contemporary life Archives - The Gilmore Guide to Books

More Than Enough by Anna Quindlen

Catherine — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 08:03:27 +0000

Open Anna Quindlen’s new novel More Than Enough and you’ll meet Polly, a happy middle-aged woman. Her husband adores her and she him, she’s an English teacher at all girls’ school, and she has three stalwart, loving friends. Friends who give her a DNA test kit as a gag gift. When there’s a match for […]

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Best Offer Wins

Catherine — Thu, 19 Feb 2026 08:32:48 +0000

For anyone who’s purchased a house in a competitive market the subject of Marisa Kashino’s novel Best Offer Wins won’t come as a surprise: the lengths a buyer will go to win the house of their dreams. Think buying a home is just about paying the price the owners are asking for it? Then you’ve […]

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Missing Sam by Thrity Umrigar

Catherine — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 08:12:42 +0000

It’s the July 4th weekend when Ali‘s wife Sam goes missing on her early morning run in their upscale Cleveland Heights neighborhood. Her disappearance sets in motion events that keep Thrity Umrigar’s new novel, Missing Sam, at a slow burn over the mystery, but ignites a blaze in the response the community has to the […]

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Snake Oil: A Novel

Catherine — Fri, 13 Dec 2024 08:35:47 +0000

Three women, one company. Set in the wellness industry Snake Oil is about the woman who starts the company and two of the women who work for her. At opposite ends of the spectrum, one is a fervent believer in the company’s mission while the other avidly opposes it, but needs the paycheck. When the […]

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Ghosts by Dolly Alderton

Catherine — Mon, 09 Dec 2024 08:38:24 +0000

A successful food writer, Nina Dean is happy with her life. She has close friends, her own apartment in London, and her breakup with her longtime boyfriend was amicable. She’s happy being alone, but a partner would be nice as well, so with her sense of self-esteem mostly in place she makes the foray back […]

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I Hope This Finds You Well

Catherine — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 07:42:46 +0000

Apparently, the reading gods have taken pity on me this fall because I’m on a roll with FUN, entertaining, reading. Case in point: I Hope This Finds You Well, a debut from Canadian author Natalie Sue. This novel’s main ingredient is humor, but she blends it into something with more depth as one introverted office […]

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The Same Bright Stars by Ethan Joella

Catherine — Fri, 05 Jul 2024 07:39:49 +0000

As evidenced by Wednesday’s review I’m always up for dark dark fiction if there’s humor somewhere in the horror. At the same time, I appreciate a gentler approach—slice-of-life novels if you will. Ethan Joella’s The Same Bright Stars fits in this quieter space perfectly. Jack Schmidt has been in the restaurant business since he was […]

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Margo’s Got Money Troubles

Catherine — Wed, 19 Jun 2024 07:01:03 +0000

Margo is 19 and languishing at community college when she is swept into an affair with a married professor. She ends up pregnant and decides to have the baby. What follows in Margo’s Got Money Troubles is a story and characters that are frustrating, quirky, and endearing. Let’s jump right into the frustrating. My pragmatic nature […]

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Christa Comes Out of Her Shell

Catherine — Fri, 24 May 2024 07:13:19 +0000

Christa is a scientist who studies snails on a small isolated island. She’s perfectly happy with a life free from people thanks to a childhood spent in the spotlight. Her father was a world-famous naturalist with his own wildly popular TV show, but his plane crashed in the Alaskan wilderness when she was 2-years-old. Her […]

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Piglet: A Novel

Catherine — Fri, 22 Mar 2024 07:54:37 +0000

When a young woman’s fiancé reveals a significant betrayal two weeks before their wedding she’s left reeling. How she deals with this news and its impact on her life in this compressed timeline are the meat of Piglet, a contemporary debut novel that probes the issues around the long-term impact of childhood experiences and the […]

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