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Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

September 14, 2020

transcendent

There are so many things I wish I could forget, but maybe “forget” isn’t quite right. There are so many things I wish I never knew.   Transcendent Kingdom is a novel that lies at the intersection of religion, addiction, science, and mental health. Gifty is a PhD candidate at Stanford, studying reward-seeking behavior’s role in addiction. Her dedication to her research is ... Read More...

8 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, contemporary life, literary, social issues

The Golden Cage: A Novel

July 6, 2020

golden

The story is not a new one in fiction: intelligent woman meets man in college, gives him great business idea, he runs with it, they marry, have children, and she finds herself left with nothing when replaced by younger, firmer version of herself. In The Golden Cage, Faye is the woman and in Sweden she lives of life of ease with her husband, Jake, and their young daughter, ... Read More...

4 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary life, mystery

The Girls from Corona del Mar

June 24, 2020

girls

When Lorrie Ann and Mia become best friends, Mia believes herself to be the shadow behind Lorrie Ann’s golden girl. By the time they reach high school Mia is even more sure that Lorrie Ann is everything she is not. She is kind, caring and good, part of a tight knit family while Mia sees herself as dark and negative, isolated from her family. At 15 she makes the decision to end ... Read More...

8 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, debut, friendship, Knopf, literary

8 Beautiful Backlist Books to Read Now

April 13, 2020

backlist

After a little digression on Friday, it’s back to books! Reading may be your escape during quarantine, but for many the economic issues caused by the pandemic means buying the newest releases isn’t a great idea. So, today I’ve got eight beautiful backlist books I read and loved years ago. Several I’ve never talked about because I read them before I started this blog. Even ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Feature Tagged: favorite books, lists, mini-reviews

Stalled: Mini-Reviews

July 5, 2019

stalled

In the past I’ve done a feature called It’s Not You It’s Me to indicate books I didn’t enjoy but that I believe other readers might like. Today is a bit different because in those cases I finished the books. With these three books I stalled out, set the book down and never came back to it. This is likely due to my personal circumstances—namely moving across country with a lot ... Read More...

17 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Feature, Fiction Tagged: essays, literary, Russia

There There by Tommy Orange

July 23, 2018

there

One of the downsides of reading a lot is the feeling that, while you still enjoy most of what you read, some of it tends to sound familiar—as if you’ve read it before. Which is not unreasonable, as ‘how many truly distinct plots there are in fiction’ is a subject of debate even among critics. Still, it makes it that much more exciting when I come upon something wholly ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, contemporary life, cultural, debut, literary, Native Americans, social issues

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