“Getting blown up happened in an instant; getting put together took the rest of your life.” Louise Erdrich has made a career out of writing novels about Native American people, usually hinging on a crime of some sort, and with just a sprinkle of magical realism (although Erdrich herself objects to that term). It’s a … More LaRose, by Louise Erdrich: Book Review
“Humans haunt more houses than ghosts do.” On the surface it would be easy to read and digest (perhaps even to dismiss) The Turner House as a simple family saga. To do so would be to miss the point entirely, and to miss an incredibly layered portrait of America, Detroit, racial politics, and more. The Turners … More The Turner House, by Angela Flournoy: Book Review
“Nothing happens in my life. Nothing has to happen, she said, for it to be life.” By all rights, All My Puny Sorrows should be a bleak, miserable read. Thanks to Toews, it isn’t. This book made me laugh out loud many times. That hasn’t happened in a great long while–I can’t even remember the last … More Book Review: All My Puny Sorrows, by Miriam Toews
“All we can do is play our parts and keep each other company.” Something funny occasionally happens when you finish a book and let some time pass before you write a review of it. As I was reading Bill Clegg’s Did You Ever Have a Family I loved it. The only thing that bothered me was … More Book Review: Did You Ever Have a Family, by Bill Clegg
The Wednesday Wars was an unexpectedly moving delight when I read it. Part of the joy from reading it was that it wasn’t like most other books out there. It felt new and exciting, and when it went for your tear ducts it really earned the tears. Unfortunately, Orbiting Jupiter doesn’t have any of the same … More Book Review: Orbiting Jupiter, by Gary D. Schmidt
“You never know what’s in a person’s heart until they’re tested, do you?” I’ve been a fan of the movie adaptation Fried Green Tomatoes for a great many years. I also enjoyed Fannie Flagg on countless episodes of The Match Game thanks to reruns on The Game Show Network, so it was with great joy and … More Book Review: Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, by Fannie Flagg
“Open your eyes and see what you can with them before they close forever.” At the risk of overstating things, All the Light We Cannot See is far and away the most sumptuous, beautiful, and heartfelt book I’ve read in a great while. This is a book to get swept away in. Werner Pfennig is … More Book Review: All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr
“So much of life was the peeling away of illusions.” I had been very much looking forward to reading this book, but unfortunately it has been quite a disappointment. The first hundred pages, about the childhood and teen years of Eileen Tumulty, fly by and are quite promising. But something curious happens as she becomes … More Book Review: We Are Not Ourselves, by Matthew Thomas
Lilian Shang has been haunted by her father for many years. A Map of Betrayal is both of their stories, and in typical style for Ha Jin, it’s an elegant, restrained exploration of family, loyalty, and patriotism. Lilian’s father Gary immigrated to the US as a translator with the CIA, where he earned a stellar … More Book Review: A Map of Betrayal, by Ha Jin
I am instantly suspicious when dust jackets or book blurbs declare someone “the next …” The comparison rarely ever works, and usually only does the new author a disservice–establishing a comparison they just can’t hope to live up to. So you can imagine how my senses started twitching when I saw blurbs describing this book … More Book Review: The Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing, by Mira Jacob
