

Review of You Think It, I'll Say It by Curtis Sittenfeld
ICYMI: Sittenfeld shapes fully realized, fascinating characters that stuck with me in the ten stories of You Think It, I'll Say It. I...
May 16, 2023


Review of The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett
The transcripts of 200 audio files make up much of the novel, and I had difficulty feeling invested in this structure, which felt more...
May 11, 2023


Review of The Wife and the Widow by Christian White
White's twisty mystery is set against the backdrop of an unforgiving winter on an Australian island, with two women attempting to piece...
May 10, 2023


Review of The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry
The premise and setting of The Secret Book of Flora Lea are captivating. I was distracted by what felt like overly dramatic dialogue and...
May 9, 2023


Review of How to Say Goodbye by Wendy MacNaughton
A former artist-in-residence at a hospice, MacNaughton distills the process of witnessing a loved one's end of life into a few elements...
May 4, 2023


Review of Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto
Sutanto's Vera Wong is playful, brusque, bossy, and connects an unlikely cast of characters, all murder suspects, into a heartwarming...
May 3, 2023


Review of The Trackers by Charles Frazier
Frazier offers an immersive story that morphs from a WPA-funded rural art commission to a leisurely country-wide search, an unlikely...
May 2, 2023


Review of Go As a River by Shelley Read
Read's debut novel is gorgeously written, with vivid details of mid-century Colorado, moments that change everything, impossible...
Apr 27, 2023


Review of Burst by Mary Otis
Mary Otis's debut novel explores the complicated mother-daughter relationship between alcoholic, erratic Charlotte and rigid,...
Apr 26, 2023


Review of Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard von Bingen by Mary Sharratt
Sharratt's carefully researched, richly detailed historical fiction is based on the life of the medieval mystic who long served as an...
Apr 25, 2023


Review of The Lonely Hearts Book Club by Lucy Gilmore
I love a book about books, but I was confused as to why the characters would seek out and spend prolonged time with the verbally abusive,...
Apr 20, 2023


Review of Happy Place by Emily Henry
Six longtime friends gather for one last Maine vacation--but each of them has been keeping secrets that impact their relationships. The...
Apr 19, 2023


Review of Unmasked: My Life Solving America's Cold Cases by Paul Holes and Robin Gaby Fisher
Holes's account of the dogged determination and attention to detail--as well as the cost to his personal life--involved in discovering...
Apr 18, 2023


Review of You Could Make This Place Beautiful: A Memoir by Maggie Smith
Poet Maggie Smith's memoir traces the end of her marriage, weaving in the history and the future while she acknowledges that any story is...
Apr 13, 2023


Review of Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry
Perry recounts the daily reality of his years in a chokehold of addiction to drugs and alcohol, his struggles to quit using, and the many...
Apr 12, 2023


Review of Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld
Sittenfeld's funny and sweet take on an unlikely romance sparked by a longtime SNL-type weekly skit show immediately had me hooked, never...
Apr 11, 2023


Review of You Wouldn't Dare by Samantha Markum
Samantha Markum's young adult novel is set in a small town in the Florida Keys, with plenty of teen angst, tests of friend loyalty, burst...
Apr 6, 2023


Review of Inciting Joy by Ross Gay
Poet and essayist Ross Gay explores the experiences and explorations that have offered him meaning, depth, connection, understanding, and...
Apr 5, 2023


Review of VenCo by Cherie Dimaline
VenCo offers feminist, hard-drinking, foul-mouthed witches bound together by mysterious forces who undergo a quest to secure their...
Apr 4, 2023


Review of Exiles (Aaron Falk #3) by Jane Harper
The third in Jane Harper's Aaron Falk series offers procedural detail, a lush Australian setting, and character development I found...
Mar 30, 2023
