Sloane, Ardie, and Grace are all well-paid, director level lawyers at an athletic apparel company in Dallas. Their boss, Ames, is a high-powered executive about to be promoted to CEO. Each of them has been subjected to inappropriate behavior on his part so when they learn about an anonymous spreadsheet with the actions and names of men who’ve behaved badly at other Dallas ... Read More...
Girls Burn Brighter
One of the reasons I love to read is that it offers me a chance to see places on the page (and in my mind) that I’m not likely to see in real life. Just as importantly it exposes me to experiences and lives utterly different from my own. Last month my first five-star book of the year was Song of a Captive Bird, a novel about an Iranian poet, and, while aspects of a ... Read More...
The Resurrection of Joan Ashby
When Joan Ashby is in her early twenties she is acclaimed as a writer to watch. Her short stories win awards, she is interviewed and profiled, and all await her first novel. She knows this is her one true gift and so even when she marries Martin, a man she loves deeply, it is with the agreement that there will be no children. Which is fine until Joan is pregnant. ... Read More...
It’s Monday, August 21st: What Are You Reading?
I can’t start this post by saying it’s just another Monday. Here in Seattle the sun is going to be 95% obscured by the moon. Kind of crazy if you think about it. I’ve read all sorts of things about what happens. Not the mystical end-of-world things, but that in the natural world it causes birds and other nocturnal animals to begin their preparations for sleep and that ... Read More...
Tornado Weather: A Novel
The town is Colliersville, Indiana, but it could be any number of small towns scattered across the United States. Towns where, as the jobs get smaller, the economic disparity gets bigger. This is where Deborah Kennedy chooses to set her debut novel, Tornado Weather and it’s the epitome of the tinderbox that is America right now. It’s a greedy dairy farmer who, in an effort to ... Read More...
Something Wicked This Way Comes: Mini-Reviews
In a surprising bit of synchronicity, I read two great novels recently that both referenced Shakespeare—which is why the quote from Macbeth for this post’s title. Also, because there is a lot of wicked in both these novels. In New Boy, Tracy Chevalier adapts the very grown-up themes of Othello to 1970s elementary school. Then M.L. Rio uses Shakespeare’s plays as the ... Read More...
