Like a kaleidoscope that is infinitely unfolding, this WW II tale of danger, daring and despair, brings into focus love and sacrifice in a cruel time. The plot revolves around several engaging characters, each one trying to do what is right in the face of great evil. Emotionally fraught, engaging and exciting, this is one […]
I wonder if Jane herself would have chuckled at this modern adaptation of “Sense and Sensibility.” I know I did. The sparkling wit and sharp social commentary are intact and the feature characters are all nicely represented but done so with very clever variations. The two sisters, Annie and Miranda, are middle-aged. Mom–Betty–is in her […]
There are four Vagabonds at the heart of this captivating tale–an odyssey of discovery, love and finding a home. Odie and his big brother Albert, Mose, a Sioux Indian boy who is mute, and Emmy, a loveable and wise 6-year old, all unfortunate orphans on the lam from a horrific institution–the Lincoln Indian Training School–run […]
This story of three generations of an Omani family was the first Arabic book to win the International Man Booker. The women in the novel are trapped whether they are mistresses of households, enslaved, married, single. Their lives are circumscribed but so are the men’s. Tradition and superstition rule even as times change and the […]
I first picked up this debut translated novel because it had been nominated for the 2017 Man Booker prize and was reviewed on one of Booklist’s podcasts. I was expecting a stunning and gripping short novel, but what I received instead was a two hour Fever Dream of my own. Reality is obliterated more than […]
“That I could look at an incredibly lovely woman and picture her mounted like a dead animal made me wonder what was wrong with my brain.” So thinks Jessa-Lynn who learned taxidermy’s tricks and art from her late father whom she hero-worshipped. He killed himself on the table in their studio, leaving her to pick […]
This engrossing coming-of-age tale is set in the small town of Zephyr, Alabama in 1964. 13-year old Corey Mackenson, a budding writer with a vivid imagination, is our narrator. He hangs out with his three best friends, and as free-range kids, they have many adventures, some fun, some threatening, some downright dangerous. There are bullies […]
Laurel and Daphne Wolfe are identical twins, as close as two people can be without being physically joined at the hip. From infancy on they have shared a special “twin talk,” a private language that even their mom can barely grasp. They also share a deep fascination for words, regular ones that is, and would […]
This British writer has written about the Depression era Packhorse Librarians of Kentucky with taste and good character development. Love and books and female solidarity! Although both main characters find love over the course of the book, the real story is how women grow together and support each other in a difficult time and place. […]
When Jude, the mortal Queen of Faerie, offers Grima Mog, a warrior cannibal, the position of Grand General, Mog responds, “Me? But…I tried to kill you.” Jude responds, “You’ve described pretty much every important relationship in my life.” That exchange clearly sums up the danger and intrigue that run through this exciting series. Double crosses, […]
