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: 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: 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 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 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 […]
The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan I was drawn to the dystopian premise of this novel, that mothers who aren’t “good” must be reformed by the state, as well as the voice in the early chapters. However, all the pages describing Frida’s time in “the school” are slow, redundant, and laborious to read. […]
Provenance by Sue Mell Sue Mell’s PROVENANCE is a jewel of a novel. To be able to transform the domestic, themes involving little action, into a page turner is a true skill. The subtleties and nuance captured in this work are masterful. Two grown siblings, both under financial pressure, one grieving, one getting divorced, trying […]
The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li This is a book about the deep psychological and emotional bond between two young girls, best friends in war ravaged 1950’s St Remy. Fabienne and Agnes, making the world real with make believe games, have a devastating yet true relationship. Fabienne is a realist beyond her years while […]
Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro Listening to the audio narrated by the author was an extra pleasure. Shapiro knows something about family secrets and SIGNAL FIRES, her first novel in over a decade provided a wonderful opportunity in which to disseminate her gathered wisdom on this topic. The novel is not told in chronological order, […]
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver Kingsolver transports the reader into one young man’s heartbreaking life in a manner that feels no less than brilliant. I couldn’t stop asking myself how she accessed that voice, that vernacular, those sensibilities. Although this book is so relevant to issues in our world, it is this character that Kingsolver […]
