In the past I’ve done a feature called It’s Not You It’s Me to indicate books I didn’t enjoy but that I believe other readers might like. Today is a bit different because in those cases I finished the books. With these three books I stalled out, set the book down and never came back to it. This is likely due to my personal circumstances—namely moving across country with a lot ... Read More...
After the End by Clare Mackintosh
There are many unimaginable things in life, but one of the worst is being the parent of a dying child. Max and Pip are a couple in love who adore their son Dylan. He’s a happy child, but developmentally a bit slow—he doesn’t talk much and falls down more than most children. Shortly before his third birthday they learn he has a brain tumor. A tumor that’s been causing the damage ... Read More...
We Went to the Woods
Fresh out of college, Mackenzie signs up to be on a millennial-only competition reality TV show. It goes very wrong, she makes a big mistake, and is duly excoriated everywhere. When she meets a tight-knit group of four friends who are as disillusioned with the world as she is, they begin fantasizing what it would be like to leave society behind and create simpler lives for ... Read More...
Cygnet by Season Butler
The narrator of Season Butler’s debut novel, Cygnet, is known as the Kid. She’s 17 and her parents have dropped her off at her grandmother’s house on an island off the coast of New Hampshire to live while they try and get their lives together. It’s supposed to be for a few weeks, a month at most, but three months later, the Kid’s grandmother has died and she’s never heard from ... Read More...
The Body Lies by Jo Baker
A young, pregnant woman walking home is beaten on a busy street. Only by biting the man’s hand does she escape before he rapes her. This random act of violence is pivotal in her life and, despite a happy marriage and a healthy baby, three years later she still finds herself haunted by the event. A writer, she finds she can’t write, so she takes a job teaching writing at a small ... Read More...
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous
On Wednesday I reviewed a book that I liked, but thought others might find too odd. I have the same hesitation today, but for a different reason. Ocean Vuong’s debut novel, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is itself a thing of beauty. His writing is poetical prose. Not surprising, because he is a poet. The novel is ruminations on his life in the form of a letter written to a ... Read More...
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