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Nightcrawling: A Novel

August 22, 2022

nightcrawling

At a time when most teenage girls are busy with dating, hanging out with friends, and choosing colleges, 17-year-old Kiara is facing a rent increase that is likely to render her homeless. She lives in a rundown East Oakland apartment with her older brother Marcus. Their father is dead and their mother is in prison. This is the world explored in Leila Mottley’s gritty debut ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, contemporary life, debut, social issues, teen years

Tracy Flick Can’t Win

August 19, 2022

tracy

Tracy Flick Can’t Win is the latest novel from Tom Perrotta and if the title’s name looks familiar it’s because this is a sequel to his novel, Election. I never read the first book, but know Tracy well from the movie adaptation of the book. She was a goody-two-shoes teenager perfectly played by Reese Witherspoon. Tracy Flick Can’t Win is about the life of middle-aged Tracy so I ... Read More...

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

Remarkably Bright Creatures

August 11, 2022

remarkably

Hello, everyone! I’m easing back in today with a novel that melted my curmudgeonly heart. Remarkably Bright Creatures is a debut by Shelby Van Pelt that takes place in Sowell Bay, a fictional small town in northern Washington State. Tova is an elderly woman, who works nights cleaning the town’s aquarium. It’s quiet work that, on the one hand, suits her wish to avoid prying, but ... Read More...

4 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary life, debut, Pacific Northwest

Fun Summer Reading

July 18, 2022

  Hello, lovely readers! Remember me? Remember fun? Let's pretend I'm sitting on a chaise relaxing by the lake in this photo. Ha. I survived the 2,200 mile drive from Ann Arbor, but am now ensconced in a utilitarian, extended stay hotel that is to put it kindly, dreary. My poor husband tries to manage Zoom calls at 5am with me sleeping in bed 3’ away. The fire alarm went ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Feature Tagged: chick lit, contemporary life, mini-reviews, satire, thriller, women

Metropolis: A Novel

June 27, 2022

metropolis

A storage warehouse in Cambridge, Massachusetts hardly seems the place to play out a multi-layered suspense novel, but when Metropolis opens a body is found at the bottom of the building’s elevator shaft. As the police circle, the owners of four storage spaces disperse in an effort to keep their secrets safe. Complete strangers, they find their lives suddenly overlap in ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary life, mystery

Good Rich People: A Novel

June 16, 2022

good rich

”I get so bored sometimes, I think I will do anything to stop it.”   In the ongoing efforts to keep my brain distracted but engaged, I moved from fantasy into the darker side of my reading (and my personality?) with a novel I loved, but can only describe as deeply twisted. Good Rich People is the story of a privileged LA couple, Graham and Lyla, Graham’s even more ... Read More...

4 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary life, suspense

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