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The Guest: A Novel by Emma Cline

May 18, 2023

guest

Alex has spent her adult years learning from her mistakes, especially when it comes to men. More specifically, men with money, the only kind who interest her. She’s 22 and has been living in Manhattan for years working as an escort, trying to live out the Pretty Woman script, where a wildly wealthy man falls in love with her and all her dreams come true. Except, this is the ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary life, literary, vacation reading

Dances: A Novel by Nicole Cuffy

May 16, 2023

dances

CeCe Cordell is a 22-year-old ballerina who becomes the first Black principal dancer at the NYC Ballet. It should be a happy time for her, but in addition to pride and excitement CeCe feels lonely and unable to shake the feeling she’s an imposter. Her father left their family when she was little, she hasn’t seen her older brother in years, and her mother has never supported her ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary life, debut

You Are Here: A Novel

April 26, 2023

you are here

After a shockwave novel on Monday I was happy to shift back to easy reading so the straightforward premise of You Are Here seemed perfect. It’s the story of five people whose lives intersect in a rundown shopping center in Albany, New York. Debut author Karin Lin-Greenberg uses the mall’s impending closure as a tipping point for each as they reconcile where they are in their ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary life, vacation reading

The Trees by Percival Everett

April 24, 2023

trees

Percival Everett’s novel The Trees is a dark and darkly humorous look deep into the foul, blood-clogged engine of racism. Set in a small Mississippi town locked in the 1950s, the death of two good ole boys has left residents stunned. Not because they were particularly liked (they were not), but because the crimes are so gruesome, specifically the removal of certain body parts ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary life, literary, racism, satire, Southern life

Search: A Novel

April 20, 2023

search

I don’t read a lot of fiction with religion at its core, but Search by Michelle Huneven was recommended to me after a spate of heavy, challenging nonfiction. I knew nothing about the story, but was initially apprehensive about the premise of a woman joining the search committee for a new minister at her church. Thankfully, Huneven writes the realities of what happens when eight ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, contemporary life, religion

True Biz by Sara Novic

March 17, 2023

true biz

So much of today’s zeitgeist revolves around the much needed recognition of vulnerable communities, but what about acknowledgement for the community that can’t hear? Sara Novic explores the realities of deaf life in her riveting novel True Biz. Set at the River Valley School for the Deaf boarding school, the novel encompasses the lives of the school’s headmistress and those of ... Read More...

4 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, contemporary life, cultural, social issues, young adult

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