Absalom’s Daughters by Suzanne Feldman is a novel about two girls, one black one white, with the same daddy who left them to grow up poor in rural Mississippi in the 50’s. When they find out there might be money left to them, they take off in a broke down car with little food and money and head to Virginia hoping to find their inheritance. This is a beautifully written novel, shining light on all different kinds of racism and…
Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler is a modern day retelling of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. It is brilliantly written, funny, clever, witty, wise and a bit outrageous. Kate, the older daughter is stuck in a boring job, taking care of her father and her pretty younger sister and she has become bitter. When her Father comes up with a ridiculous plan to help further his work that involves Kate, she wants no part of it. What follows is…
Piece of Mind by Michelle Adelman is a novel about Lucy, a 27 year old woman who suffered a brain injury when she was 3 that left her missing certain brain functions. She loves to draw animals, read comic books and knows everything about coffee. After she is forced to move in with her college age younger brother and start fending for herself for the first time in her life, everything changes, and she finds that she is much more…
Swing Time is the new novel by Zadie Smith. Set in London, two young brown girls study dance together falling in love with all the old musicals and dreaming of a life on stage. Only one has real talent and their lives eventually diverge. The unnamed protagonist ends up working as a personal assistant for a very famous white singer and travels with her to West Africa where she wants to start a school for girls. Tracey, the dancer, manages…
The Book of Speculation by Erika Swyler is set on Long Island Sound, in an old house sitting precariously on a cliff side ready to fall into the sea. Here lives Simon, a librarian, who comes from a family of mermaids, and tarot readers and carnival performers. He receives a very old, mysterious book that belonged to his Grandmother and begins a quest to uncover the curse that seems to be haunting his family. Set in the past and the…
The Witches Market by Mingmei Yip is a book about a Chinese American professor of anthropology in San Francisco who may or may not be a witch/shameness. She has a dream that takes her on a year sabbatical to the Canary Islands where she will supposedly write a book about witches. What follows is the most ridiculous, poorly written book I’ve read in ages, not really as much about witches as about solving a murder mystery. I don’t know how…
The Grown Ups by Robin Antalek follows three 15 year old kids starting one fateful Summer when all their lives changed. Their paths separate only to recross later as adults when their lives become entwined again with one another. Beautifully written, emotionally charged, and full of wonderful details that pull the reader in and make us care for the characters. I enjoyed this book while reading it, however, I doubt it is one that will stay with me for long.
Under the Wide and Starry Sky by Nancy Horan is historical fiction based on the life of Robert Louis Stevenson and his wife Fanny Osbourne. It’s a fascinating adventure tale of two free spirited artists who met in France (Stevenson was Scottish and Osbourne American) and traveled the world looking for a place to call home. I never knew Stevenson was chronically ill while writing Treasure Island and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; all the while looking for a climate…
The Mountain of Light by Indu Sundaresan is historical fiction based on the 186-carat Kohinoor diamond and those who possessed it during it’s long history in India, Persia, Afghanistan and England. It’s a fascinating story, however Sundaresan never lingers long enough on any of the characters for the reader to feel fully invested in what happens to them, and to understand what possessing this diamond really meant. An interesting read that could have been a fantastic story had it been…
A Dictionary of Mutual Understanding by Jackie Copleton, is a beautiful and sad novel about the survivors of Nagasaki, and those who didn’t survive when the bomb was dropped. Painful memories come back to Amaterasu when a disfigured man knocks on her door and claims to be the grandson she lost 40 years earlier. Beautifully written, heartbreaking, memorable. A great read.