Behind the Beautiful Forevers Katherine Boo There’s probably nothing I can say about Katherine Boo’s Pulitzer Prize winning book about a Mumbai slum, Behind the Beautiful Forevers that other reviewers haven’t already–the book gives us a staggering view of the poorest of the poor in India. Annawadi, a sprawling slum that sprung up around the Mumbai …
We are all completely beside ourselves Karen Joy Fowler Until she was five, Rosemary Cooke had a sister. Fern, her almost-twin. The two girls were inseparable: they jumped and sang and cuddled and competed for attention. They were joined at the heart with a love that was bigger than even they knew at the time. …
Joyland Stephen King Let me start out by saying I don’t do Stephen King. Really, I don’t. I’ve never seen Carrie, even though the original came out my senior year of high school. I also haven’t seen Cujo or or Pet Cemetery or The Shining. I just don’t do horror. Really. Or anything violent or scary …
The Frangipani Hotel (NetGalley) Violet Kupersmith Our muddy patch of the worlds was already shadowy and blood-soaked and spirit-friendly long before the Americans got here. There’s ancient and ugly things waiting to harm you in that darkness. Writer Violet Kupersmith gives us a peek into Vietnam in her short story collection, The Frangipani Hotel. A little bit Peony …
Under the Wide and Starry Sky (NetGalley) Nancy Horan Take thou the writing. Thine it is. For who/Burnished the sword, blew on the drowsy coal/Held still the target higher … who but thou? I loved Nancy Horan’s first novel, Loving Frank–I got a glimpse into the life and loves of a woman I knew nothing about, …
Ham (NetGalley) Sam Harris I never meant to read this book. Quite frankly,when I was choosing books for my e-Reader I saw the cover, my eyes glanced over “David Sedaris” in the first line of the blurb–and thought I was getting an ARC of Sedaris’s newest. So when I opened the book on my Kindle and …
Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock (NetGalley) Mathew Quick First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. The blurbs on this YA novel are pretty impressive: “riveting”, “harrowing”, “beautifully written”. And with a starred review in Publisher’s Weekly and a movie deal in the works, I worried the hype …
Noah’s Rainy Day (NetGalley) Sandra Brannan release date: Sept. 3, 2013 Although normally being called a vegetable or broken might hurt my feelings, for the first time in my life, I was relieved that someone thought of me that way. I knew that if the scaredy-cat neighbor believed I couldn’t think or speak -being nothing more than a vegetable–the …
I’m guessing if you read my post from about a year ago, it would sound very much the same as this: the summer is waning, I’m hustling to get ready for school, my reading has slacked off, I’m behind posting (read: I haven’t blogged a darn review all month!). Am I right?! So here are …
The Longings of Wayward Girls (Galley Alley) Karen Brown Karen Brown’s Longings of Wayward Girls is one of the only chick lit titles I’ve read this summer … and it’s a great one! Brown tells the story of Sadie at twelve and Sadie years later as wife and mother. Because what happened to Sadie then was haunting …
This is my symphony 