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Where There Was Fire

August 28, 2023

where there was fire

The verdant, extravagant beauty of Costa Rica hosts the three-generation family saga found in Where There Was Fire by John Manuel Arias. The Valaverdes are a united family in 1968 until the night a fight leaves their lives in ashes. Now, the remaining family members, Teresa and her daughter Lyra, reluctantly reunite almost 30 years later, both looking for answers before it’s ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, historical fiction, literary

Kala: A Novel

August 14, 2023

kala

Even when it’s a tourist destination on the Irish coast a small town is still just a small town to the teens who live there—a boring place to escape as soon as possible. For the six disparate, but tightknit friends in Colin Walsh’s novel, Kala, teen boredom and energy lead to a prank that goes wrong, starting a domino effect that leaves one of their group missing and their ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: coming-of-age, Ireland, literary, mystery

The Librarianist: A Novel

August 10, 2023

librarianist

Bob Comet has lived a quiet life, immersed in his one great love: books. A voracious reader he became a librarian, sharing that love with the patrons he helped. Now, in his early 70s, retired, but still living in the house he grew up in in Portland, Oregon he wants to share the joy of books again in Patrick deWitt’s quirky new novel, The Librarianist. It's the inadvertent ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary life, literary, senior life

July Reading Wrap-Up

August 1, 2023

July

Goodbye, July. It was a busy month of travel, family reunion, and not-so-fun adulting, but overall there was some great reading to be had amongst the gorgeous weather here in Seattle. I’m sorry for you lovelies who struggled with sweltering. One week in Colorado in the 90s was enough to make me overjoyed to return to days in the 70s and nights in the 50s. My favorite kind of ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Feature Tagged: essays, literary, magical realism, mini-reviews, mystery

Juno Loves Legs

July 26, 2023

juno

With a personality as incendiary and out of control as her flaming red hair, Juno bursts onto the pages of Juno Loves Legs like a wildfire. She and Legs, her best friend, live in a housing estate in Dublin and in an abbreviated 300 pages the novel follows them from childhoods where even home isn’t safe to an adulthood that comes far too fast and too hard. And yet, through it ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: 1980s, Ireland, literary

The Rachel Incident

July 21, 2023

rachel

Rachel is working in London as a journalist when an unfamiliar man throws out a name from her past that catapults her back to her university days. From this modern-day beginning author Caroline O’Donoghue jumps back to 2008 when the Irish economy was in freefall, Rachel was in her third year of university, and she meets a man who changes her life. With all the attendant angst ... Read More...

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

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