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What Kind of Paradise

July 22, 2025

paradise

Jane has lived her entire life in a 700 square foot cabin near Bozeman, Montana; her contact with the modern world significantly limited. Her father is stern, but loving, a Luddite zealot who raves against technology in any form and writes copious screeds that no one reads, except Jane. Until he realizes that, with her help, the new expanse of the internet is the perfect place ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: 1990s, coming-of-age, historical

The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus

February 19, 2025

life cycle

Monday I shared a literary novel I loved and now I’m back with another. The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus is the witty, contemporary story of two friends and their freshman year at the University of Edinburgh. Alice and Penelope both have their reasons for wanting to leave Canada and go to this particular school. Alice’s is practical in that she hopes it will be the gateway ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: coming-of-age, 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

Swift River: A Novel

September 19, 2024

swift river

Swift River is both the title of Essie Chambers’ debut and the town where the novel is set. It’s about Diamond Newberry, a 16-year-old girl who stands out, but not for her flashy name or sparkling personality. She’s morbidly obese and ever since her father disappeared 7 years ago she’s the only Black person in town. Her white mother is of little help. She doesn’t drive and ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, coming-of-age, debut, New England

All the Colors of the Dark

July 10, 2024

all the colors

When 13-year-old Patch sees a girl being abducted he acts without thinking and rushes the kidnapper. The girl escapes, but what follows changes Patch’s life and is the foundation for Chris Whitaker’s new novel All the Colors of the Dark. Patch and everyone he knows is changed by his heroic act in this opus saturated with the feeling of a writer who is leaving it all on the ... Read More...

21 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: coming-of-age, Midwest, mystery, suspense

River East, River West

April 4, 2024

river east

In the search for fiction that takes me out of my own experiences Aube Rey Lescure’s River East, River West was just what I wanted. Alva and her mother Sloan have always been partners, the two of them against the world. A daunting task made even more so by the fact that they live in Shanghai. Sloan is white and Alva is bi-racial from a long-gone Chinese father. While her mother ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, China, coming-of-age, cultural, debut

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