In her outstanding debut novel, Everything I Never Told You, Celeste Ng delicately exposed the family tragedy that can result from unrealistic expectations and the insecurity of trying to fit into a new culture. In her newest novel, Little Fires Everywhere, the Richardson family has no such problem. They are picture postcard perfection, happily sailing through their ... Read More...
August Library Checkout
After a bit of a drought in July, when I was otherwise occupied, I found my way back to the library in August. Read For such a small book The Mother exerts a powerful pull. It covers the London trial of a 16-year-old accused of killing a 15-year-old. Both boys ... Read More...
The Portable Veblen
To say that The Portable Veblen by Elizabeth McKenzie gets nutty is not a derogatory comment because Veblen, the main character, is obsessed with squirrels. As in talk to them, think they’re talking to her, anthropomorphize them. Her fiancé Paul is not as fond of them, but as a research neurologist who has created a medical device that will revolutionize the management ... Read More...
The Star Side of Bird Hill
It’s time for summer vacation but rather than spend it at home in Brooklyn Dionne and her sister Phaedra have been shipped off to Barbados, which may sound like paradise to many of us, but not for Dionne. At sixteen this was going to be the summer she broke out of childhood and into the fun life of leading the cool group of girls at her school. Instead, she is stuck ... Read More...
Books about Books: Mini-Reviews
Every reader has a soft spot, a genre or author or both that they gravitate towards without their usual scrutiny. Some people will read any book about dogs, others will grab anything written by John Grisham or Stephen King. For me, it’s books about books or books with the word book in the title. My brain disengages from critical thinking and switches to the blind belief that it ... Read More...
Everything I Never Told You
Celeste Ng’s debut novel Everything I Never Told You is the story of the Lee family. They live in Ohio where the father James is a professor and wife Marilyn stays at home and raises Nathan, Lydia, and Hannah. This is the Rockwell painting version but within those broad strokes there is the kernel, the seed that determines how this story will grow. The source is the very love ... Read More...
