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Home of the American Circus

August 21, 2025

american circus

Home of the American Circus begins with Freya’s rent being overdue and her appendix bursting. These two events give her no choice but to leave Maine where she lives and head back to her hometown in New York. And not just the town, but her childhood home which was left to her by her parents. Once there she reunites with her best friend, a troubled musician who is also living ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, childhood, family, literary

Behind the Scenes at the Museum

February 7, 2025

behind the scenes

Ruby Lennox has no intention of waiting to be noticed. She is the front and center, the axis in the familial wheel that is Kate Atkinson’s Behind the Scenes at the Museum. The novel begins with her announcing her own conception when her father drunkenly impregnates her mother. From this instant on we journey with Ruby through a family saga that sifts and shifts from the late ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: childhood, coming-of-age, England, family saga, historical

This Motherless Land

January 27, 2025

motherless

A loving, happy, Nigerian family is torn apart when a daughter survives a horrific car crash that leaves her mother and brother dead and her father’s grief makes him hate her for surviving. This is This Motherless Land and Funke is the daughter, who at eight finds herself on a plane to England to live with her mother’s white family, people she’s never met and knows almost ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, childhood, cultural, family

Leaving Atlanta by Tayari Jones

February 9, 2024

leaving atlanta

In 1979 a serial killer in Atlanta began targeting Black children. This disturbing truth is the premise for Leaving Atlanta by Tayari Jones. A painfully powerful novel it chronicles the lives of three 10-year-olds living in the neighborhoods where children were vanishing. For each, the disappearances and murders will have an impact on their lives, but in very different ways. I ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, childhood, debut, historical, literary

All That is Mine I Carry With Me

September 12, 2023

all that is mine

The scene is cleanly set when in the simpler times of 1975 10-year-old Miranda arrives home from school to find the house locked and, after she uses the hidden key to get in, empty. Her mother should be there. Her mother is always there to greet her after school. Her car, keys, handbag all in their proper place, but Jane Larkin is gone. And that’s the last of clean, simple ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: 1970s, book clubs, childhood, family, literary, marriage, mystery

I’m Glad My Mom Died

January 25, 2023

I'm glad

How to review a memoir with a title so jarring I felt bad for even looking at it? Especially as my mother has always been one of the biggest supporters of my writing and reads every review (Hi, Mom, I love you!). Here goes. Jennette McCurdy was a child actor on a popular Nickelodeon show called iCarly. Now in her mid-thirties she’s released her memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died. The ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Non-fiction Tagged: book clubs, childhood, debut, Hollywood, memoir, pop culture

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