A seemingly happy marriage has cracks that shatter one summer when two families vacation together on the Norfolk coast. Two families with best friends at their center. Rosie and Lisa have known each other since they were teenagers so it was wonderful that their families aligned so well. Right up until Lisa has an affair with Nick, Rosie’s husband. Suddenly, what was, wasn’t, ... Read More...
It’s Not You, It’s Me: Mini-Reviews
Plausibility is a subjective concept, especially in reading. There are premises, plots, and characters in novels I love that make other readers put the book down. Today’s mini-reviews exemplify the term because both novels contain characters and situations that I could not believe in and so impacted my ability to enjoy the book as much as someone else might. In other words, ... Read More...
The Preservationist: A Novel by Justin Kramon
She’d never been looked at that way before, with that peculiar mix of intensity and distance. Sam is a thirty-nine-year-old kitchen worker at Stradler College. He’s led a life of movement from one place to another and one job to another at each of these places but turning forty is starting to press on him. Shouldn’t he be more settled? Shouldn’t he find a more ... Read More...
Ending October: Mini-Reviews
October was a massive month in book publishing and I was fortunate enough to read some amazing new releases (The Goldfinch, We Are Water, The Signature of All Things). With my focus on works of such depth and intensity some of the novels that did not move me to the same degree got ignored. Here then are three books I read with varying degrees of enjoyment. New ... Read More...
Accelerated
Sean is an artist working as an editor at a celebrity rag while trying to take care of his 8-year-old son, Toby. Several months ago his network executive wife decided she needed “time away” to find herself and abandoned father and son. Sean is left trying to manage his job and the care of his son, which includes negotiating the piranha-like waters of the posh private school ... Read More...
