“In love we find out who we want to be; in war we find out who we are.” With those words, Vianne Rossignol opens the story of her life, and the lives of her loved ones, during the occupation of France. Rossingnol means ‘nightingale” in French, and in the end Vianne recognizes herself in that […]
Archive | Book Reviews
Jodi Picoult’s Second Glance: a Ghost Story
Whether you believe in ghosts or believe, as this author does, in the power of the imagination to bring to life the unacknowledged legacies of the past to haunt the present, Second Glance is, despite some weaknesses, a thought provoking read. In this story, the ghosts are real, and though I was willing to suspend my […]
Ann Patchett: Stories That Dissolve Cultural Divides
My greatest aspiration as an author is to carry readers inside the social turmoil of our times and thereby dissolve the bitter cultural divisions that plague the nation. Ann Patchett is therefore one of my favorite authors, for she explores the bonds that join us. Bel Canto is her most famous example, but The Magician’s […]
A Winter Journey: A War Story for Today
World War II scattered as many lives as it destroyed, leaving another generation to piece together their lost and buried pasts. Diane Armstrong’s Winter Journey is one such story and a gripping one, but it is far more than the tale of one woman’s search for her past. It’s a story that should send shivers […]
The Girl on the Train: a Mixed Review
Paula Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train, carries the reader into the lives of three women who occupy, at one time or another, two houses on Bleinheim Rd. in London. Rachel views them from the train, and for her they represent the marriage she had and lost. Anna, the second voice, is her replacement. Megan, […]
A Story to Love: My Name is Lucy Barton
I wish I could write this way—with an effortless lucidity and simplicity that reaches the heart. Elizabeth Strout’s title, My Name is Lucy Barton, expresses the simplicity of her prose, though the power and full meaning of the phrase only come with the reading. The plot is equally simply. While in the hospital in Manhattan, Lucy […]
A Paris Apartment: A Bestseller?
Michelle Gable’s A Paris Apartment is a bestseller and the setup was intriguing enough to make me buy the book. Alice, a professional antique dealer, heads for a Paris apartment that hasn’t been open for seventy years. Such a premise, based on the actual discovery of such an apartment, promises aging secrets, great mystery, and […]
Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter: Southern Mystery at its Best
There’s little argument that the American South produces the best storytellers in the nation, and best-selling author, Tom Franklin, certainly counts as one of those. Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter is a mystery full of past sins rising from the grave, forbidden friendships and betrayals—in short the soil of small town Mississippi life. Larry Ott, white, […]
The Bright Forever: a Different Mystery
I like mysteries that are based more on character than plot, and Lee Martin’s Pulitzer Prize Finalist, The Bright Forever, is one of those. It is as much about the social dynamics of small towns and the destructive power of isolation as the tragedy that results. Pieces of the story unfold from the point […]
A Wild Read: FATES AND FURIES
The characters of Lauren Groff’s multiple award winner, FATES AND FURIES, are conceived on the scale of the Greek tragedies the title suggests. Consumed by great love and great fury and driven by their sense of their fates. If you were captured by the gentle subtlety of Toni Fuhrman’s character treatments in One Who Loves, […]
Snow Child: a Magical Read
For all who find magical power in nature or who grew up with fairy tales, Eowyn Ivey’s Snow Child is a must read. The book was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and a winner of the UK National Book Award and with good reason. Ivey mixes the harsh reality of the 1920 Alaska wilderness […]
Best Selling Reads: Kate Morton
Authors frequently fall into a sour grapes attitude toward those who are more successful than they are, so I’ll try hard not to commit that sin. I do read best sellers to discover the key to success, as I’m sure other authors do, but end by discovering the same essential question. Does the story […]
