I came upon Jennifer Makumbi’s novel, A Girl is a Body of Water, in my efforts to further diversify my reading. It’s a multi-generational saga centered around a young Ugandan woman named Kirabo. The novel begins in the 1970s when she’s 12. She lives in a sprawling rural compound with her grandparents and many relatives. Although she is surrounded by family, her parents are not ... Read More...
Daisy Jones & The Six
I came to hate that I'd put my heart and my pain into my music because it meant that I couldn't ever leave it behind. Daisy Jones is the quintessential ‘70s rock ‘n roll dream girl—preternaturally beautiful, no inhibitions, and ready to party. Except that she’s got dreams of her own and an astonishing whiskey-soaked voice. Billy Dunne is the charismatic, handsome, lead ... 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 Trouble with Goats and Sheep
The summer of 1976 is one of upheaval for the families who live along the Avenue, a seemingly quiet British neighborhood. Mrs. Margaret Creasy has gone missing. Ten-year-old Grace takes the words of the local vicar that “If God exists in a community, no one will be lost” as her cue to find God within their neighborhood and in doing so, bring Mrs. Creasy back. She enlists her ... Read More...
Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty
It seems like a fairly straightforward equation: a father plus a mother plus three children equals happiness, but when the pluses that bind their reality is removed these elements no longer add up and the results are wholly unexpected. In Ramona Ausubel’s new novel Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty the plus is money, lots and lots of it, enough that Fern and Edgar ... Read More...
The Silver Star
The Silver Star is author Jeannette Walls’ latest foray into fiction. Her memoir, The Glass Castle, is an intimate look at her childhood, when benign neglect, became not-so benign, as neither of her parents had the selflessness or aptitude to raise children. The Silver Star treads familiar territory in that the mother, while flamboyant and fun, is a narcissist with no interest ... Read More...
