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

The Girl Who Slept with God

August 26, 2015

girl who slept with god

Even within their evangelical Christian community the Quanbeck family is known as unusual, but in The Girl Who Slept with God, fourteen-year-old Jory is used to it. Until, that is, her devout sister, Grace, is allowed, at seventeen, to go off on a mission to Mexico, and returns pregnant. The potential embarrassment to their father within their religious circle is such that he ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: American life, book clubs, debut, literary, religion, Viking

The Star Side of Bird Hill

July 29, 2015

star

  It’s time for summer vacation but rather than spend it at home in Brooklyn Dionne and her sister Phaedra have been shipped off to Barbados, which may sound like paradise to many of us, but not for Dionne. At sixteen this was going to be the summer she broke out of childhood and into the fun life of leading the cool group of girls at her school. Instead, she is stuck ... Read More...

5 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: Barbados, coming-of-age, cultural, debut, Penguin Press

Dietland: A Novel

July 22, 2015

dietland

  Once I had a taste of real food, I always wanted more. I spent my days tiptoeing around food, the way one might tiptoe into a baby’s room while it’s sleeping. One wrong move and the baby wakes up and screams. That’s how it was with hunger, too. Once it awakes, it screams and screams and there’s only one way to quiet it.  First of all, I promise to restrain myself from ... Read More...

5 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary fiction, debut, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

The Book of Speculation

July 8, 2015

Debut novelist Erika Swyler does not waste any time before throwing the reader into the deep end of The Book of Speculation. The novel begins with Simon Watson, a librarian with the ability to hold his breath for underwater for almost ten minutes at a time, a skill passed on to him by his mother before she drowned herself when he was seven. Now, he lives alone in the family’s ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: debut, historical fiction, magic, mystery, St. Martin's Press

Girl at War: A Novel

June 24, 2015

girl

Ana is from Croatia but now lives in America and attends college in New York. Despite having been in the U.S for a decade she suddenly finds herself overcome by memories of her life in Croatia in 1991—the beginning of the Yugoslavian civil war. These memories increase in intensity until she can no longer sleep at night. In desperation, she decides to go back to Croatia to try ... Read More...

7 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: cultural, debut, Eastern Europe, historical fiction, war

The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton

June 10, 2015

miniaturist

Set in 1686 The Miniaturist by debut author Jessie Burton is the spellbinding story of an eighteen-year-old girl married off to an older merchant who lives in Amsterdam. She arrives on his doorstep with no idea of what marriage entails or the fact that she has been procured to enhance his reputation, for her family is poor but with a pedigree. Little does she know that her ... Read More...

9 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, debut, ecco, historical fiction

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 36
  • 37
  • 38
  • 39
  • 40
  • …
  • 54
  • 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