- February 1, 2019
Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan (2018)
“To
defeat the darkness out there, you must defeat the darkness in
yourself.” Aslan, The
Voyage of the Dawn Treader, C. S. Lewis
Becoming Mrs. Lewis: The Improbable Love Story of Joy Davidman and C. S. Lewis by Patti Callahan is anything but a slight novel; rather it is an intellectually inspiring and ...
Read more… - January 25, 2019
Townie by Andre Dubus III
In this
memoir, novelist Andre Dubus III explores his unsettled background as a child
of divorce in the 1970s. After his father, an acclaimed author, left Dubus’s
mother to raise four kids alone in a Massachusetts mill town filled with drugs
and crime, Dubus felt he had to protect himself and those he loved. He ...
Read more… - January 15, 2019
Patience by Daniel Clowes (2016)
Daniel Clowes’ 180-page vibrant science-fiction graphic novel, Patience, is a love story for the ages. Shortly after finding out she was pregnant, Patience is killed by a mysterious stranger. After spending decades lamenting his lost love, Jack discovers a way to time travel and launches on a journey to save Patience. ...
Read more… - January 9, 2019
Circe (2018)
Madeline Miller
I decided to read this book because it was on so many top ten lists for 2018, but I confess I started it with low expectations. I have never been a huge mythology/classics fan. I liked Latin because the translating was like a puzzle, not because the stories and characters captivated me.
Well, ...
Read more… - January 4, 2019
The Library Book (2018)
Susan Orlean
On April 28, 1986, a massive fire at the Los Angeles Public Library consumed four hundred thousand books and damaged seven hundred thousand more. Investigators at the time ruled that the devastating fire had been set intentionally, and pointed the finger at enigmatic, aspiring actor Harry Peak. Decades later, speculation still ...
Read more… - December 20, 2018
My Plain Jane
Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows
Hear, dear reader, is a frothy concoction of humor, romance, mystery, and adventure, packed in a well-plotted Young Adult novel. A reinvention and expansion of Charlotte Bronte’s classic Jane Eyre, it will entertain those of you who labored through the original for school, as ...
Read more… - December 20, 2018
A Carnival of Losses: Notes Nearing Ninety
Donald Hall
As always, the book flap has a nice concise summary of this slim but wonderful volume: “New essays from the vantage point of very old age …”
Donald Hall, a U.S. poet laureate and husband of poet Jane Kenyon (who died in 1995 of leukemia), finished this gem as ...
Read more… - December 20, 2018
The Collector’s Apprentice
B.A. Shapiro
There are several collectors in this story but only one is murdered!
Like B. A. Shapiro’s other two novels (The Art Forger and The Muralist), The Collector’s Apprentice masterfully blends art history with suspense, creating a perfect piece of historical fiction. It’s the roaring 20s Europe, and a young Belgian woman is ...
Read more… - December 20, 2018
Hey, Kiddo
Jarrett Krosoczka
Hey, Kiddo is a graphic memoir written by children’s author Jarrett Krosoczka. Jarrett tells his story of growing up with his grandparents, as his mother battles addiction and his father is out of the picture. To make sense of his difficult situation, he expresses himself though art. A National Book Award Finalist for ...
Read more… - December 20, 2018
Warlight
Michael Ondaatje
“In 1945 our parents went away and left us in the care of two men who may have been criminals.”
This is Nathaniel William’s opening statement in Warlight, a novel about his coming-of-age in post-World War II London. As the novel’s narrator, he tries to reconstruct and make sense of his adolescence after his parents ...
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