This Is Your Life Harriet Chance (NetGalley) by Jonathan Evison Algonquin Books Harriet Chance sits in Father Mullinix’s study. Her husband Bernard, dead for two years, has been showing up unannounced: leaving his slippers next to hers, setting out a can of WD-40 so she could silence a hinge, showing up unannounced at the grocery …
My mom turned 80 last week. Her life’s story is hers to tell, but trust me when I say it hasn’t been all sweet tea and cupcakes. Growing up in miserable poverty in Cleveland, she scraped and saved and fought for the life she has now–one, I’m guessing, she never thought she’d realize. Especially since halfway …
Kitchens of the Great Midwest (Netgalley) J. Ryan Stradal Viking Sometimes my husband and I play “Do you remember eating … ?” We both grew up in the Midwest and church supper casseroles and desserts, as well as our own moms’ cooking, provide plenty of fodder. Do you remember … Tater tot casserole? Chocolate éclair …
Blueberry season is over now, but I managed to squeeze in a little last minute blueberry picking a couple weeks ago. And good sport that he is, hubby agreed to come with so that we could make shorter work of those end-of-the-season slim pickings. I say good sport because we were both required to pick …
Circling the Sun (NetGalley) Paula McLain Ballantine Books There was a time when I thought I was born in the wrong time and place–a time when I dreamed I was meant to stand on the wide savanna scanning the horizon, when I thought I might have my own antelope calf as a pet and sit …
The Truth According To Us (NetGalley) Annie Barrows Random House The charm of writer Annie Barrow’s Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is legendary, especially in the book club world. How many modern “literary societies”, I wonder, have read the novel since its publication in 2008? I know it had everything I love in a …
The Sound of Glass (NetGalley) Karen White New American Library You’re strong at the broken places. This novel starts with a bang–literally–on a hot summer night in Beaufort, South Carolina. Edith Heywood senses an eerie change in the night sounds as she works in her attic studio, then sees a flash of fire explode across …
Where Women Are Kings (NetGalley) Christy Watson Other Press There are three places where women are kings …Nigeria, childbirth, and heaven–these are the places where anything is possible for women. Elijah is a wizard. Not many little boys have wizards trying to creep out of their skin, and Elijah tries desperately to keep him in. Because …
This is my symphony 