Ruby Lennox has no intention of waiting to be noticed. She is the front and center, the axis in the familial wheel that is Kate Atkinson’s Behind the Scenes at the Museum. The novel begins with her announcing her own conception when her father drunkenly impregnates her mother. From this instant on we journey with Ruby through a family saga that sifts and shifts from the late ... Read More...
The Mere Wife: A novel
Just out in paperback, this was a novel I loved and thought deserved a lot more attention. Maybe every monster is a miracle meant to change the world... Author Maria Headley dives into a modern-day retelling of Beowolf beginning with its title, The Mere Wife. This is no novel about a slight wife, a minor presence, a smudge of a life. No, the women in this tale ... Read More...
Girlchild by Tupelo Hassman
Well, well, well…finally, after two months of all-right-but-not-great reading I’ve been knocked off my feet. Not by a new release, but by a 2013 novel from my Goodreads to-read list. I’m not going to quibble; I’m just thrilled to have read something I loved so much that it’s hard to find the best words for it. Tupelo Hassman’s Girlchild is a piercing novel of childhood ... Read More...
Children of the New World: Stories
If this election season isn’t freaking you out enough about the future of America, then you need to read Alexander Weinstein’s short stories, Children of the New World. Thankfully, unlike this election, these stories are not real, but they are brilliant in their take on how we’ll be living in the not-so-distant future. And, depending on your perspective they’ll either ... Read More...
Black Chalk
There are many games to be played in college but none quite like the one designed by Jolyon and his friend Chad in Christopher Yates’s debut novel Black Chalk. The novel, just like the Game itself, begins with innocuous pieces to lure you in—Chad, the shy American determined to make the friends in England that he could not make at home; Jolyon, the funny British boy who ... Read More...
A Pleasure and a Calling
Invisibility has for so long been the linchpin to my favourite, most memorable moments. Mr. Heming is exactly what one wants in a real estate agent—quiet, innocuous, and well-versed in the pros and cons of a neighborhood or a house itself. He imposes none of his own opinions but merely shares his knowledge and leads the buyer to the perfect house as determined by his ... Read More...
