- May 28, 2021
I really identified with the narrator of Jumpha Lahiri’s new book, Whereabouts. The storyteller is an Italian woman in her 40s, a solitary soul who wrestles with conflicting needs and desires. She likes to be alone and unattached, but also seeks companionship and belonging. It was amazing how I could identify her “whereabouts” even though ...
Read more… - May 21, 2021
This is the first volume of what will be a series of four manga, a Japanese style graphic novel adaptation of the young adult novel Fangirl, which was written by bestselling author Rainbow Rowell. This adaptation stays faithful to the original book as we follow Cath on her journey as a first-year English major at ...
Read more… - May 14, 2021
Every book lover’s dream (or mine, at least) is to own a little bookshop in a tiny, picturesque village in the east of England.
In The Bookshop, a film based on Penelope Fitzgerald’s acclaimed novel, the protagonist, Florence Green, is doing just that, despite the fierce objections of the local arts connoisseur. Undeterred, Florence finds an ...
Read more… - May 7, 2021
When I started reading this fictional tale about a prestigious all-girls boarding school in Connecticut, I was quickly transported back to the discomforts and insecurities of my own high school experience. In retrospect, I guess the immediate angst I felt was indicative of how skillfully the author, Emily Layden, evokes the memory of what it’s ...
Read more… - April 23, 2021
The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune is simply the best book I’ve ever read! By the time I was 1/4 of the way into the library copy of it, I ordered my own copy from The Mockingbird Bookshop, because I knew it was going to be my new favorite book, and I would want to ...
Read more… - April 16, 2021
Thirsty Mermaids is an adult graphic novel that took me by surprise. When I put this book on hold I was expecting it to be full of cutesy mermaids and silly summer adventures. What I got was much more refreshing. The merpeople in this book come in all shapes and sizes and their motivation to ...
Read more… - April 9, 2021
This critically acclaimed memoir has been on my “to read” pile for years. The recent news that George Clooney is directing an Oscar-bait adaptation starring Ben Affleck made me finally crack it open. I devoured it, and I’m truly sad that I didn’t get to it earlier.
At its core, this is a story about a ...
Read more… - April 2, 2021
Witch Hat Atelier is an eight-volume Japanese manga series about Coco, a young tailor’s daughter who dreams of being a witch. In this series, magic is kept a well-guarded secret that only a select few are allowed to practice. Coco’s dreams become a reality, however, when a master witch comes to town and Coco finds ...
Read more… - March 26, 2021
George Saunders has been teaching a graduate level course about short stories in Russian literature at Syracuse for twenty years and his new book encapsulates this course. He includes seven stories by four writers (Chekov, Tolstoy, Turgenev, and Gogol) and then goes into a discussion and afterthought to help us process them and become better ...
Read more… - March 19, 2021
Addie LaRue is stuck in a loop. For the pandemic reader, Addie’s loop is a delicious escape from our own daily repetitions. She isn’t tied to her cell phone, the indoors, a demanding family, or a mind-numbing work-from-home job. Addie isn’t tied to anything at all—at least, no thing we would consider real. She has ...
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