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Writers & Lovers by Lily King

March 4, 2020

writers

Everyone knows the writer’s life is not an easy one. For 31-year-old Casey it feels almost impossible. Her mother died suddenly, her boyfriend is gone, she’s working two jobs, and she lives in a space that used to be a potting shed.  She wants to write a novel, but after six years has made little progress. Her friends from college and grad school, many of whom wanted to be ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary life, Grove Press, literary

February Reading Wrap-Up

February 28, 2020

february

The roller coaster that was my January reading ground to a halt in February. I can’t even blame the weather because Michigan has had one of its most mild winters (so far!) in years. Instead, it seems as if it’s something larger in the air because most of the readers and bloggers I know reported the same thing. Sadly, this means I’m going to sound crankier than ever in this ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Feature Tagged: contemporary life, historical fiction, mini-reviews, thriller

A Different Viewpoint: Amnesty

February 26, 2020

amnesty

Last week I reviewed a light, bright novel set in 1950s Sydney, Australia. Today I’m back with another novel set in Sydney, but in recent times and with a much darker tone. Amnesty by Aravind Adiga is about Danny, an illegal immigrant from Sri Lanka. His visa expired three years ago when he dropped out from a for-profit college. He’s been living in the shadows as a cash-only ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, contemporary life, cultural, literary, Scribner, social issues

A Different Viewpoint: Cleanness

February 24, 2020

cleanness

It’s very likely that at some point in our lives we’ve all experienced feelings of loneliness and alienation, but it is unlikely that we’ve been made to feel unnatural or that we have no right to even exist where we are. This is a different viewpoint for me, one I’ll be exploring in my review today and, in a different way, on Wednesday. An American teacher at a school in ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary life, cultural, Farrar Straus Giroux, literary

Weather: A Novel by Jenny Offill

February 13, 2020

weather

Lizzie has a good life. She’s an academic librarian with a loving husband and a young son. Her mother, although more religiously inclined than Lizzie will ever be, is in good health. Her brother has kicked his pill addiction, found a girlfriend and a job. Into this relative quiet comes an old mentor of Lizzie’s who asks her to answer the email for her wildly popular podcast. ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary fiction, contemporary life, humor, Knopf

Talk to Me: A Novel by John Kenney

February 10, 2020

talk

My end of January and beginning of February reading has been less than exciting as evidenced by my Friday post. I thought rather than write a lukewarm review of book that was only OK, I'd give some renewed attention to a book from 2019 that I thoroughly enjoyed. Talk to Me came out in paperback last week and I'd highly recommend it for timely, entertaining, and thought ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, contemporary life, literary, Putnam, social issues

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