The narrator of Season Butler’s debut novel, Cygnet, is known as the Kid. She’s 17 and her parents have dropped her off at her grandmother’s house on an island off the coast of New Hampshire to live while they try and get their lives together. It’s supposed to be for a few weeks, a month at most, but three months later, the Kid’s grandmother has died and she’s never heard from ... Read More...
Mrs. Everything by Jennifer Weiner
It’s the 1950s and tradition reigns in America. For the most part the Kaufmans fit in. Except for Jo, who’s more interested in sports and playing with the daughter of their maid, both of which cause her mother no end of aggravation. Her younger sister Bethie was their mother’s favorite—pretty, popular, and destined either to marry well or be a star. For Jo, it’s her father who ... Read More...
The Body in Question
Standard courtroom drama fiction has never been a favorite of mine, but I recently read two novels that put such an interesting spin on them I’m changing my mind a bit. I’m calling them ‘courtroom drama plus’ because both came at the genre from an unusual perspective. The first was Miracle Creek, which I loved and the second is a new novel called The Body in Question. The twist ... Read More...
City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert
Anyway, at some point in a woman's life, she just gets tired of being ashamed all the time. After that, she is free to become whoever she truly is. If you read Elizabeth Gilbert’s book, Big Magic, you know she offers an unusual perspective on the creative process. Namely, that, beyond the discipline of writing every day there is a spiritual component—as in characters or ... Read More...
Fruit of the Drunken Tree
Petrona used to live on a farm in Colombia, with her nine brothers and her sister. Then the paramilitary showed up, burned down their house and their fields, and took her father and her three oldest brothers. Now, she, her mother, three of her brothers and her sister live in shack in the slums of Bogotá. At 13 she is sent to work as a maid for the Santiagos, a wealthy family in ... 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...
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