We first meet Cadence ‘Cadie’ Kessler as she’s illegally harvesting mountain pine beetles off a tree in the New Hampshire forest. A researcher, she needs proof that the beetles have arrived to their area, threatening the death of trees and the heightened likelihood of rampant forest fires. But within pages, mutilating a tree on public lands is the least of her concerns. The ... Read More...
Winter 2021 Books I’m Ready to Read
New year, new books! As much as I’m ready for things to be different in 2021, there is a change I’m not looking forward to in the book world. A combination of COVID and the economy means publishers have been getting a lot stingier about sending advance copies of books to book bloggers. For the first time in a long time my 2021 winter preview includes books I haven’t received ... Read More...
Five Best Debuts of 2020
Welcome to the last week of the longest year in history. I’m going to avoid any rehashing of what a nightmare it was for so many and stick to the easy stuff: my best books of 2020! Today I have five debut books that really stood out for me. Normally, I’d have more, but there was nothing normal in 2020. Like a lot of other readers, my taste and what worked for me was ... Read More...
This is My America
Being 17 is difficult enough, but being that age, Black, in a small Texas town, and with a father on death row feels like a mountain too high. For most it would be, but for Tracy Beaumont in the YA novel This is My America, acceptance and resignation are not traits she possesses. Her mother might say she’s mostly “sass”, but Tracy doesn’t feel the need to keep her beliefs ... Read More...
The Witches Are Coming by Lindy West
So fine, if you insist. This is a witch hunt. We’re the witches, and we’re hunting you. November and December are my months of backlist reading—the time of year when I abandon ferreting out great new reads from publishers and instead read based on my mood or other people’s recommendations. By-and-large the 2020 iteration has meant nonfiction and fiction about crime ... Read More...
Homeland Elegies: A Novel
These days, I’m attuned to fiction that takes my mind off reality. Not necessarily easy or soothing, but novels that grab me with their drama (Against the Loveless World) or distract me with their lovely prose (Monogamy). It’s with some surprise then that I’m reviewing Homeland Elegies, a complex novel I’m still not sure I fully understand. Ostensibly, it’s about Sikander, a ... Read More...
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