It feels odd to say that a book that left me so saddened and troubled was a favorite, but it’s the case with author Florence Knapp’s debut, The Names. This is an alternate realities story about an infant boy whose mother, Cora, in three scenarios, chooses a different name for him. The story follows the boy, his mother, and his older sister through the three lives they would ... Read More...
The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus
Monday I shared a literary novel I loved and now I’m back with another. The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus is the witty, contemporary story of two friends and their freshman year at the University of Edinburgh. Alice and Penelope both have their reasons for wanting to leave Canada and go to this particular school. Alice’s is practical in that she hopes it will be the gateway ... Read More...
Nightwatching: A Novel
On Tuesday I shared a slow-burn novel of suspense, so I’m wrapping up the week with a fast-paced dreadfest extravaganza. Author Tracy Sierra takes on the primal ‘stranger in the house’ fear that’s spawned decades of movies and books and makes it her own in her debut, Nightwatching. In this modern take on old-fashioned terror one woman is trapped alone in her home with her two ... Read More...
Mrs. Quinn’s Rise to Fame
The trend of lighter reading has been working for me so I thought I’d wrap up April with one more charming novel. Mainly because it combined two things I really love: a favorite TV show and sumptuous descriptions of baking. The novel is Mrs. Quinn’s Rise to Fame and is about Jenny, a 77-year-old British woman who applies to and gets on a national TV show called Britain Bakes. ... Read More...
Pineapple Street
The Stocktons are a family of inherited wealth, the kind whose trust funds have trust funds. Cord works with their father at the family’s real estate investment firm, but beyond that jobs are not anything his sisters Georgina and Darley have ever given thought to. Money or more importantly the lack of money is not a concept understood in Jenny Jackson’s debut, Pineapple ... Read More...
Talking at Night
Talking at Night is a love story about Rosie and Will, two young people impacted by a guilt-inducing tragedy when they’re in their teens, but whose feelings for each other continue to push them together and pull them apart throughout their lives. The two couldn’t be more different. Will is the rebellious sort—no interest in school, mysterious. The type of guy high school girls ... Read More...
