In a surprising bit of synchronicity, I read two great novels recently that both referenced Shakespeare—which is why the quote from Macbeth for this post’s title. Also, because there is a lot of wicked in both these novels. In New Boy, Tracy Chevalier adapts the very grown-up themes of Othello to 1970s elementary school. Then M.L. Rio uses Shakespeare’s plays as the ... Read More...
It’s Monday, May 8th: What Are You Reading?
Monday again and May already?! Mentally I’m still in March and while I’ll be happy for some sunshine I’m not sure I’m ready for summer. What I am ready for is a solid streak of great reading. Currently, I’m stalling out and DNFing most new releases or finding them OK at best. Here’s hoping today’s picks will be game changers! I'm taking a break from ... Read More...
Edgar & Lucy: A Novel
Having a life meant having a story. This is one of the first thoughts we hear from eight-year-old Edgar in Victor Lodato’s novel, Edgar & Lucy. It’s soon followed by the knowledge that the only way to know the story of when you were a baby is for someone else to tell it to you. And that’s Edgar’s biggest problem—neither his mother Lucy or his grandmother ... Read More...
Girlchild by Tupelo Hassman
Well, well, well…finally, after two months of all-right-but-not-great reading I’ve been knocked off my feet. Not by a new release, but by a 2013 novel from my Goodreads to-read list. I’m not going to quibble; I’m just thrilled to have read something I loved so much that it’s hard to find the best words for it. Tupelo Hassman’s Girlchild is a piercing novel of childhood ... Read More...
All the Ugly and Wonderful Things
Sometimes there are great books that are almost impossible to review. An example is A Little Life—a novel of abuse that, while it was brilliant, was not for everyone. But, what was not difficult about it was the fact of the abuse—a subject that does not divide or cause unease. Bryn Greenwood ‘s debut novel All the Ugly and Wonderful Things is the opposite of A Little Life in ... 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...
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