Tag Archive for: novels

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How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue

How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue

how-beautiful-we-were-imbolo-mbue-book-review-jeanne-blasbergThis 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 skeptical because of the ratio of expository writing to scene, but Mbue unfolds this story over time using her various voices and points of view. The novel begins in the pov of the children – a sacred and vulnerable body that grow older and more hardened as the novel comes to a close. This novel is a reminder that the negative impacts of capitalism and a colonialist mindset are not limited to the land and people in the target country, but to the Western power, in this case the United States.

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About How Beautiful We Were:

Read more of Jeannie’s Reviews on her blog, on Goodreads or StoryGraph, or on the New York Journal of Books. For more TBR inspiration, check out Jeannie’s curated book lists at Bookshop.org

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Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver

Vegetable-Miracle-barbara-kingsolver-book-review-jeanne-blasbergFor 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 food for a year, there is honesty instead of preachiness and a sense of humor about those types of things we all dive into without understanding how much hard work things might be. But with intentionality and hard work they commune with their farm and their community which is truly aspirational. I’ll be giving this book as a gift to many people!

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About Animal, Vegetable, Miracle:

Read more of Jeannie’s Reviews on her blog, on Goodreads or StoryGraph, or on the New York Journal of Books. For more TBR inspiration, check out Jeannie’s curated book lists at Bookshop.org

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Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton

Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton

birnham-wood-eleanor-catton-book-review-jeanne-blasbergAlthough 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 Lord Darvish, are painted with extreme humanity as well as the complexity that comes with a thirty year marriage. In addition, the author takes part in a good deal of social commentary, however not in a heavy handed way but through dialogue among the members of “Birnam Wood” a guerilla gardening organization that squats on unused land to grow food. There is a ton of action in this literary thriller, but for those who love to go deeper into motive and character, you will not be disappointed.

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About Birnam Wood:

Read more of Jeannie’s Reviews on her blog, on Goodreads or StoryGraph, or on the New York Journal of Books. For more TBR inspiration, check out Jeannie’s curated book lists at Bookshop.org

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The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan

The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan

School-for-good-mothers-jessamine-chan-book-review-jeanne-blasbergI 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. I love a novel that wants to make social commentary, but this attempt is very heavy-handed and forced.

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About The School for Good Mothers:

Read more of Jeannie’s Reviews on her blog, on Goodreads or StoryGraph, or on the New York Journal of Books. For more TBR inspiration, check out Jeannie’s curated book lists at Bookshop.org

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Provenance by Sue Mell

Provenance by Sue Mell

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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 to do the right thing for the kid involved…. the story is filled with relatable characters and situations. And despite the messiness and the mistakes these characters make, this novel is full of hope and love. I will be recommending it widely!!

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About Provenance:

Read more of Jeannie’s Reviews on her blog, on Goodreads or StoryGraph, or on the New York Journal of Books. For more TBR inspiration, check out Jeannie’s curated book lists at Bookshop.org

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Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro

Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro

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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, apt for a work with such constant imagery of stars and the night sky. It holds a magical sense of time in that one incident’s ripple effect exacerbates the notion that past, present and future are cosmically intertwined. The two neighboring families at the center of the story keep a modern day distance, yet are connected in myriad ways. The novel is a reminder of the ways in which everyone and everything are connected. I loved Shapiro’s ability to mix action and scene with takeaways or meaning-making, something true and beautiful I surmise comes from her deep life as a memoirist.

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About Signal Fires:

 

Read more of Jeannie’s Reviews on her blog, on Goodreads or StoryGraph, or on the New York Journal of Books. For more TBR inspiration, check out Jeannie’s curated book lists at Bookshop.org

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Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

 Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

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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 has created that should stand among the greats in American literature. The tragic Huck Finn of our age, bouncing between foster care and guardianships, in an Appalachia that is hooked on Oxy, he is seeking love, a mother, a family, even the dream he all but gives up on, of seeing the ocean.

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About Demon Copperhead:

Read more of Jeannie’s Reviews on her blog, on Goodreads or StoryGraph, or on the New York Journal of Books. For more TBR inspiration, check out Jeannie’s curated book lists at Bookshop.org

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The Nine Lives of Rose Napolitano by Donna Freitas

The Nine Lives of Rose Napolitano by Donna Freitas

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Having heard this book compared to Atkinson’s Life after Life, I was very excited to read it. Whereas Life after Life accomplishes elegant, almost dream-like revisions of a life’s outcome, The Nine Lives of Rose Napolitano is more of a Groundhog Day beating over the head. That isn’t to say that I didn’t appreciate the premise and the motive for writing the book, it is an important exploration of feminist topics, but there were moments when I wasn’t really enjoying to do-over as much as I would have liked. I would not describe it as a pleasurable read, more like observing an author’s mental exercise on a topic she has obviously obsessed over.

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About The Nine Lives of Rose Napolitano:

Read more of Jeannie’s Reviews on her blog, on Goodreads or StoryGraph, or on the New York Journal of Books. For more TBR inspiration, check out Jeannie’s curated book lists at Bookshop.org

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Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

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I was excited to read this after all the hype. It is a funny rendering, but at times too long and schmaltzy. This is the type of book that will make a great rom com movie. I had issues with the structure, the way it started and then the very long flashback required to get you back to the starting point for no real payoff. But it has certainly resonated with a lot of readers, I was just sorry that for the great time commitment of reading this book, I was not one of them.

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About Lessons in Chemistry:

Read more of Jeannie’s Reviews on her blog, on Goodreads or StoryGraph, or on the New York Journal of Books. For more TBR inspiration, check out Jeannie’s curated book lists at Bookshop.org

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If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery

If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery

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This book’s power is made even more sharp by its economy, it’s exactitude. The interconnected stories, or loosely connected chapters, however you choose to name them, are so rich in nuance that Escoffery blazes fearlesslessly along with an inventive narrative structure that doesn’t forego character development or emotion in the least. In fact, he amplifies those elements with concise and spot-on language. Trelawny is the main character and the book opens in his voice speaking in the second person. Although Trelawny’s mother is a pivotal character, the novel primarily focuses on him, his brother and father, each allowed their own points of view. I was expecting the book to be about an immigrant family’s struggle, but the images of poverty, one boy’s fraught emergence into manhood, and his desperation to feel at home was what also shone through. Miami comes alive in an era post hurricane Andrew and later during a recession that leaves the characters no choice but to hustle, dream, and take risks. I loved this book, the voices I was introduced to, and the experiences that felt so new to me yet terribly true. Thank you to the author for taking so much time to bring this beautiful work into the world.

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About If I Survive You:

Read more of Jeannie’s Reviews on her blog, on Goodreads or StoryGraph, or on the New York Journal of Books. For more TBR inspiration, check out Jeannie’s curated book lists at Bookshop.org