

Review of The Colony by Annika Norlin
Norlin draws the reader into the eerie heart of a small group living sequestered in the Swedish forest as they gradually fall into...
Aug 6


Review of Bug Hollow by Michelle Huneven
Bug Hollow tracks the Samuelson family from an idyllic mid-1970s Northern California summer through a tragedy that upends already-tenuous...
Aug 5


Review of Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor
Death of the Author explores the connection of an author to her work--and how a story can take on a life of its own--in this novel...
Jul 31


Review of Slow Burn Summer by Josie Silver
I loved the love for books in this novel, but I ultimately couldn't get past my issue with the premise, in which an actress plays the...
Jul 30


Review of I'll Be Right Here by Amy Bloom
I'm a huge Amy Bloom fan, and while I appreciated the strong main female character here and the World War II-era crises, for me, the...
Jul 29


Review of Etiquette & Espionage (Finishing School #1) by Gail Carriger
The first in the author's young adult steampunk Finishing School series offers wonderful, typically strong Carriger women with unique...
Jul 9


Review of What Kind of Paradise by Janelle Brown
I was intrigued by the novel's premise, in which a father weaves elaborate lies to raise his daughter in a remote wilderness, away from...
Jul 2


How to Lose Your Mother: A Daughter's Memoir by Molly Jong-Fast
Molly Jong-Fast's frank memoir explores her complicated, unsatisfying relationship with her famous mother Erica as she faces...
Jul 1


Review of Sunny Side Up by Katie Sturino
I loved Sunny's body positivity and her self-made-woman status. I didn't fully buy into one of her love interests but was hooked on the...
Jun 18


Review of Done and Dusted (Rebel Blue Ranch #1) by Lyla Sage
I loved the premise, in which a golden girl and barrel-racer returns home to small-town Wyoming to figure out her future. I was looking...
Jun 17


Review of The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong
Ocean Vuong's literary fiction offers unexpected bonds between characters coping with desperation, addiction, lies, hunger, and past...
Jun 12


Review of Harmattan Season by Tochi Onyebuchi
I was taken with the premise of conflicts and mystery in a post-colonial West African city, but I didn't feel very connected to or...
Jun 10


Review of Lucky Loser: Adventures in Comedy and Tennis by Michael Kosta
The Daily Show 's Michael Kosta recounts his youth as a pro tennis player (#864 in the world), an assistant college tennis coach, then a...
Jun 5


Review of The Strange Case of Jane O. by Karen Thompson Walker
Walker offers an unreliable main protagonist, her dedicated new psychiatrist, increasingly inexplicable and complicated occurrences, and...
May 27


Review of Dream State by Eric Puchner
Dream State felt like different genres in one book; what felt like a romance became a story of characters who are often bitter or...
Apr 30


Review of Tilt by Emma Pattee
After a devastating earthquake, nine-months-pregnant Annie desperately searches the city of Portland, Oregon, for her husband. Pattee...
Apr 29


Review of Saltwater by Katy Hays
The glamorous setting of Capri is the star of Saltwater . I struggled to care about the characters' sense of life-and-death stakes...
Apr 17


Review of The Life We Bury (Joe Talbert #1) by Allen Eskens
The pacing of The Life We Bury built from slow and steady to a whirlwind. It always seemed clear that we would have clean resolutions to...
Apr 16


Review of Pony Confidential by Christina Lynch
Pony Confidential is a cute story of a bond between a pony and its long-ago owner. It's nominally a mystery, but it's mainly a...
Apr 9


Review of All Fours by Miranda July
The unnamed main protagonist in All Fours frequently made me feel uncomfortable because of her unorthodox decision-making and...
Apr 8