Warning: if you are not into novels as therapy, this is not the book for you. If authorial gimmicks are not your thing, this is not the book for you. Motherhood is 300 pages of highly performative therapy as a writer agonizes over whether or not to have children. Is this writer a stand-in for … More When Therapy Meets Novel: Motherhood, by Sheila Heti
“It came, over and over, down to this: What made someone a mother? Was it biology alone, or was it love?” In Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng makes great use of the town she grew up in, Shaker Heights. A meticulously planned suburban sprawl, Shaker Heights becomes a sort of stand-in for the way life tends … More What Makes a Mother? Little Fires Everywhere, by Celeste Ng
“Who would have thought at this time in our lives that we’d still have something like this. That it turns out we’re not finished with changes and excitements. And not all dried up in body and spirit.” Addie and Louis are quiet, decent people in the beginning of their ‘twilight years.’ Both widowed, they’ve been … More Our Souls at Night, by Kent Haruf: Book Review
“The only love that feels like love is the doomed kind. (Fun fact.)” Dept. of Speculation first caught my eye when The New York Times Book Review called it one of the top 10 books of 2014, but it wasn’t until I read more about it in The Morning News‘ Tournament of Books that I really felt … More Dept. of Speculation, by Jenny Offill: Book Review
“The world is a blade and dread is hope cut open and spread inside out.” I was really excited to read this book for a couple of reasons. First, it has a fantastic jacket description. Second, I’ve lived in Missoula, Montana for a year now, so I loved the idea of reading a novel set … More Book Review: Fourth of July Creek, by Smith Henderson
Supposedly Fun 