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Lucky Girl

February 17, 2026

lucky

What is life like when you have an extraordinary gift? When you’re a child with an ability that goes far beyond your years and you have the determination to see it grow? For Lucy, the ability was dance and her ambition so fierce it takes her to the heights of commercial success in Lucky Girl, an insightful novel about coming-of-age and what happens after dreams come ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, coming-of-age, debut, literary

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny

February 12, 2026

loneliness

I love Indian writers and fiction so was very excited for Kiran Desai’s The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, but this story of two strangers from India who have been trying to make life in America work went all kinds of wrong for me. Sunny’s and Sonia' families still live in India and are known to each other as neighbors in New Delhi, but the two young people have never met. ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary, India, literary, new adult

Crux by Gabriel Tallent

February 4, 2026

crux

Life in a nowhere town in the Mojave Desert should be torture for teens, but Daniel and Tamma are rock-climbing freaks and the area is filled with challenging boulders. Best friends since childhood they spend every waking moment not in school out on the rocks, but as Crux opens it is senior year. Daniel is a gifted student likely to be accepted at the best schools while Tamma ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: coming-of-age, friendship, literary

The Names by Florence Knapp

November 10, 2025

names

It feels odd to say that a book that left me so saddened and troubled was a favorite, but it’s the case with author Florence Knapp’s debut, The Names. This is an alternate realities story about an infant boy whose mother, Cora, in three scenarios, chooses a different name for him. The story follows the boy, his mother, and his older sister through the three lives they would ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: debut, literary

Katabasis by R.F. Kuang

October 27, 2025

katabasis

I’ve read and enjoyed both of R.F. Kuang’s adult novels (Babel, Yellowface) so was looking forward to her latest, Katabasis. A Greek word meaning “going down or descending” this chunky novel is about Alice Law, an American student getting her graduate degree in Magick from Cambridge. The title refers to Alice’s descent into Hell to retrieve the soul of her academic advisor, the ... Read More...

3 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: England, fantasy, literary

The Correspondent

September 16, 2025

correspondent

When Sybil Van Antwerp came of age there was no such thing as digital. Given that, she sees no reason to abandon her lifelong habit of communicating via letter. She’ll even use email when it is the only option, but that is as much as she’ll concede. This means Virginia Evans’ debut The Correspondent is an epistolary novel comprised only of Sybil‘s communications with the ... Read More...

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

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