My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She’s Sorry Fredrik Backman Simon & Schuster I was enchanted by Fredrik Backman’s A Man Called Ove and Brit Marie Was Here. But with features in the New York Times and thousands of reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, there’s probably not much left to say about My Grandmother Asked Me …
News of the World Paulette Jiles William Morrow Blond and blue-eyed, little Johanna is a white girl by birth. But in her heart, she’s Cicada, captured at age six by the Kiowa Indians after her parents were killed in a raid. The tribe is the only family she can remember. Now she’s been rescued by …
Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew’d Alan Bradley Delacorte Press Little Flavia is growing up. In her previous adventure, The Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust, as well as her new one, Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew’d, Flavia displays more poise and decorum than she ever thought possible. And she’s puzzled by a new-found tendency towards …
The Tea Planter’s Wife (NetGalley) Dinah Jeffries Crown Publishing Sometimes you’re just ready for a book, you know? The past week has been gray and rainy; the temperatures are slowly dropping. In the morning there’s even a bit of fog. So turning to a book set in a place far away and a time long …
The Sea Wave (NetGalley) Rolli Guernica Editions/University of Toronto Press Although a short 140 pages, Rolli’s The Sea Wave moves in and out, back and forth between two oversized stories: that of a young severely handicapped girl and her kidnapper, an elderly man. The twelve-year-0ld cannot speak and is confined to a wheelchair, yet her understanding of …
All the Light We Cannot See Anthony Doerr Scribner It won the Pulitzer. Was shortlisted for the National Book Award. Spent 118 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list. Wiser readers than I have written more eloquently about Anthony Doerr’s magnificent All the Light We Cannot See, so there’s no reason to write what you …
In a perfect world my book club reads fascinating contemporary works (but never the best sellers) with a few classics thrown in to make sure we’re well-rounded and culturally literate. Leaders rotate–everyone takes a turn–and prepare diligently: a review shared, a YouTube video discovered, an NPR interview served up. We are astute. Serious. Profound, even. …
The Grand Tour (NetGalley) Adam O’Fallon Price Doubleday Richard Lazar made his fame and fortune writing tales of his time as a soldier in Vietnam. But now Richard is washed up. He hasn’t published in years, he tends bar part-time, he’s living in a trailer outside Phoenix, and his daughter won’t speak to him. Add to …
My favorite place to walk in Our Fair City is an urban park set just outside of downtown–I think of it as a little Central Park, although I’ve never been. Riverside Park has winding paved paths curving around and through lagoons, wetlands, and a spectacular tree canopy. I watch the geese, roller bladers, bikers, and …
Did you ever have a family Bill Clegg Gallery/Scout Press We know from the outset that June Reid loses daughter Lolly and her fiance, as well as her ex-husband and boyfriend Luke in a horrific accident on the eve of Lolly’s wedding. Any mother, of course, would be devastated and June is no different. But …
This is my symphony 