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The Dreaded DNF: Mini-Reviews

September 14, 2018

dreaded

There is more than one reason for not finishing a book. Sometimes it's a case of 'It's Not You, It's Me'. Other times it's the right book at the wrong time. And then, there are the cases when neither of these apply and it is more basic: life is too short for me to keep reading this book that is working my last nerve. It happens and becomes a dreaded DNF. Here are my two most ... Read More...

6 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Feature, Fiction Tagged: coming-of-age, contemporary fiction, historical fiction, satire, WWII

July Reading Wrap-Up

August 1, 2018

july

Oh boy, summer hit Seattle with a vengeance in July. I know for many other parts of the country temperatures in the high 80s are no big deal, but for those of us living in a region where air conditioning is not a thing in a most houses it got pretty wretched. In fact, I'll use it as the reason my reading foundered so much. I had a tough time bouncing between books I loved, but ... Read More...

10 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction, Reading Tagged: contemporary fiction, lists, mini-reviews

The Mere Wife by Maria Headley

July 30, 2018

mere

  Maybe every monster is a miracle meant to change the world... Author Maria Headley dives into a modern-day retelling of Beowolf beginning with its title, The Mere Wife. This is no novel about a slight wife, a minor presence, a smudge of a life. No, the women in this tale are, for better or worse, ferocious in the pursuit of their goals. They are giants of ... Read More...

3 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary fiction, Farrar Straus Giroux, literary, retellings, women

Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday

February 14, 2018

asymmetry

  Asymmetry is a novel split into three separate and seemingly unrelated parts. I know, sounds like short stories, but there is supposed to be a thread connecting the three. The question is whether I was able to find it or not. The first section is Folly, wherein 27-year-old Alice meets Pulitzer Prize winning author, Ezra Blazer, in Central Park. They talk and after ... Read More...

7 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary fiction, debut, family, Iraq, literary, Manhattan, relationships, Simon & Schuster

Peach by Emma Glass

February 2, 2018

peach

  Peach is high intensity fiction, opening with an explosion of visceral, unremitting fear and pain as a young woman tries to pull herself together after being raped. Everything is relayed from a sensory level, from the odor of the man to the wool fibers of her mittens against her chin to the scalding hot water she stands in after she staggers home and into the shower. It ... Read More...

6 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: Bloomsbury, contemporary fiction, social issues, women

Red Clocks by Leni Zumas

January 26, 2018

red

  From the very beginning reading Red Clocks is like looking through a very grimy window. Everything is tinged with dirt and difficult to see, much less see clearly. Four women, each speaking in alternating chapters and never revealing their names, only their most defining characteristic: the Biographer, the Mender, the Wife, the Daughter. In chapters not their own, ... Read More...

4 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary fiction, dystopia, literary, Little Brown and Company, Pacific Northwest, women

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