It’s not an unusual phenomenon, especially in these crazy times when concentration is a foreign concept for most of us, but sometimes a novel is…almost, but not quite right. For me, the pull is always good writing and if there’s a plot to go with it, it’s an easy sell. It’s when one or the other of these things is lacking that things get dicey. Both of today’s novels had plot ... Read More...
Valentine: A Novel by Elizabeth Wetmore
When you encounter a scene like the one that opens Elizabeth Wetmore’s novel, Valentine, and the words …she imagines him facedown in the dust, lips and cheeks scoured by sand, his thirst relieved by only the blood in his mouth. sear themselves on your brain you know you are in for high-intensity reading and immersion in a heartbreaking world. A world where a 14-year-old girl ... Read More...
March Reading Recap
Well, of all the things I thought might happen this March I could never have come up with where we are now. I'll spare you the contents of my brain churning with the anxiety I have not only over family and friends flung across America, but all the people who have lost their jobs, the people sick and struggling. I feel helpless. So, while it feels a little frivolous to write ... Read More...
My Dark Vanessa
Fiction has always been known for expanding on fact so it’s not surprising that the fiction of the last four years, with all the political and social upheaval, has gotten more and more outsized. Author Kate Russell joins the fray with, My Dark Vanessa, her debut novel about a young woman who has an ongoing relationship with a man that began when she was 15 and he was 42. Not ... Read More...
February Reading Wrap-Up
The roller coaster that was my January reading ground to a halt in February. I can’t even blame the weather because Michigan has had one of its most mild winters (so far!) in years. Instead, it seems as if it’s something larger in the air because most of the readers and bloggers I know reported the same thing. Sadly, this means I’m going to sound crankier than ever in this ... Read More...
The Gimmicks: A Novel
I didn’t plan this, but I’m back today with another unusual book (Monday's review). The Gimmicks is about two teenage brothers in Armenia in the 1970s. One is a giant, standing over 6’6” tall, while the other is a competitive backgammon player. The novel moves between their lives and the life of a former pro-wrestling manager in 1980s America. When the book arrived I actually ... Read More...
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