WRONG PLACE, WRONG TIMEBOOK REVIEW The question on the book cover sums up this mystery beautifully: How do you stop a murder after it’s happened? The novel opens to a placid domestic scene, one that succinctly and deftly depicts the two main characters in the story, Jen, a lawyer, and her husband, Kelly, a […]
WRONG PLACE WRONG TIME BY GILLIAN MCALLISTER BOOK REVIEW Read More »
THE SENTENCEBOOK REVIEW Many years ago, I lived in Hanover, NH as the same time as Louise Erdrich. We shared the same midwife, a fact I learned from her autobiographical book The Blue Jay’s Dance. I knew about her existence in the community because her early writing was already gaining attention and great acclaim. (She
Book Review: THE SENTENCE BY LOUISE ERDRICH Read More »
INTO THE MESSBOOK REVIEW Into the Mess by Debie Thomas is a well-written exploration of familiar Bible passages. Sometimes when I’m reading a book, I find myself automatically re-writing sentences as I go, adjusting for clarity or word order. The writing in this book is so lively, humorous, and engaging that I instantly shut off
INTO THE MESS BY DEBIE THOMAS–A BOOK REVIEW Read More »
FOSTER CAREBOOK REVIEW Edna wastes no time drawing a hot bath for the child then scraping grime out from under nails, washing her hair, cleaning her ears. The girl describes the bath: “Then she makes me stand and soaps me all over with a cloth. Her hands are like my mother’s hand but there is
FOSTER BY CLAIRE KEEGAN–A BOOK REVIEW Read More »
MY MONTICELLOBOOK REVIEW Jocelyn Johnson’s novella, My Monticello, is a soul-nourishing story that begins on a spring night in the near-future after the Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville in 2017. White nationalists have returned to town. They are burning down houses and brutally attacking people of color. Da’ Naisha Love, a descendant of Thomas
BOOK REVIEW: MY MONTICELLO BY JOCELYN NICOLE JOHNSON Read More »
LILY’S PROMISEBOOK REVIEW Lily’s Promise is a great read on so many levels. The book’s namesake, Lily, has just lost her beloved father to an illness that taxed family’s resources. She and her mother, an immigration lawyer, move to a smaller house in a different neighborhood. Lily had been home schooled, taught by her father.
Review of LILY\’S PROMISE by Katherine Erskine Read More »
A MOST PECULIAR BOOKBOOK REVIEW As a child, when I thought about the origins of the Bible, I pictured an old, white-robed, balding guy sitting at a long wooden table with scrolls piled up around him. He is surrounded by fluffy clouds and a few helpful cherubs. His look is pensive. His quill pen is
A MOST PECULIAR BOOK–BOOK REVIEW Read More »
THE COLLAPSIBLE MANNEQUINBOOK REVIEW Written by Charlotte Matthews, The Collapsible Mannequin is a delightfully quirky novel. The chapters alternate between Clarence, a twelve-year-old child, and his mother, Sarah. They live over the Gateway Rent-to-Own Store in Rolla, Missouri. Clarence desperately wants to know the identity and location of his father. Sarah recoils the few times
Book Review: The Collapsible Mannequin by Charlotte Matthews Read More »
THE WRONG KIND OF WOMANBOOK REVIEW Sarah McCraw Crow’s novel transports the reader to the 1970’s at a fictional college similar to Dartmouth. The era is turbulent, both culturally and politically, much like America today. The parallels between now and then are uncanny: a sharply divided nation experiencing a tsunami of discord. Some people push
BOOK REVIEW The Wrong Kind of Woman by Sarah McCraw Crow Read More »
HALFBOOK REVIEW I read Sharon Harrigan’s novel, HALF, in two sittings. It was that good. HALF is a story about identical twins named Artis and Paula, named for Zeus’s twins, Artemis and Apollo. They live with a father who is a monster and a mother who enables him. Told in the first-person plural, Harrigan credibly
Book Review: HALF by Sharon Harrigan Read More »