The Gilmore Guide to Books

Connecting Books and Readers One Review at a Time

  • Home
  • About Me
  • Reviews
    • Reviews by Author
    • Reviews by Title
    • Reviews by Genre
  • Podcast
  • Policies
    • Review Policy
    • Cookie Policy
    • Privacy Policy

Dark Fiction: Waiting for Eden

December 3, 2018

waiting

  Much of Elliot Ackerman’s Waiting for Eden takes place in a hospital room. A room where Eden Malcolm has been in a coma for three years. He was a young man so full of life that He treated the whole world, too, like it was a series of cliffs that existed for no other reason than for him to jump off. But now his body below his torso is gone, lost to an IED in Iraq, ... Read More...

13 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, contemporary life, Iraq, Knopf, literary, marriage, war

When God Was a Rabbit

November 26, 2018

god

One of the best gifts of reading is not only discovering a new writer you love, but learning that they have written previous books, opening up the possibility of more wonderful reading. This was the case with Sarah Winman. I read her novel, Tin Man, and it was exactly the kind of simple but poetic prose that draws me in. So, when I saw it was her second novel I knew I wanted to ... Read More...

10 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: Bloomsbury, childhood, debut, England, family, literary

The Pale King by David Foster Wallace

November 23, 2018

pale

  I didn’t finish The Pale King. I tried. I really tried, but it is like a 400-level college English class—for majors only. And it's almost 600 pages. The fact that it’s ostensibly about the IRS doesn’t help because if nothing else David Foster Wallace was a stickler for accuracy and cites copious amounts of tax code at a level that seems designed to make your eyes bleed. ... Read More...

8 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary life, literary, Little Brown and Company

In the House in the Dark of the Woods

November 14, 2018

house

Halloween may be over but the advancing winter weather still makes a perfect backdrop for creepy reading. Last week I wrote about Killing Commendatore, a Japanese novel that was oddly unsettling, but today I have another book that has truly left me flummoxed. It’s Laird Hunt’s In the House in the Dark of the Woods and the title is almost longer than the book. It’s the story of ... Read More...

4 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: horror, literary, Little Brown and Company, mystery, New England

Killing Commendatore by Haruki Murakami

November 7, 2018

killing

Where to begin about Killing Commendatore? This chunkster of a book is about a portrait artist who breaks with his current life after his wife leaves him. He moves into a remote home that allows him a quiet life away from his work. Until, he discovers a hidden painting in the attic and a man offers him an astronomical sum to paint his portrait. He agrees and a tenuous ... Read More...

9 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: art, contemporary life, Knopf, literary, Southeast Asia

Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver

October 22, 2018

unsheltered

  Willa and her husband Iano are stuck in a situation that strikes fear in the heart of anyone in midlife—she’s newly unemployed and the college where he had tenure closed and he’s been forced to take an entry-level at a small school in Philadelphia. His father is a morbidly obese, deaf, virulent racist who lives with them because his wife died. Their 26-year-old ... Read More...

6 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary life, family, Harper, historical fiction, literary, social issues

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 42
  • 43
  • 44
  • 45
  • 46
  • …
  • 74
  • Next Page »
  • Bluesky
  • Email
  • Goodreads
  • Instagram
  • Substack

Save time and subscribe via email

No time to keep checking for new reviews? Enter your email address to subscribe and receive notifications of new posts by email. No spam!

Bookshop

Currently Reading

Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle
Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle
by Emily Nagoski
The Dutch House
The Dutch House
by Ann Patchett
Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me
Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me
by Adrienne Brodeur

goodreads.com

Affiliate Disclosure

I’m an affiliate for Bookshop. If you click on a link that takes you to their site and make a purchase I’ll earn a small fee, which goes towards the costs of maintaining this site. Your support is appreciated. Thank you!

Archives

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.

Theme Design By Studio Mommy · Copyright © 2026

Copyright © 2026 · Beyond Madison Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in