Synopsis:
While working on a novel in Tunisia, a writer encounters his own heart of darkness.
Review:
I had written a truly brilliant review of Patricia Highsmith’s The Tremor of Forgery, but it got eaten. Fie! The salient points were:

Patricia Highsmith plays cat and mouse with the reader just like her most famous creation Tom Ripley [...]

Popularity: 38% [?]

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Synopsis:
A collection of short stories set mostly among Indian immigrants in the US.
Review:
Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake was one of my favorite reads of last year, so I decided I needed to check out her much-buzzed about collection of short stories, Interpreter of Maladies. It will surprise no one who has read these tales that [...]

Popularity: 49% [?]

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Synopsis:
Despite being both beautiful and smart, former teen beauty Sasha’s love life is a shambles, and–even worse–she’s approaching 30 with rapid speed.
Review:
I usually don’t say blank is the new blank, but I’ve never been more glad that 30 is the new 20 than after reading this depressing book. When I was in my 20s, [...]

Popularity: 43% [?]

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Synopsis:
A new house in a suburban Atlanta neighborhood spells disaster for all its inhabitants.
Review:
It’s awfully hard to be frightened when you’re sitting on a rooftop deck in West Hollywood, letting the setting sun dry your bathing suit after discovering that you can float like a cork in the saltwater pool.
Popularity: 74% [?]

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Popularity: 74% [?]

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Synopsis:
An account of the murder of stay-at-home mom Jenn Corbin, and the subsequent investigation that she was not the first woman in her husband’s life to die of a gunshot wound.
Popularity: 37% [?]

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Popularity: 37% [?]

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Synopsis:
As her seven sons grow to manhood in 13th Century Norway, Kristin finds her marriage tested by long-simmering resentments, and struggles with her passage into senescence.
Review:
This might be my favorite of all three Kristin Lavransdatter books, because I think Undset is operating at the peak of her narrative powers. She really brings to life [...]

Popularity: 90% [?]

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Synopsis:
Entranced by the folk tales of an old mountain man, and repulsed by the same man’s grisly crimes, Redmond Hatch struggles to narrate the events which led him to bring his beloved wife and daughter to winterwood.
Review:
I was upset by the way Winterwood seduced me. I did not want to be reeled in [...]

Popularity: 100% [?]

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Synopsis:
Restlessness in her current relationship leads a NYC woman to wonder if her family’s legacy has doomed her to unhappiness.
Popularity: 51% [?]

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Popularity: 51% [?]

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Synopsis:
An old spinster teacher narrates her obsession with fellow teacher Sheba Hart, who is having an affair with her 15-year-old student.
Popularity: 35% [?]

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Popularity: 35% [?]

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Synopsis:
The tale of a society woman and her unconventional love affair contrasts with that of a landowner struggling with faith and duty.
Review:
Anna Karenina. The very words have struck me with fear and awe ever since a disastrous Russian History class in 12th grade, where I discovered my superpower’s limits for the first time. [...]

Popularity: 50% [?]

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