The Windfall (NetGalley) Diksha Basu Crown Publishing Let’s get it out of the way right from the start: I was captivated by The Windfall. Writer Diksha Basu writes a sort of Indian Pride and Prejudice with some overtones of Great Expectations. The novel is at times humorous, poignant, and scathing–sometimes all on the same page. For nearly their entire married …
Evensong (NetGalley) Kate Southwood G.W. Norton Last December my money market company sent me a cheery email reminding me to file for a required distribution–they also told me my estimated life expectancy was 27.5 years. Merry Christmas to you, too, Fidelity! Still, as I approach the end of another decade, I find myself looking back …
The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley (NetGalley) Hannah Tinti Dial Press release date: March 28, 2017 The story opens with Samuel Hawley teaching his twelve-year-old daughter Loo how to shoot a rifle. While she knew not to touch them, guns were part of the backdrop of her life, hidden all over the house and cleaned nightly …
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 …
My Name is Lucy Barton (NetGalley) Elizabeth Strout Random House This thing we call ‘family’–those little rag tag bands of humans who make their way through life bumping into each other and bouncing off again, sometimes laughing, but often in tears–becomes more mysterious to me the older I get. Whenever I think I have family …
Dear Committee Members Julie Schumacher Anchor Books Jason Fitger has been an English professor for twenty-something years at a small university in the Midwest. He’s under pressure, overworked, and hardly appreciated. Writer Julie Schumacher tells the prof’s story through the letters he writes: a department head and dean here, fellowship and job recommendations there. The …
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 …
Lemoncholy Life of Annie Aster (Edelweiss; NetGalley) Scott Wilbanks Sourcebooks Landmark paperback release: August 4, 2015 lemoncholy: (noun) 1. The habitual state in which one makes the best of a bad situation. (adjective) 2. Afflicted with, characterized by, or showing lemoncholy. I’ll just lay it right out there and tell you I loved this novel …
What reader doesn’t like reading about books … or bookstores or libraries or authors, for that matter? I’m surprised, really, at how many I’ve read over the past year or two: A.J. Fikry, Small Blessings, Mill River Redemption, The Bookman’s Tale. Here are two recent releases, one about a powerful book and the other about …
Cider With Rosie Laurie Lee Open Road Media When I opened the email last month, it was clear I’d missed out. According to Amazon’s Daily Deal blurb Laurie Lee’s Cider With Rosie was “an instant classic when it was first published in 1959 [and] one of the most endearing and evocative portraits of youth in …
This is my symphony 