Entries by jbadmin

Day by Michael Cunningham

Day by Michael Cunningham This novel is wonderful for its in-depth character portrayals. Cunningham takes very authentic and simple domestic situations and makes them the subject of this beautifully paced work. A generation of young parents and their inquisitive children, the devotion of a brother and sister, an infatuation between brothers-in-law, all the struggles of […]

Where were you four years ago? COVID in the rearview (and the writing)

Four years ago this month, our nation shut down with the onset of the COVID pandemic. Thinking back on those days still elicits painful memories of confusion, disruption, and terrible loss. We each have unique stories of how COVID impacted our lives. The first half of 2020 irreversibly changed my outlook. I became fixated on […]

Writing Daughter of a Promise, a Biblical Retelling

This essay was originally published on Women Writers, Women’s Books. Some people assume writing a third novel must be easier than writing the first, which is true to some degree only because one knows what to expect: that they are in for a long, winding, doubt-ridden journey. When I began drafting Daughter of a Promise […]

Slowing it Down: Talking Snow, Story, and Swirling Change

Greetings from Park City where the world outside my window swirls with snow and the world inside my head swirls with story—from all that I saw at The Sundance Film Festival, as well as daily reading and writing. This includes re-reading Great Expectations by Charles Dickens and Middlemarch by George Elliot with FrizzLit. I highly recommend his book clubs! […]

Little Monsters by Adrienne Brodeur

Little Monsters by Adrienne Brodeur In Little Monsters, as in her memoir Wild Game, I loved Brodeur’s writing, especially the descriptions of Cape Cod. The portrayal of setting was my favorite thing about this book. My second favorite book was Adam’s character. He is bipolar and for most of the novel in a manic state. […]

New Year, New Writing Updates!

Happy New Year! If you’re a long-time reader or you’ve subscribed to my newsletter in the past, you may have noticed I’ve migrated my essays and letters to Substack. Introducing… I hope to share writing monthly, and I hope you’ll come along with me on the journey. If you haven’t yet, please subscribe to my newsletter […]

The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell

The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell If you loved Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell, this one is a bit of a let down. — dead sister’s intended husband. He is a cruel duke and she senses she is in danger in the palace. Little is known about the real Lucrezia except that her suspicious death was […]

The Stark Beauty of Last Things by Celine Keating

The Stark Beauty of Last Things by Celine Keating The Stark Beauty of Last Things is a poetic novel that emphasizes the fragility of the worlds we occupy- relationships, lives, places – are all fleeting. The problem is that humans often fail to understand this until it is too late. Told from multiple points of […]

Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson

Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson A well done biography that allowed the reader into the room. An intimate portrayal of the whole man, trying to get at the root of what makes him tick, displaying his wounds and obsessions. It was made even more fascinating as the subject matter seems to reach all the way […]

Wellness by Nathan Hill

Wellness by Nathan Hill I loved The Nix and when I heard Nathan Hill had a new novel coming out, I preordered. I toggled between reading and listening to the audiobook because it is narrated by Ari Fliakos who is my all time favorite reader. His tone captures the wry wit of Hill’s characters so […]