New England Archives - The Gilmore Guide to Books

The Frozen River

Catherine — Tue, 29 Jul 2025 07:06:44 +0000

Martha Ballard is a well-regarded wife, mother, and midwife in late 1700s Maine. When The Frozen River begins it’s the depths of winter and she’s been called to determine a cause of death for a man found frozen in the river. She declares it to be murder, but this is just the beginning of a […]

The post The Frozen River appeared first on The Gilmore Guide to Books.

Swift River: A Novel

Catherine — Thu, 19 Sep 2024 07:48:33 +0000

Swift River is both the title of Essie Chambers’ debut and the town where the novel is set. It’s about Diamond Newberry, a 16-year-old girl who stands out, but not for her flashy name or sparkling personality. She’s morbidly obese and ever since her father disappeared 7 years ago she’s the only Black person in […]

The post Swift River: A Novel appeared first on The Gilmore Guide to Books.

The Things We Didn’t Know

Catherine — Wed, 13 Mar 2024 07:23:56 +0000

When Andrea is 9-years-old she finds herself and her little brother Pablo uprooted from their home in Woronoco, Massachusetts and left in a small Puerto Rican village with an aunt they’ve never met. All because their mother hates living in their small 1950s factory town in America and is lonely. This unsettling turn of events […]

The post The Things We Didn’t Know appeared first on The Gilmore Guide to Books.

Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane

Catherine — Fri, 18 Aug 2023 07:30:52 +0000

He has no idea where it all comes from—the loyalty and the rage, the brotherhood and the suspicion, the benevolence and the hate. If you’re looking for refined forays into the more delicate human emotions in your reading than Dennis Lehane is probably not an author you read often or at all. He’s a bareknuckle […]

The post Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane appeared first on The Gilmore Guide to Books.

The Book of Magic by Alice Hoffman

Catherine — Thu, 14 Oct 2021 04:26:27 +0000

What you put out into the world came back to you threefold. In The Rules of Magic Jet Owens and her siblings Franny and Vincent were dealing with their family’s curse about falling in love. Decisions were made and prices were paid. Now decades later both Jet and Franny live in the family’s house on Magnolia […]

The post The Book of Magic by Alice Hoffman appeared first on The Gilmore Guide to Books.

August Reading Wrap-Up

Catherine — Wed, 01 Sep 2021 04:15:59 +0000

August, what a month for reading. Even better—not just quantity, but quality. All this despite the fact that I cancelled my second cataract surgery because I found the results from the first so unsatisfactory. I’m making do with the new fuzzy implanted lens and a contact lens in my other eye. Not where I thought […]

The post August Reading Wrap-Up appeared first on The Gilmore Guide to Books.

The Northern Reach: A Novel

Catherine — Mon, 08 Mar 2021 05:07:23 +0000

Another Monday and I’m back with a second 5-star fabulous book. W. S. Winslow’s debut novel, The Northern Reach, is a compact novel, set on the northern coast of Maine in the kind of small towns that depend on summer vacationers and fishing for their survival. What begins with one mother mired in grief over […]

The post The Northern Reach: A Novel appeared first on The Gilmore Guide to Books.

We Wish You Luck

Catherine — Mon, 27 Jan 2020 05:49:27 +0000

When Hannah, Leslie, and Jimmy arrive at Fielding for the school’s MFA (Masters of Fine Arts) program they don’t know each other. Their backgrounds are wildly different as are the backgrounds of the 14 other people in their class. But in less than two weeks they’ll be bonded together in ways none of them could […]

The post We Wish You Luck appeared first on The Gilmore Guide to Books.

Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout

Catherine — Thu, 24 Oct 2019 07:10:10 +0000

On Monday I reviewed Olive Kitteridge in preparation for today’s review of Elizabeth Strout’s sequel, Olive, Again. I’ll start by saying these books stand alone. Olive is Olive is Olive. She’s a decade older, her relationship with her son is still virtually non-existent, but there’s a new man in her life. There’s also the tiniest […]

The post Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout appeared first on The Gilmore Guide to Books.

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

Catherine — Mon, 21 Oct 2019 07:28:14 +0000

Olive Kitteridge is a woman in her 60s, living in a small town in Maine, who has something to say about everyone and most of it is not good. She is also the character at the center of Elizabeth Strout’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel of the same name. Strout is coming out with a sequel, […]

The post Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout appeared first on The Gilmore Guide to Books.