Entries by jbadmin

The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson

The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson This is a work of science fiction that reads like it could be true. It is very long book that offers many thread lines and points of view as well as the ministry for the future’s ideas with regard to advocating for beings that can’t speak […]

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

Tom Lake By Ann Patchett I listened to this on audio, such a delight as Meryl Streep was the narrator. Her performative and soothing voice combined with Ann Patchett’s writing resulted in a most pleasurable experience. The story was well done too. Well suited for me as a mother who had three grown children at […]

The Twenty: by Marianne C. Bohr

The Twenty: One Woman’s Trek Across Corsica on the GR20 Trail by Marianne C. Bohr A great read which will inspire you to get out of the chair. Bohr does an excellent job of honestly telling recounting the ups and downs of completing one of the world’s iconic hikes with her husband Joe, both in […]

Trust by Hernan Diaz

Trust by Hernan Diaz After learning this work shared the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction with Demon Copperhead, I had to read. I listened to the Audio which was narrated by four different voices, amplifying this novel’s theme of perception. Indeed a story changes so much based on who is telling it and Diaz makes this […]

The Invisible Hour by Jamel Brinkly

The Invisible Hour by Alice Hoffman This review originally appeared in the New York Review of Books. With a truly imaginative structure, Alice Hoffman delves into what has become her trademark theme of magic. The Invisible Hour asks a grand “What if?” Not so much the question posed on the book’s jacket: What if Mia Jacob never […]

How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue

How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue This is a heartbreaking novel, portraying the destruction of a town and a way of life when an American oil company arrives to drill in an African country. This is a sweeping story that crosses oceans and lifetimes told from multiple points of you. At first I was […]

Witness by Jamel Brinkly

Witness: Stories by Jamel Brinkly This review originally appeared in the New York Review of Books. A collection of ten short stories set in Brooklyn, NY, Witness: Stories is populated by characters navigating relationships with friends and family, both living and not. The title is that of the final story in the collection, emphasizing the act of […]

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver For a person embarking on her own journey into farming, I was both inspired and shocked it took me so long to happen upon this book. There is so much about it to love. In the Kingsolver family’s pact to eat local and seasonal […]

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson This novel’s exploration of Ursula Todd’s multiple lives might, at first, leave the reader wondering but for me it was like diving into a wonderful puzzle in which I was invited to figure out the patterns and rhythms for myself, to try to understand what the author was getting […]

Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton

Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton Although this novel turns into a fast-paced thriller mid-stream, what I was drawn to was the depth with which the characters are written. Catton was especially deft at portraying a complicated female friendship between women with similar life philosophies yet extremely different personalities. In addition, the presumed villains, Lady and […]