A trio of friends haunted by a mysterious accident are the key characters in Yiyun Li’s new novel, Kinder Than Solitude. They all live within the same housing compound in Beijing, where life moves along without much disturbance, until an older girl living in one of their houses is overcome by a mysterious illness that later turns out to be chemical poisoning. She is not ... Read More...
Amity & Sorrow
Earlier in the year I reviewed a novel (The Visionist) where a mother and her children run for safety to a religious compound. In Peggy Riley’s Amity & Sorrow it is the opposite situation. Amaranth and her two daughters, Amity and Sorrow, are running from their compound because its founder, Amaranth’s husband, has decided it is the end days and has set it on fire so they ... Read More...
Beautiful Day
Beautiful Day is Elin Hilderbrand’s newest novel and for her fans it’s another job well done. Jenna Carmichael is getting married but her happiest day is marred by her mother’s absence. Beth Carmichael died seven years ago and was known as a wise and gracious woman, widely loved by her family and friends. She was also, it seems, preternaturally prepared—she left behind a ... Read More...
Beside the Sea
Two young boys journey with their mother to see the ocean for the first time and have an adventure. Unfortunately, nothing is as planned and the trip is not what it seems. For their mother, finding herself out of sync with the world is not unusual, even regarding something as straightforward as sleep. …we’d suddenly find it was the next morning, like other people do, the ones ... Read More...
Dora: A Headcase
Seventeen is no place to be. You want to get out, you want to shake off a self like old dead skin. You want to take how things are and chuck it like a rock. And guess what? If it’s bad for you, the only way to alleviate the pain is to make it that much worse for everyone around you and at that, Dora is a champion. Ida is her birth name but Dora is the name she gives herself. ... Read More...
Gossip
I’m fairly certain that Tolstoy spent less time on War & Peace then I have spent trying to review Gossip. My problem is this: on the surface you have a cool-toned, witty look at three women living in the upper echelon of New York society. They are each interesting, diverse women, wearing fabulous clothes, and if that’s all you need from a book, then stop right here and go ... Read More...
