Asymmetry is a novel split into three separate and seemingly unrelated parts. I know, sounds like short stories, but there is supposed to be a thread connecting the three. The question is whether I was able to find it or not. The first section is Folly, wherein 27-year-old Alice meets Pulitzer Prize winning author, Ezra Blazer, in Central Park. They talk and after ... Read More...
The Rules of Magic
Whatever is meant to be is bound to happen, whether or not you approve. Frances, Bridget (Jet) and Vincent are born and raised with no sense of family. Their parents, actively discourage any discussion of grandparents or other relatives. Even worse, their mother, Susanna, gives them odd rules for living, including: no walking in moonlight, no red shoes, no cats, no candles, ... Read More...
It’s Not You, It’s Me: Motherest
Today is part two of novels that did not work for me, but could be perfect for you. Motherest, by Kristen Iskandrian, ticks off a lot of the boxes in what I look for in my reading. Namely, a disaffected teenager brimming with angst, a dysfunctional family, and the ever-popular minefield of school—in this case, college. Agnes is headed off to her freshman year when the ... Read More...
It’s Not You, It’s Me: Mrs. Fletcher
Eve Fletcher is an attractive divorcée in her mid-forties. Her husband left her for a woman he met on Craigslist and her only child, Brendan is heading off to college on the morning. Eve has a good job, but feels like it is all that’s left to her with her husband and her son gone and while she’s ferociously lonely she’s gotten no further in navigating the single world than ... Read More...
The Answers: A Novel by Catherine Lacey
Catherine Lacey’s new novel, The Answers appealed to me because of its premise: intimacy in the modern world of technology. At the novel’s center is Mary, a young woman, who used to be known as Junia, born in the Tennessee mountains to a father who believed the only way to truly worship God was to be removed from all that is manmade. This should be FULL. STOP. all Lacey ... Read More...
White Fur by Jardine Libaire
Two weeks ago I wrote about The Heirs, a novel that surprised me by going well beyond its blurb to become a 5-star read. I had a similar surprise with White Fur by Jardine Libaire except it’s not the blurb that is surpassed, it’s the beginning of the novel itself—which is a much greater feat. Elise is twenty-years-old and has seen way more of the worst of the world than ... Read More...
