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The Book of Speculation

July 8, 2015

Debut novelist Erika Swyler does not waste any time before throwing the reader into the deep end of The Book of Speculation. The novel begins with Simon Watson, a librarian with the ability to hold his breath for underwater for almost ten minutes at a time, a skill passed on to him by his mother before she drowned herself when he was seven. Now, he lives alone in the family’s ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: debut, historical fiction, magic, mystery, St. Martin's Press

I Saw a Man: A Novel

June 26, 2015

  Michael knew Caroline’s job was dangerous when he married her. As a foreign correspondent her field of interest was the Middle East and while he was also a writer his inspiration came from stillness and hers from motion. They both told the stories of people But where Michael always retreated to his desk to tell his stories Caroline had simply moved on to the next. For ... Read More...

1 Comment
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary life, Middle East, mystery, Nan A. Talese, war

Books about Books: Mini-Reviews

May 8, 2015

books

Every reader has a soft spot, a genre or author or both that they gravitate towards without their usual scrutiny. Some people will read any book about dogs, others will grab anything written by John Grisham or Stephen King. For me, it’s books about books or books with the word book in the title. My brain disengages from critical thinking and switches to the blind belief that it ... Read More...

9 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: lists, mini-reviews, mystery

Where They Found Her

April 29, 2015

  Kimberly McCreight’s new novel Where They Found Her opens with the discovery of an infant’s body on a college campus. Freelance reporter Molly Sanderson gets the assignment to cover the case for the local paper and McCreight frontloads the drama by sharing that Molly gave birth to a stillborn child a year ago and is only now re-entering the workforce. Thankfully, this ... Read More...

7 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: Harper, mystery

It’s Not You, It’s Me: Mini-Reviews

April 8, 2015

it's

This month's It's Not You, It's Me is especially true because I am not really liking, much loving, anything I've read. In fact I DNFed (did not finish) 3 books in a row, which is a first for me. There are any number of bloggers who have blamed this syndrome on the novel A Little Life, which I did read and which is an incredible piece of writing that still haunts me, but I’m not ... Read More...

14 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: historical fiction, mini-reviews, mystery, short stories

Our Endless Numbered Days

March 18, 2015

endless

There are few things more important to little girls than their fathers and Peggy is no exception. Her German mother is a famous concert pianist but she is often brusque and busy while her father has friends who come over and hang out, smoking and talking about exciting things she doesn’t fully understand. He plays, calls her Rapunzel and has projects that involve her. He is at ... Read More...

13 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, debut, literary, mystery, Tin House

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