Book news and book reviews, often in advance of publication, of literary fiction, memoirs, and an eclectic smattering of nonfiction. Also contains book- and reading-related memes, stories from life, and giveaways.
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Way back when I was but a wee Book Girl, I had this great friend named Kristen. We attended a gifted program together throughout elementary school and had tons in common, especially our love of...
Whew! After an action-packed weekend focused mostly on food and goofing off with nieces and nephews, I’ve made it back to Richmond and have managed to stay awake long enough for a quick Salon...
Recently published March 2009 by Algonquin Books
It was bitter cold, the air electric with all that had not happened yet.
As Robert Goolrick’s phenomenal new novel A Reliable Wife opens, it is...
I read this book for the Book Awards Challenge.
From the back of the book:
At the age of twelve, Ishmael Beah fled attacking rebels in Sierra Leone and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by...
And the only prescription is more cowbell sunshine.
Well, it’s official. Spring fever has me firmly in its clutches. After a morning spent reading on the patio and two wonderful hours in the sun...
It’s been less than a month since I went off the grid for my annual Fall Back Weekend, but here I am, ready to do it again. I’ve been playing to take the rest of this week off to enjoy Thanksgiving with my family, who will be visiting for the holiday,...
Published October 2009 by Seal Press
The assumptions people often make about the voluntarily childless troubled me because they didn’t come close to capturing my complex motives.
Laura Scott was happily childfree and increasingly frustrated by other...
Published May 2009 by Doubleday (a division of RandomHouse)
My friend Kristen wrote a guest review of this book back in the spring that prompted me to read Ayelet Waldman’s controversial essay in which she said that she loved her husband more than she...
There was a time when I believed, with the police and the media and my stunned parents, that I was the redeemed one, the boy borne safely home on the ebb of whatever freak tide carried Peter and Jamie away. Not any more. In ways too dark and crucial to...
Available in paperback from Hachette; audio book read by Susan Denaker
When I asked for audio book recommendations a few weeks ago, several of you suggested that memoirs work well on audio, and Dawn recommended Susan Jane Gilman’s newer memoir Undress...
