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Burial Rites

September 9, 2013

Burial Rites

A young woman is condemned to death in Iceland at a time when there were no jails so a family is ordered to house her for her final months. A young priest is assigned to be her spiritual guide to repentance before her execution. All this in 1828 the summer before Agnes Magnúsdóttir is to be put to death in Hannah Kent’s debut novel, Burial Rites. Agnes has been mistreated her ... Read More...

7 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, debut, historical fiction, Iceland, literary, Little Brown and Company

The Maid’s Version

September 6, 2013

Maid's Version

  Daniel Woodrell’s last novel, Winter's Bonewas a contemporary look at a teen’s desperate struggle to save what is left of her family when her drug dealing father skips out on bail. In his latest, The Maid's Version, he returns to the Ozarks but in 1929. He writes of Alma Dunahew, a woman whose mind is so filled with the injuries, insults, and injustices of the past that it ... Read More...

3 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, historical fiction, literary, Little Brown and Company

Dare Me: A Novel

September 2, 2013

Dare Me

  Written with all the hip-popping, hyper-hormonal intensity of teenage girls, Dare Me takes everything you’ve ever thought about cheerleaders and magnifies it tenfold. A group of  girls, part of the most exclusive club in high school, basking in the spray tan glow of their fame, find they’ve just been ‘playing’ at cheerleading when a new, taut, ruthless coach takes over and ... Read More...

1 Comment
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, coming-of-age, contemporary life, Reagan Arthur Books, suspense, young adult

Sweet Thunder

August 26, 2013

Sweet Thunder

In Sweet Thunder, Morrie Morgan and his new wife Grace are still on their year-long honeymoon when they get called back to Butte, Montana. A former boss is giving them his home, a grand old mansion. The only caveat is that he, Sam Sandison,  is now their tenant in this massive new home. For Morrie, a wandering sort of fellow who won his fortune betting against the White Sox in ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: 1920s, book clubs, historical fiction, Riverhead Books, the West

The Kingmaker’s Daughter

August 23, 2013

The Kingmaker's Daughter

  I’ve already professed my love for the work of Philippa Gregory so I’ll keep this brief. I reviewed The White Princess two weeks ago which chronicles the end of The Cousins’ War and the beginning of the Tudor dynasty. That was book five in the series, which I read knowing I had missed book four, but that I would return. For the last three days I did. The Kingmaker’s Daughter ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: 15th century, book clubs, England, historical fiction, Touchstone

Lookaway, Lookaway

August 21, 2013

lookaway lookaway

I’ll do my best not to overindulge in Civil War metaphors but I tore through Lookaway Lookaway faster than Sherman went through Atlanta. Wilton Barnhardt has written an addictive novel of the contemporary south. He combines the best and the worst of old and new in a way that is expansive and intimate. The story is about the Johnston family. Matriarch Jerene is the epitome of ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, humor, Southern life, St. Martin's Press

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