by Barbara the Bibliophage | Dec 20, 2022 | RELAX: Historical Fiction
Trust by Hernan Diaz is everything I want in a historical fiction novel. And it’s no wonder the book landed on so many “best of 2022.” Diaz writes from four interconnected points of view while telling the story of a financial wizard and philanthropist. Set in the...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Nov 22, 2022 | RELAX: Other Relaxation
Emma Straub crafts a time-travel story for everyone who’s ever lost a loved one in her new book, This Time Tomorrow. As the story opens, we meet Alice. She’s a born-and-bred New Yorker with a famous author for a father. She works at the tony private school she...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Aug 6, 2022 | RELAX: Historical Fiction
Kali Fajardo-Anstine delivers a portrait of womanhood in Colorado in her debut novel, Woman of Light. She tells the story of multiple women across three generations of an indigenous and mixed-race family. Moving back and forth across time, Fajardo-Anstine connects the...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Mar 16, 2022 | RELAX: Historical Fiction
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett is a complex and layered novel about secrets. At the center of the story are twin sisters, Stella and Desiree. Raised in small-town Louisiana, everyone around them focused on the color of their skin. The entire community of...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Feb 3, 2022 | RELAX: Historical Fiction
Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead is a multi-layered book. The publisher promotes it as, “… a gloriously entertaining novel of heists, shakedowns, and rip-offs set in Harlem in the 1960s.” And yes, all of that is in there. But Whitehead also waxes philosophical about...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Nov 30, 2021 | RELAX: Memoir
David Sedaris is a new author for me, and his 2020 compilation, The Best of Me, was the perfect place to start. He introduced me to his family, his outlook on life, his writing style, and the general ethos of his audience. And yes, I laughed plenty. A few tears fell...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Nov 4, 2021 | RELAX: Other Relaxation
In Red Island House, Andrea Lee introduces us to Shay and Senna, as well as the island nation of Madagascar. Shay is a California-born African American, working as a university professor in Milan. Her husband Senna is a successful Italian businessman. As Europeans do,...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Apr 20, 2021 | RELAX: Historical Fiction
I think of Jojo Moyes as a contemporary fiction author. So, The Giver of Stars surprised me since it’s solidly historical fiction. Of course, she does tell it through the eyes of a modern woman. The women at the heart of this book grapple with the same things we do...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Feb 28, 2021 | RELAX: Historical Fiction
Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk is a stroll down memory lane, created by Kathleen Rooney. If you’re curious about the life of women in various decades of the twentieth century, this is for you. Especially if you love melodic language and poetry. Lillian is 84, or...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Feb 9, 2021 | RELAX: Historical Fiction
Shuggie Bain, the debut novel from author Douglas Stuart is a gut punch on nearly every page. It’s the story of a kid growing up in Glasgow, Scotland during the 1980s. He’s the youngest of three kids born to an alcoholic mother. His older siblings have a different...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Nov 29, 2020 | RELAX: Other Relaxation
Taffy Brodesser-Akner shines a light into the darkness of dysfunctional marriage and divorce in Fleishman Is in Trouble. Set in the world of Manhattan’s social climbing thirtysomethings, we meet Toby Fleishman first. He’s experiencing the unstable world of newly...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Sep 25, 2020 | RELAX: Mystery-Thriller
Alex Michaelides builds layers of psychological suspense in The Silent Patient. It’s tempting to think you’ve got it all figured out. But the maze of the characters’ minds is complex. In this drama of betrayal and therapeutic potential, Theo is a psychologist treating...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jun 25, 2020 | RELAX: Other Relaxation
The new book from Anne Tyler, Redhead by the Side of the Road, is a certified palate cleanser. At least that’s how it worked for me. In the midst of a history book about pandemics, and historical fiction about slavery, this was a small story about a few days in one...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Apr 2, 2020 | RELAX: Other Relaxation
Dear Kevin Wilson: Thank you for giving me something to laugh at while on lock down in my house. Nothing to See Here offered me hours of escape, into the world of kids who catch on fire and the pliable definitions of parental love and family. It was a life saver for a...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Mar 21, 2020 | RESIST: Feminism
The bestseller from Ronan Farrow, Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators, documents the process of reporting a huge story. And it shows how that story was like nailing Jell-O to the wall. Or herding cats. Everything conspired against Farrow...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Feb 24, 2020 | RELAX: Other Relaxation
Bernardine Evaristo writes a prose poetic novel, honoring a wide-ranging group of black British women in her 2019 book Girl, Woman, Other. The women represent many walks of life, various generations, and diverse personalities. They connect with each other, but the...
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