The Gilmore Guide to Books

Connecting Books and Readers One Review at a Time

  • Home
  • About Me
  • Reviews
    • Reviews by Author
    • Reviews by Title
    • Reviews by Genre
  • Podcast
  • Policies
    • Review Policy
    • Cookie Policy
    • Privacy Policy

July Reading Wrap-Up

July 30, 2021

july

  July. What a month! On the bright side there was this: Me getting to see my mother after 18 months apart. She's the person who encouraged my love of reading. And that’s about as much as I need to write about July because everything else was just life. My reading was odd, but I’m hearing from a lot of friends that they’re going through the same thing. Namely, the ... Read More...

10 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Feature Tagged: contemporary life, cultural, humor, mini-reviews, vacation reading

June Books I’m Ready to Read

June 2, 2021

June

  Hello, June 2021! While some things feel as unsettling as they have for the past 4 years, others are getting easier. Those of us who are vaccinated are looking forward to a more open summer. But the country seems no less divided. Without meaning to, the books I want to read this June feel the same way—light versus dark, heavy versus fun nonfiction, sequels I’ve been ... Read More...

10 Comments
Filed Under: Feature, Reading Tagged: cultural, friendship, historical fiction, politics, suspense, women

The Last Exiles: A Novel

April 23, 2021

last exiles

Jin and Suja come from opposite worlds. Jin is the son of a factory supervisor in one of the poorest provinces of North Korea while Suja is the daughter of a high-ranking member of the government’s media. When Jin earns a scholarship to the university in Pyongyang they meet and begin a relationship. Both are committed to the ethos of their Dear Leader, but in The Last Exiles a ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: cultural, debut, North Korea

Of Women and Salt: A Novel

April 9, 2021

women

Jeannette is first-generation American in her Cuban family, but feels she knows nothing about her mother’s life or family left behind in Cuba. When asked, Carmen goes quiet. The only life she cares about is the comfortable one she has now in Miami. Ana is an 8-year-old girl who arrives home from an overnight stay at a babysitter’s house to find their home locked and no one ... Read More...

4 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, cultural, debut, historical fiction, literary

March Reading Recap

March 31, 2021

march reading

March was a great month for reading in that I ran from one book to another, but not so good for reviewing as my interest in writing fled in the opposite direction. Which now means I have a head full of tangled plots, character confusion, and dense clusters of missing information about what I’ve read. There will have to be some rereading in my future, combined with cursing ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Feature Tagged: cultural, literary, memoir, mini-reviews, mystery

The Arsonists’ City by Hala Alyan

March 15, 2021

arsonists

From the nucleus of one family, The Arsonists’ City is a novel that spins out between decades and countries. Idris and Mazna met in the 1970s. He lived in Beirut and was studying to be a doctor and she was a young actress living with her family in Damascus. Decades later they are settled in America with three grown children. The death of Idris’s father means he’s inherited the ... Read More...

3 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, cultural, literary, Middle East

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • …
  • 24
  • Next Page »
  • Bluesky
  • Email
  • Goodreads
  • Instagram
  • Substack

Save time and subscribe via email

No time to keep checking for new reviews? Enter your email address to subscribe and receive notifications of new posts by email. No spam!

Bookshop

Currently Reading

Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle
Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle
by Emily Nagoski
The Dutch House
The Dutch House
by Ann Patchett
Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me
Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me
by Adrienne Brodeur

goodreads.com

Affiliate Disclosure

I’m an affiliate for Bookshop. If you click on a link that takes you to their site and make a purchase I’ll earn a small fee, which goes towards the costs of maintaining this site. Your support is appreciated. Thank you!

Archives

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.

Theme Design By Studio Mommy · Copyright © 2026

Copyright © 2026 · Beyond Madison Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in