Synopsis: After witnessing an awful tragedy, a young woman becomes obsessed with a teacher at her school and never quite gets her life where she thinks it needs to be. Review: Listen, you don’t pick up a book like The Adults because of the plot synopsis. You pick it up because you’re hoping that the author has figured out a new way to say old things. And in the case of Alison Espach, you would be absolutely correct. The title is a deliberately misleading one.…
Synopsis: The death of a society girl in 1899 New York City isn’t quite what it seems, thanks to an impossibly complex snarl of love triangles. Review: I guess you would call The Luxe “Gossip Girl” set in Edith Wharton territory, but that makes it sound dreadful when in fact it’s pretty enjoyable. I don’t think I’ll continue on in the series but it was a fun read.
Synopsis: After signing up for a psychology experiment, a young woman finds herself in a dangerous “arena” where she may lose her life trying to find her way out. Review: Arena is an allegory for the Christian walk of faith, something I knew when I bought the book but then forgot until about halfway through. I think that’s a pretty good sign that the book mostly escapes being on-the-nose and heavy handed in its plot execution and character development. Callie is an ordinary girl who…
Synopsis: When the eccentric creator of the virtual reality world that has become more real than the real world dies without an heir, the nerds of the world race to discover a hidden easter egg that will unlock his fortune. Review: So. Fun. Ready Player One was an absolute treat of a book–compulsively readable and fabulously geeky. The hero is Wade, known in the virtual world called OASIS as “Parzival,” a high school student who has dedicated his whole life to hunting for the hidden…
Synopsis: When the new drama teacher chooses “Lysistrata” for the school play, the women of the town find themselves suddenly and completely uninterested in sex. Review: The Uncoupling was a quick read, but not a very satisfying one. The premise was too gimmicky and the insights into love and romance felt perfunctory. I couldn’t really relate to the characters, who felt generically suburban as opposed to individually human.
Synopsis: The breathtaking conclusion to The Auralia Thread. Review: Magnificent. To say much more about The Ale Boy’s Feast would involve an ungraceful unstitching of the intricate world and story Jeffrey Overstreet has created in the series begun in Auralia’s Colors. If you want to read a fantasy series that will expand your mind, challenge your perceptions, awaken your emotions, and make you ache for all that is possible, then please, get started on this series right away. I can’t wait to share these with…
Synopsis: How the cells from the cancerous cervix of an impoverished black woman from Baltimore came to be the foundation for basically all scientific research with cells in the world. Review: I was very excited to learn that my public library was going to begin lending Kindle books. The list was pretty dismal, but I had heard good things about The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks so I decided to give it a try. Henrietta Lacks was born and raised and ultimately died in poverty.…
Synopsis: A down-on-her-luck Los Angeles witch comes into an unexpected inheritance, a house with a previous tenant who just won’t leave… even after death. Review: Somebody Tell Aunt Tillie She’s Dead was a tremendous amount of fun to read. Christiana Miller‘s background in the TV industry shows in her confident, imaginative plotting and idiosyncratic characters that leap off the page with the power of their intention within the story. The book is steeped in real witchcraft, of the Los Angeles Wiccan variety, and while the…
Synopsis: In a town dominated by an oppressive, judgmental church, a girl pregnant by rape, a homosexual boy, and an out-of-touch family man become united by a violent act. Review: I think The Grace of Guilt is aiming to be The Shack only with enough plot for at least three books. At first, I thought, “This person really hates Christianity.” The so-called Christian characters were so, so, so awful–prejudiced, hateful, and hypocritical. And then the savior-figure, an enigmatic hermit named Sam, just went around spewing…
Synopsis: The tale of a Russian midwife who emigrates to America during the pogroms of the early 1900s. Review: The Midwife was a completely satisfying reading experience, not just because the plot and characters were so engaging, but because I loved the author’s perspective on birth. It’s as if Ina May Gaskin were writing historical fiction–it’s so rare to see birth treated like a normal event, not an emergency. I am not a birth junkie but I did have both my kids at home and…