This post may include Amazon links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. I was going to call this post Short and Sweet, but the title is not quite right for these three novels. Sweet implies a bit of passivity and isn’t often a trait I like in my fiction. Instead, each of these small books belied their size with the force of their stories. Because they’re ... Read More...
Ask Again, Yes
This post may include Amazon links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Ask Again, Yes is a complex family story that begins with the lightest of connections. Brian Stanhope and Francis Gleeson are two young men from Ireland who begin their careers as cops together in New York City. They move to the suburbs, right next door to each other and start ... Read More...
The Dearly Beloved
Charles and James work side by side. Literally. They’re both ministers at a NYC church. Their wives, Lily and Nan, do not share the same closeness. Nan is involved in the church, but Lily wants nothing to do with religion. These are the four people at the very heart of Cara Wall’s luminous debut, The Dearly Beloved. How they came to their faith (or not), how they ended up ... Read More...
Riots I Have Known
Sometimes a synopsis can come out of nowhere and make you pick up a book you never thought you would, but it’s a dicey proposition because marketing people are wily devils. Their entire purpose in life is to seduce. But it still doesn’t quite explain why I thought a novel about a Sri Lankan male inmate in an American prison in the midst of a riot would make for something I ... Read More...
Mothers’ Week: The Island of Sea Women
This coming Sunday is Mother’s Day so this week my reviews are focused on three books with very different perspectives on motherhood. Each offered something important in its own way and reminded me how, like so much of what women do, it is impossible to fit the role of mother into one finite slot. Off the coast of Korea’s mainland is an island called Jeju. There was ... Read More...
The Ash Family by Molly Dektar
Berie is on her way from her hometown of Durham to Richmond to attend college. College that is being paid for by financial aid and the sale of her mother’s heirloom jewelry. Despite this sacrifice, Berie doesn’t feel close to her mother. In fact, she’s sure her mother doesn’t understand and just wants her to go to college because she didn’t. It was her dream, never mine, ... Read More...
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