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

Mothers’ Week: Mother Country

May 10, 2019

mother

Nadia’s life is not an easy one. She works not one, but two jobs—as a home attendant for an elderly man and as a nanny for a little girl. It’s necessary because she lives in Brooklyn while her daughter Larissa is still back in Ukraine. They’ve been separated for six years. Lonely years for Nadia as a non-English speaker, looked upon with distrust by the other Ukrainians she ... Read More...

Leave a Comment
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary life, cultural, politics, Russia, social issues, Thomas Dunne Books, women

Mothers’ Week: A Woman is No Man

May 8, 2019

woman

It’s easy to become outraged about the treatment of women in the Muslim world when it takes place far away, as in the memoir Daring to Drive or fiction like Song of a Captive Bird or The Pearl that Broke its Shell. It’s ingrained through centuries of custom and dogma, but debut author Etaf Rum shreds any sense of complacency about American values superseding cultural ones in ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: debut, Harper, New York City, religion, social issues, women

Mothers’ Week: The Island of Sea Women

May 6, 2019

island

This coming Sunday is Mother’s Day so this week my reviews are focused on three books with very different perspectives on motherhood. Each offered something important in its own way and reminded me how, like so much of what women do, it is impossible to fit the role of mother into one finite slot.   Off the coast of Korea’s mainland is an island called Jeju. There was ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, cultural, historical fiction, Scribner, Southeast Asia, war, women

Park Avenue Summer by Renee Rosen

May 1, 2019

park avenue

When I was a pre-teen and even into my early teen years I would go to the local library and, using ‘safe’ magazines like National Geographic as covers, slip issues of the completely unsafe and utterly wicked Cosmopolitan to a quiet spot where I could learn: 3 easy ways to make a man fall for me, why eyeliner is the difference between having a date Saturday night and staying ... Read More...

10 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: 1960s, Berkley, book clubs, historical fiction, New York City, pop culture, women

Feminasty by Erin Gibson

April 26, 2019

feminasty

It’s difficult to imagine a book that could make me laugh out loud and feel enraged at the same time, but Erin Gibson’s Feminasty did just that. It might help to know that the subtitle of the book is: The Complicated Woman’s Guide to Surviving the Patriarchy Without Drinking Herself to Death. Which is all I need to see to know that this is likely to be a book I’ll love. And it ... Read More...

4 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Non-fiction Tagged: contemporary life, essays, Grand Central Publishing, politics, social issues, women

Women Talking: A Novel by Miriam Toews

April 1, 2019

women talking

In the Mennonite community of Molotschna eight women gather in a barn to talk. Their meeting is a secret, made possible only because the men have gone into the city to bail out eight men who have been accused of a heinous crime: that of drugging and raping over 100 of the community’s women and girls repeatedly over a two-year span.  It will take two days for the men to return ... Read More...

9 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: Bloomsbury, book clubs, cultural, literary, religion, social issues, women

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 14
  • 15
  • 16
  • 17
  • 18
  • …
  • 28
  • 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