Tides by ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary life, friendship, literary, San Francisco

A Thousand Ships: A Novel

February 22, 2021

thousand

Happy Monday! I don’t often say that because, well…Monday, but today I’m back with a novel that kept me captivated.  A Thousand Ships is Natalie Haynes’s retelling of the Trojan War or, more specifically, the immediate aftermath of the war. Not exactly new territory, as any number of writers have memorialized this greatest battle of Greek mythology, except Haynes chooses a ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: literary, mythology

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