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Gretel and the Dark

October 15, 2014

gretel

Unless you’re reading a book of short stories it is unusual to get more than one scary plot in a single novel, but that is exactly what happens in Eliza Granville’s debut novel Gretel and the Dark. There is Lilie, the beautiful young patient of Dr. Josef Breuer, Sigmund Freud’s mentor.  She is found beaten, abused and with her head shaved. She only speaks when ordered and ... Read More...

4 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, coming-of-age, debut, Europe, historical fiction, Riverhead Books, WWII

How to Build a Girl

September 24, 2014

build a girl

I want to be a self-made woman. I want to conjure myself out of every sparkling, fast-moving thing I can see. I want to be the creator of me. I’m gonna begat myself. Caitlin Moran’s How to Build a Girl is the hell-bent lovechild of Angela’s Ashes and Almost Famous—overlarge, impoverished family with a drunken non-working father and a teen daughter with a love of music and ... Read More...

9 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, Coffee House Press, coming-of-age, debut, Ireland, teen years

30 Authors in 30 Days: Lisa O’Donnell on Crooked River by Valerie Geary

September 19, 2014

crooked river

30 Authors in 30 Days is a first of its kind event aimed at connecting readers, bloggers, and authors. Hosted by The Book Wheel, this month-long event takes place during September and features 30 authors discussing their favorite recent reads on 30 different blogs. There are also some great prizes provided by GoneReading.com and BookJigs. For the full schedule of participating ... Read More...

3 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Feature, Fiction Tagged: debut, mystery

Vintage: A Novel

August 15, 2014

vintage

Hourglass Vintage is a charming used clothing shop in Madison, Wisconsin. It is also where three women at very different stages of life meet in Vintage, the debut novel from author Susan Gloss. Violet is the owner,  Amithi is a middle-aged Indian woman, who brings in much of her jewelry and clothes to sell, and April is a pregnant eighteen-year-old who thought she would be ... Read More...

4 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: chick lit, debut, fashion, William Morrow

California: A Novel

August 11, 2014

california

There is no prelude in Edan Lepucki’s debut novel, California, no introduction to life in a time of normalcy. Instead, the novel begins with Cal and Frida living in a small house in a forest somewhere in the U.S. but we don’t know where because state names are no longer used. The dystopia is in full swing as America has finally collapsed due to climate change, the oil crisis, ... Read More...

14 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, debut, dystopia, Little Brown and Company, science fiction

The Home Place

August 6, 2014

home place

  Alma Terrebonne is doing well as a corporate lawyer in Seattle until she gets the call that her younger sister Vicky is dead. Suddenly, she has to walk away from one of the biggest deals of her career and head back to Montana, the place where her family has lived for generations. The Home Place is both the title of Carrie La Seur’s debut novel and what the Terrebonne family ... Read More...

4 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: debut, family, the West, William Morrow

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