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Break in Case of Emergency

July 17, 2016

break in case

  Poor Jen. She was an artist while in college, but gave up after school and got a communications job at a non-profit. Which then hit hard times and laid her off. Now she’s at a new foundation started by Leora Infinitas (that’s not a typo on my part), a former sitcom star who achieved her wealth by marrying old money. Literally, her husband was old. And then he died and ... Read More...

4 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: Brooklyn, debut, friendship, Knopf, literary, marriage, satire

The Girls

June 27, 2016

girls

I wanted them to like me.  Such a simple sentence. Six words, and yet, coming three-fourths of the way through Emma Cline’s debut novel The Girls, they hold the key to the entire novel. They are instantly recognizable to any woman with a memory of her teenage years and they define fourteen-year-old Evie Boyd, the novel’s narrator. But as simple as they are they are also ... Read More...

10 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: 1960s, book clubs, coming-of-age, Random House

Dear Fang, With Love

June 8, 2016

dear fang

Because she wasn’t a trendsetter. No one could hope to be like her. She was one of a kind and, because of this, very much alone. About whether she was pleased with this state of affairs or saddened, I was never entirely sure. Maybe she would have liked to belong. ‘She’ is Vera, Lucas’s teenage daughter. For most of her life he’s been absent; she was the result of a wild whim ... Read More...

12 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: coming-of-age, contemporary fiction, family, Knopf, literary, mental health

Sweetbitter

May 30, 2016

sweetbitter

  “You know what I dislike? When people use the future as a consolation for the present.”   Tess arrives in NYC in the summer of 2006 from somewhere, but it doesn't matter where because as far as she is concerned she didn't exist before passing through the tollbooth onto the island of Manhattan. And we shouldn't care either, which we don't, because in short ... Read More...

16 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, coming-of-age, contemporary fiction, debut, Knopf, literary, New York City, restaurants

Miller’s Valley

May 2, 2016

miller's valley

Miller’s Valley is both the title and location of Anna Quindlen’s new novel. It is a tiny community where Mimi Miller’s family has owned and farmed their land for hundreds of years. Now it’s under threat because the government has decided to use a dam they put in decades ago to divert the river, flooding the town and turning it into a reservoir and a source of hydroelectricity. ... Read More...

10 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: 1960s, book clubs, coming-of-age, family, Random House

Eligible: A Modern Retelling of Pride and Prejudice

April 27, 2016

eligible

  In case you weren’t aware or hadn’t noticed the subtitle, Curtis Sittenfeld’s new novel Eligible is a retelling of the Jane Austen classic Pride and Prejudice. If you’re a purist about your classics, then you probably ought to stop reading now, pour yourself a glass of sherry and go back to your needlework by candlelight. If, on the other hand, you’re in the mood for ... Read More...

13 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: chick lit, contemporary fiction, family, humor, Random House, retellings

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