To call the books of Irish novelist Marian Keyes “chicklit” is to truly undervalue them. On the surface, they deal with women falling in love, breaking up with boyfriends, getting back together, etc. But all of her works have an underlying seriousness and intention which raises them far above the typical beach/airport book. The Brightest [...]
Archive for the ‘Fiction’ Category
27 Oct
The Descendents
The Descendants is the debut novel of Kaui Hart Hemmings. This book is based in Hawaii, where Ms. Hemmings was born and raised. It tells the story of Matt King, who is the principal heir to a royal Hawaiian family land trust. Matt and his cousins are in the process of deciding what to do [...]
8 Oct
Thirteen Hours
Thirteen Hours is one of a number of books by South African author Deon Meyer that has been translated from Afrikaans into English. For me, though, there was still a difficulty with the names of the characters and places. The names are difficult to pronounce, and it was hard to remember who was who. [...]
25 Aug
Fragile
In the cozy New York suburb of The Hollows, all is not well. A teenage girl, Charlene Murray, is missing. Jones Cooper is a detective who is leading the search. He recalls the case of another missing girl. He was a teenager in The Hollows when Sarah Meyers went missing and was later found dead. [...]
25 Aug
Before Ever After: A Novel
Before Ever After is the debut novel by Samantha Sotto. It is a love story that opens with the death in a bombing of one of the main characters, Max. Three years later we meet Shelley, his widow, who is still grieving his death. Shelley opens the door to her London home to find Paolo, [...]
30 Jul
The Invisible Bridge
The Invisible Bridge is the stunning (but very long) first novel by Julie Orringer. The story opens in Budapest, Hungary in 1937. A young Jewish man, Andras Levi, is leaving Hungary to study architecture in Paris. His family is poor, but he has received a scholarship to study at the Ecole Speciale. As he is [...]
29 Jun
The Language of Flowers
Vanessa Diffenbaugh has written a stunning debut novel. This is a story of love and hate; anger and forgiveness; abandonment and redemption. Victoria Jones is a young woman who, at age 18, is aging out of the California state foster care system. She was abandoned by her mother at birth. She has been in too [...]
25 May
The Postmistress
Sarah Blake has written an amazing book. Set in 1940-41, The Postmistress is the tale of three women whose lives overlap in tragic ways. The postmistress of the title is Iris James, who runs the post office in Franklin, Massachusetts, a small town on Cape Cod. Emma Fitch is newly arrived in Franklin, the bride [...]
21 May
Heat Wave
The best that I can say about this new novel from Nancy Thayer is that is a good beach book, if you like your beach books easy to read and predictable. Unfortunately for me, I live in the northeast where it has been cool and rainy and I am weeks away from getting near a [...]
10 May
The Tenth Song
The Tenth Song is the latest book by the very popular Naomi Ragen. On the surface it is the story of a family whose comfortable lives have been wrenched apart by the arrest of the husband/father. This story actually becomes the tale of the journey towards self-discovery (the mother) and towards maturity (the daughter). Adam [...]
