Miranda is a free-spirited artist and explorer living in Mazrooq, a country that is not open to either. That she also has a girlfriend makes her the most suspect of women, right up until she meets Finn, the British ambassador who steals her heart and gives her a life considered by all around her to be safe and normal. This not a romance novel—far from it. It is Jennifer Steil’s ... Read More...
The Knockoff
It’s no secret that I love fashion and all things related to it. The September issue of the major magazines is one of my favorite purchases of the year so a novel about the world of fashion publishing is bound to be a big bowl of happy for me. In The Knockoff Imogen Tate is the long-time editor of Glossy magazine. When she returns to the helm after six months of medical leave ... Read More...
A Little Life
At the most basic level A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara is the story of four men who meet in college, move to New York City afterwards to pursue their careers, and whose lives stay entwined for the rest of the novel. They can be easily defined by their careers: Willem is an actor, JB an artist, Malcolm an architect, and Jude a lawyer. It is also quickly evident that, ... Read More...
Dear Committee Members
If every member of the human race evinced a fondness for literature and even a moderate level of dexterity with the written word, I would be a happier, if not more well-adjusted, man. Jay Fitger is an underpaid, tortured and tenured English professor at Payne University. His professional life at this B-level college has largely devolved into writing letters of ... Read More...
Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands
Sweet sixteen—a time of so many changes. Learning to drive, first dates, preparing for college, and, if you’re Emily Shepard, a nuclear reactor meltdown near your tiny town in Vermont, your parents disappearing, and being evacuated from your school with only the clothes on your back. This is sixteen as seen by Chris Bohjalian in his new novel, Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands. When ... Read More...
The Shadow Queen
Louis XIV may have been a fascinating king but thankfully for readers, author Sandra Gulland prefers to focus on the woman behind the man. In The Shadow Queen, that woman is Athénaїs de Montespan, an aristocratic beauty who is able to pull the King’s interest away from his longtime mistress and claim him for herself. Forget the Queen, apparently she is too shy and ... Read More...
