Book Review: The Bonjour Effect by Julie Barlow and Jean-Benoit Nadeau
Freelance journalists Julie Barlow and Jean-Benoit Nadeau moved with their daughters to Paris for a year to write this book. As native Quebecers they were already fluent in French, and in fact had already lived in Paris some years earlier. And yet, they found that the...Book Review: There There by Tommy Orange
There There by Tommy Orange wasn’t the book I’d hoped it would be. Where Heart Berries was a deep dive in one woman’s psyche, There There is a shallow dip into the lives of many, many characters. That they both center on the varied experiences of Native Americans in...Book Review: We Love Anderson Cooper by R.L. Maizes
R.L. Maizes tells stories of discovery, haunting, and the everyday rhythms of life. Her writing is by turns eloquent, poignant, and groaningly funny. And her characters are as unique as you’ll find in contemporary short stories.Maizes’ tales feature teenagers, grown...Book Review: The Little Shop of Found Things by Paula Brackston (Found Things #1)
In the first of a new series from Paula Brackston, Xanthe Westlake and her mother Flora move to small town Marlborough to rebuild their lives. Flora bought the property and stock from a now-deceased fellow antiques dealer and retailer. He left the place in a pretty...Book Review: Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
Delia Owens crafts a genrebusting debut novel. It’s primarily a Bildungsroman—coming of age story. But Owens throws in elements of romance, adds a treatise on nature, plus a strong mystery and courtroom procedural.Her main character Kathryn Danielle Clark, nicknamed...Book Review: Shortest Way Home by Pete Buttigieg
Mayor Pete Buttigieg (pronounced “boot-edge-edge”) is just five days younger than our youngest son. If that doesn’t make me feel old, I don’t know what would. But I think he makes up for lack of years in genuine smarts and concrete executive experience. (Mayors and...Book Review: Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
Bel Canto, published in 2001 by Ann Patchett, is a melodic story of an extreme case of Stockholm Syndrome. It’s an elegant and meaningful exposition of kidnapping, but also of love. A group of businessmen, diplomats, and important people gather in an unnamed...Book Review: My (Part-Time) Paris Life by Lisa Anselmo
Lisa Anselmo had a good life in New York City. A good job, with family nearby, and regular vacations in Paris. Then her mother passed away from cancer, and Lisa felt utterly unmoored. She reached out to Paris, beginning to spend more time there. The time there helped....Book Review: Women’s Minyan by Naomi Ragen
Naomi Ragen is an acclaimed novelist, who wrote and produced this play set in an ultra-Orthodox Jewish family and community. Women’s Minyan is about Chana, a married mother of twelve, who leaves her home and family. Two years after she leaves, the play opens as Chana...Book Review: Thanks, Obama by David Litt
Native New Yorker David Litt was politically aware enough in college to volunteer for Barack Obama’s first Presidential campaign. Then he moved to Washington, D.C. and tried to get a job after graduation. After an internship, he networked himself into Obama’s White...Book Review: Moloka’i by Alan Brennert
Moloka’i is both beautiful and bittersweet. Alan Brennert shows us the human side of institutional health care. In the late 19th century, Hawaii was still a sovereign country. But the haole (non-Hawaiians) were making their way there. And bringing their diseases, most...Book Review: Sacre Bleu by Christopher Moore
Christopher Moore is a master of the humor-filled, historical fiction with a fantasy twist novel. How’s that for a sub-genre? Sacré Bleu was my favorite read this January. BTW, you should know that the French expression “sacrebleu” is used to convey surprise,...Book Review: Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver
In Unsheltered, Barbara Kingsolver mixes two story lines chapter by chapter. The first focuses on Willa Knox and her present-day family. The second focuses on Thatcher Greenwood, who lived in the same neighborhood as Willa in the 1870s. Both are faced with...Book Review: River Queens by Alexander Watson
River Queens is the story of a voyage through America. But more than that, it’s the story of Alexander Watson, Dale Harris, their dog Doris Faye, and their boat the Betty Jane. It made me laugh, learn, and even shed a tear.Watson and Harris are landlubbers from Dallas...Book Review: Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Mitchell wrote a genre busting book. It’s substantially historical fiction, plus buddy story and romance.
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