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Diva: A Novel

February 22, 2024

diva

I’ve loved celebrity and pop culture since I was a teen when I would beg my mother to buy me trashy magazines in the grocery store with the promise that I would pay her back (I’m still in arrears on that debt). So even though it played out back in the 1960s I was well aware of the scandal surrounding the relationship between American royalty Jackie Kennedy and Greek tycoon, ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: Greece, historical, vacation reading, women

The Reformatory by Tananarive Due

February 20, 2024

reformatory

Siblings Gloria and Robert live on their own in a small Florida town after their father was run out of town for trying to get the local mill workers to unionize. Their position is precarious because it’s the 1950s and Jim Crow, the KKK, and racism are still strong in Florida. So, when 12-year-old Robert kicks a white teenage football player in the leg for making advances on ... Read More...

4 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, historical, horror, racism, Southern life

Leaving Atlanta by Tayari Jones

February 9, 2024

leaving atlanta

In 1979 a serial killer in Atlanta began targeting Black children. This disturbing truth is the premise for Leaving Atlanta by Tayari Jones. A painfully powerful novel it chronicles the lives of three 10-year-olds living in the neighborhoods where children were vanishing. For each, the disappearances and murders will have an impact on their lives, but in very different ways. I ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, childhood, debut, historical, literary

Mercury by Amy Jo Burns

February 7, 2024

mercury

Marley’s had a nomadic life with her mother so when they pull into the small town of Mercury, Pennsylvania she’s hoping this is a place where they’ll stay awhile. In her first afternoon of exploring the town, she finds herself at a high school baseball game. As the game’s end two teens start fighting, ending up rolling on the ground. This is Marley’s introduction to the Joseph ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, family, historical, literary

January Reading Wrap-Up

February 1, 2024

january

Anyone else have a tough reading month in January? Who knows whether it was because I had so much amazing backlist reading over the holidays or the fact that none of the new January books panned out for me. Either way, I’m not sorry to say goodbye to this first month of 2024. Let’s go February!   Tricia joins her husband in Saigon as the Vietnam War begins and has to ... Read More...

6 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Feature Tagged: historical, Ireland, literary, mini-reviews

In Memoriam: A Novel

January 23, 2024

memoriam

I haven’t read a war book in quite a while as I burned out on WWII after reading so many outstanding novels on the subject. But a friend recommended In Memoriam and while I was resistant at first my 2024 reading has been tepid at best so I decided to give it a chance. And just like that, my heart was unexpectedly torn by this work of horror and tenderness, set amidst WWI, a ... Read More...

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

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