Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam Maybe not the best audiobook choice for the day after a coup-attempt and the height of a global pandemic, but Leave the World Behind’s end-of-the-world omniscient narrator thoughtfully contemplates what matters, who we are, and, even as we are ignorant to the end of the world approaching, how […]
The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larson The seventeen hour Splendid and the Vile audio book was the perfect companion on a cross country drive. Churchill’s bravery, determination, and leadership rang through as did the efforts of his wife, Clementine, to not only support […]
Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic by Sam Quinones I picked up Dreamland at the suggestion of a person I admire. It details the convergence of our national Opioid crisis and heroine addiction, fueled by criminal drug marketing techniques, an anti-pain revolution, Mexican drug dealers, Medicaid, and more. The web of factors was very […]
Welcome 2021! I know the trouble isn’t over and life will never be the same, but I am so glad to turn the page on the calendar. I greet the New Year, not with bubbly champagne at midnight, dressed in heels or a fancy dress, music playing in the background, but on this bright morning […]
Leaving Coy’s Hill by Katherine A. Sherbrooke With incredible elegance and insight, Leaving Coy’s Hill strikes a perfect balance between historical setting and a rendering of the inner woman. I delighted in Lucy’s character, her quirks, ambition, loves, as well as her friendships and connectedness to important figures of the time. While the novel illuminates the timeless […]
Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth Okay, so a haunted girls boarding school set in Little Compton, Rhode Island… Plain Bad Heroines had me at hello. Emily Danforth has such a punchy and quick-witted use of language that there were always several layers of entertainment going on for me, and I was taken by her […]
This review was originally published by the New York Journal of Books. White Ivy by Susie Yang White Ivy is a suspenseful novel with a protagonist who is intentionally portrayed as an anti-heroine. It begins “Ivy Lin was a thief but you would never know it to look at her.” In classic anti-heroism style, Ivy has […]
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson To write a memoir in prose, to distill each experience into just the right words, to leave enough white space on the page for a reader to jump in and participate with the language, that is the work of a master. Reader, you already know you are in masterful […]
This essay was originally published on Medium.com. For many women of my generation, kitchens are command central, the headquarters from which the multi-tasking happens. And as much as we love the warmth and nurturing sentiment the kitchen represents, let’s be honest: the work required to maintain the hearth can start to feel like a chore. […]
Anxious People by Fredrik Backman With an equal measure of humor and philosophy, Backman’s latest work examines the intricacies of family and home and the anxiety we feel over getting it right. The novel’s structure engaged me from the very beginning with its omniscient voice moving two steps forward and then one step backward, telling […]
