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The Divines: A Novel

January 22, 2021

divines

Every year there it seems a different theme emerges in fiction. Last year it was twins (The Grammarians, The Vanishing Half, Thin Girls), but this year, although it’s only January, I have three novels in my winter reading that are about girls’ boarding schools. What is it about that subject that entices those of us who were no more likely to attend one than go into outer space? ... Read More...

4 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, coming-of-age, debut, literary

Waiting for the Night Song

January 15, 2021

waiting

We first meet Cadence ‘Cadie’ Kessler as she’s illegally harvesting mountain pine beetles off a tree in the New Hampshire forest. A researcher, she needs proof that the beetles have arrived to their area, threatening the death of trees and the heightened likelihood of rampant forest fires. But within pages, mutilating a tree on public lands is the least of her concerns. The ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: coming-of-age, debut, mystery, social issues

The Unraveling of Mercy Louis

November 23, 2020

mercy

Take high school sports, an oil refinery explosion, a grandmother ready for the Rapture, and layer in a fetus found in a dumpster and a Purity Ball and you have the world that is The Unraveling of Mercy Louis. Ostensibly, the novel is about Mercy, a high school senior who is one of the best basketball players in the state of Texas, but the events listed create a vortex of ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, coming-of-age, friendship, literary

The Knockout Queen

April 27, 2020

knockout

Michael and Bunny are the unlikeliest of friends. Polar opposites in almost every way: his mother is in prison so he lives with his aunt, while she lives in a mansion with her father. He is less of a young man than he is supposed to be with long hair, a pierced nose, small and slender. He likes other boys, but no one knows. She is literally too much of a girl. Growing and ... Read More...

4 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, coming-of-age, contemporary life, literary

Tell the Wolves I’m Home

December 9, 2019

tell the wolves

  You could try and believe what you wanted, but it never worked. Your brain and your heart decided what you were going to believe and that was that. June is a bit of a loner who feels safer in the woods than she does around people. She’s never had friends her own age, but what she did have was an uncle she adored, who lived in NYC and understood her better than ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, coming-of-age, debut, literary, New York City, Random House

November Mini-Reviews

November 21, 2019

All of the book love from Monday’s review of The Starless Sea really took it out of me so I’m giving myself (and you) a word break for the rest of the week. Today is mini-reviews—three very different books with fewer words about each.     In Adrienne Brodeur’s memoir, Wild Game fact once again proves to be infinitely stranger than fiction. Adrienne is 14 when ... Read More...

14 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Feature Tagged: coming-of-age, historical fiction, literary, memoir, mini-reviews

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