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Small Books, Quick Thoughts

November 29, 2019

This post may include Amazon links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. I was going to call this post Short and Sweet, but the title is not quite right for these three novels. Sweet implies a bit of passivity and isn’t often a trait I like in my fiction. Instead, each of these small books belied their size with the force of their stories. Because they’re ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Feature Tagged: book clubs, contemporary life, literary, mini-reviews, social issues, women

Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout

October 24, 2019

olive

On Monday I reviewed Olive Kitteridge in preparation for today’s review of Elizabeth Strout’s sequel, Olive, Again. I’ll start by saying these books stand alone. Olive is Olive is Olive. She’s a decade older, her relationship with her son is still virtually non-existent, but there’s a new man in her life. There’s also the tiniest flicker that age is taking the edge off some of ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary life, literary, New England, Random House

The Falconer: A Novel by Dana Czapnik

October 16, 2019

falconer

I loved this diamond bright, coming-of-age novel about a female athlete so much that when I saw it came out in paperback recently I had to share my thoughts with all of you again. If you haven't read it yet, you need to get it NOW.  On page two of The Falconer, when Lucy Adler says I met that basketball for the first time only thirty minutes ago but I already know I ... Read More...

6 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: coming-of-age, contemporary life, debut, Faber and Faber, literary, New York City

Quichotte by Salman Rushdie

September 23, 2019

quichotte

Sam DuChamp is a so-so spy novelist when he gets the idea to write a novel based on Don Quixote. Quichotte is born. He’s a 70-year-old former pharmaceutical sales rep whose life has been reduced to watching lots of television. In doing so he has fallen in love with the beautiful young star, Miss Salma R. He decides to drive across the country to be with her, guided along the ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary life, literary, magical realism, pop culture, Random House, social issues

A Door in the Earth

September 20, 2019

door

Parveen is like most young women her age—graduating college, but not sure what she wants to do with her degree in medical anthropology. Until she reads a memoir, written by a man who goes to Afghanistan and after a traumatic incident that left a woman dead from giving birth, founds and funds a women’s health center in a small isolated village. Parveen is Afghan-American and ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: coming-of-age, contemporary life, cultural, literary, Little Brown and Company, Middle East, war

The Reckless Oath We Made

September 11, 2019

reckless oath

Zee’s life has never been easy (to begin with, her full name is Zhorzha), but now it’s coming completely unraveled. She left her last worthless boyfriend after she crashed his motorcycle and broke her hip, she traffics marijuana because she lost her job after the accident, and she’s living with her sister LaReigne and her young son, Marcus. Her mother is morbidly obese and a ... Read More...

8 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary life, literary, Midwest, Putnam

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