Category Archives: American Literature

Beyond Belief by Jenna Miscavige Hill

American Literature

Synopsis: Subtitled: “My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape.” Review: Beyond Belief is one of the best ex-cult memoirs I have ever read. Not only does it go into great detail about the inner workings of Sea Org, the religious order of Scientology, but it’s extremely well written. I was on the edge of my seat wondering when Jenna Miscavige Hill (niece to Scientiology scion David Miscavige) would come to her sense and realize that she had been systematically abused physically, emotionally, and…

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Blood Moon by Alexandra Sokoloff (The Huntress/FBI Thrillers)

American Literature

Synopsis: This sequel to Huntress Moon follows Special Agent Roarke as he tracks a female serial killer who sets prostitutes and abused children free from their captors, while wondering if a cold case holds the secrets to her deadly sojourn. Review: Blood Moon was an outstanding follow up to Huntress Moon and I cannot wait to find out what happens next. I only like crime when the writing is top notch and often I find that most crime novels rely on sensationalistic descriptions of crime…

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Sober Mercies by Heather Harpham Kopp

American Literature

Synopsis: Subtitled: How Love Caught Up with a Christian Drunk. Review: Sober Mercies is first and foremost an addiction memoir, showing the secrecy and the deception and the havoc wreaked by Heather Harpham Kopp’s need to drink as much alcohol as possible every single day. What makes her story stand apart is that Kopp was (and still is) a professing Christian at the time of her addiction. She believed that alcoholism was only a sin problem, not an addiction or a disease, and so she…

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The Sweet Dead Life by Joy Preble

American Literature

Synopsis: After a car accident, Jenna’s stoner older brother starts acting really weird, like all perfect and helpful and otherworldly–and then announces that someone is trying to poison her. Review: The plot mechanism behind The Sweet Dead Life was a little clunky in parts, but the voice that Joy Preble came up with for Jenna absolutely won me over. I also loved that the story was set in Houston, not just because my mother-in-law lives there but more because it gave the book a great…

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The Way of Kings (Stormlight Archive, Volume 1) by Brandon Sanderson

American Literature

Synopsis: The first installment in a planned 10-book series set in a world where the remnants of long-forgotten magic may prove to be the undoing of all mankind. Review: My brother has been begging me to read The Way of Kings for ages, and he finally went and bought it for me. I’m ever so glad he did because it was a highly enjoyable read and a cut above Sanderson’s Mistborn trilogy, which I enjoyed but found a bit flat. I am going to have…

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Homeward Bound by Emily Matchar

American Literature

Synopsis: Subtitled: Why Women Are Embracing the New Domesticity. Review: Here’s what really gets me–we finally get to a point in history where most men acknowledge that women can have a voice in both their own lives and in the future of our country. And what happens? Women decide to take over the job of telling each other “yer doin’ it wrong.” Homeward Bound is yet another polemic against women who dare to decide that the corporate world is not for them. Leaving aside everything…

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Tiger Babies Strike Back by Kim Wong Keltner

American Literature

Synopsis: Subtitled: “How I Was Raised by a Tiger Mom but Could Not Be Turned to the Dark Side.” Review: My interest in Tiger Babies Strike Back petered out in the first 30 pages. Kim Wong Keltner is a good writer but I just grew weary of the memoir aspect of the story. I know it’s not entirely fair to judge the book you wish you were reading, but honestly I really wished she had talked to more families in an effort to present a…

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Blood of Dragons by Robin Hobb (Rain Wilds Chronicles)

American Literature

Synopsis: The fourth and final book in the story of the return of dragons to the world, and how they change humans for better and for worse. Review: Robin Hobb is one of my very favorite authors and I really wish I had done my due diligence and re-read the first 3 books in this series (as well as brushed up on the Liveship Traders series) before reading Blood of Dragons. I really love the world she created here but I didn’t connect with any…

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Rapture Practice by Aaron Hartzler

American Literature

Synopsis: A sheltered young man realizes he needs to decide what he really believes in. Review: Aaron Hartzler is witty and perceptive, and Rapture Practice is an insider’s look at the wacky outskirts of evangelicalism. I didn’t stay very interested in the memoir aspect, mainly because as I’ve mentioned before I’m not crazy about the genre, but I did like the way Hartzler told his story. He’s a good writer, to be sure. And the review would have been longer, but my site was hacked…

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The Business of Baby by Jennifer Margulis

American Literature

Synopsis: Subtitled, “What Doctors Don’t Tell You, What Corporations Try to Sell You, and How to Put Your Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Baby Before Their Bottom Line.” Review: I was basically nodding my head and saying yes yes yes while reading The Business of Baby, which covers pregnancy, birth, and the newborn period and lays out in damning detail how financial considerations are the reason why the US has such abysmal newborn and maternal mortality rates. Because of my work in lactation and had two home…

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