The Burgess Boys (NetGalley)Elizabeth Stroud I must admit that I wasn’t a fan of Olive Kitteridege, Elizabeth Stroud’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel. Maybe it was just the teacher in me who found the retired teacher Olive so unlikeable; maybe it was the fact that the interlocking tales just didn’t interlock completely enough for me. (I’m …
In One PersonJohn Irving My love affair with John Irving began nearly 25 years ago when I discovered Hotel New Hampshire, following it with The World According to Garp and then Owen Meany. I’ve continued to read nearly everything Irving publshishes (even the odd little Trying to Save Piggy Sneed) though I’ve found that few books carry the magic …
Looking for Me (NetGalley)Beth Hoffman Albert removed the chair seat and set it aside. “Don’t look too close. That old chest been through a whole lot. It ain’t never gonna be perfect.” I ran my fingers over the front of a drawer and whispered, “Neither am I, Albert. Neither am I.” Teddi had a gift. …
Sisterland (NetGalley) Curtis Sittenfeld release date: June 25,2013 Daisy and Violet were identical twins who couldn’t have been more different. Daisy longs to fit in; Violet couldn’t have cared less. Daisy is pretty; Violet overweight. Daisy has the perfect family: loving husband, toddler Rosie and baby Owen; in her 30s Violet is still single and …
Bookman’s Tale (NetGalley)Charles Lovett A dreary day–rain drenched Wales–a bookshop–a rare book collector. The opening paragraphs of Charles Lovett’s recently published The Bookman’s Tale is sure to hook any bibliophile. And so begins the story of Peter Byerly: book binder, bookseller, recently widowed, and grieving. Peter walks into that bookshop, opens a book, and absent-mindedly picks …
Meg Wolitzer reviewed Jeanette Walls’ Silver Star today on NPR (link) and while I don’t disagree with some of her criticism (sometimes the direction was shaky, and maybe the girls are a little too resourceful), I also couldn’t help but think that she totally missed the mark on why some readers return to a favorite author in the …
The Rebellion of Miss Lucy Ann Lobdell William Klaber release date: June 18, 2013 Lucy Ann was on the run. Her abusive husband had left her, she had no way to support her toddler daughter, and she was living once again with her disapproving family. Her options were few. So Lucy Ann Slater, always more …
The Silver Star (NetGalley)Jeanette Wallsrelease date: June 2013 Readers of Jeanette Walls’ memoir The Glass Castle will immediately recognize the family dynamics in her new novel The Silver Star. Sisters Liz, a high school freshman, and Bean, age twelve, pretty much raise themselves. Mom, a beautiful singer-songwriter-actress, is sometimes away more than she is home–but the girls …
Dear Lucy (NetGalley) by Julie Sarkissian And you are there from the beginning of the baby and that is why you are its family. Samantha and Lucy spend their days and nights on the farm of Mister and Missus, little more than hired hands, but without the pay. They weed, stitch, gather eggs, feed the …
The House at the End of Hope Street (NetGalley)Menna van Praagrelease date: April 4, 2013 This house may not give you what you want, but it will give you what you need. And the event that brought you here, the thing you think is the worst thing that’s ever happened? when you leave, you’ll realize it was the …
This is my symphony 