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An Unlasting Home

May 23, 2022

unlasting

When Sara’s mother was 8 months pregnant, she lied to the airlines and flew from Missouri back to Kuwait, determined that her daughter be born in the country of her ancestors. This is just the first of many miles and countries crossed by the indomitable women in Mai Al-Nakib’s sweeping novel, An Unlasting Home. A fitting title for a book populated by women whose lives span ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, debut, family saga, Middle East, women

10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World

May 4, 2022

10 minutes

A Turkish woman lying murdered in a rubbish bin hardly seems like the appropriate subject for a piercingly tender novel about the damage done to innocence in childhood and the bonds of friendship as family, but 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World is a singular work that defies labels. The same is true of the dead woman, Leila, who, at 40 years old, has been a prostitute ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, cultural, literary, women

Lessons in Chemistry

April 20, 2022

lessons in chemistry

It's the 1960s and you’re a brilliant chemist exploring one of the most elusive topics in chemistry—the chemical reaction that led to life. You should be at the forefront of the scientific community. Instead, you’re grappling with your thesis advisor as he tries to rape you and later being called “luscious” by the director of a chemical laboratory where you work. This is ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: debut, historical fiction, humor, women

Beautiful Little Fools

February 9, 2022

beautiful

  A sweltering August day, a stunning estate, and a crystalline pool, its pellucid water tinged red by Jay Gatsby’s blood. Shot once and now dead. We all know this is how The Great Gatsby ends but in Jillian Cantor’s Beautiful Little Fools, it’s just the beginning. Although the police have closed the case, Detective Frank Charles has been hired by an old friend of ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: historical fiction, mystery, retellings, women

Love & Saffron: A Novel

February 7, 2022

saffron

Seattle and Los Angeles, same coast but vastly different places, especially in the 1960s. Imogene Fortier writes a column known to readers in the Pacific Northwest so is surprised to not only get a fan letter, but a gift from a young woman in L.A. It’s a small packet of saffron with a recipe for mussels. This innocuous beginning leads to an impactful friendship in Kim Fay’s ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: 1960s, book clubs, friendship, historical fiction, women

Joan is Okay

February 2, 2022

joan

Joan is happy with her life. She loves her job as an ICU doctor at a NYC hospital. Her boss thinks she’s amazing. She has a nice apartment in a doorman building. Why then do so many of the people around her think she needs fixing? Her older brother believes there’s something wrong with her because she’s not married with children. Her new neighbor thinks she needs friends and ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary life, literary, women

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