04 Wednesday Oct 2023
Posted in 20th century, Biography, History, Non-fiction
Tags
Auschwitz (Concentration camp)|, biography, Escaped prisoners, Holocaust survivors, Jewish Holocaust, Jews, Nazi concentration camp escapes, Rudolf Vrba, Slovakia, World War 1939-45
26 Tuesday Sep 2023
Posted in Fiction
June and Athena have known each other since college. Both aspiring writers, Athena has found great success, while June has not. When Athena dies unexpectedly, June takes one of her manuscripts and publishes the book as her own. Chaos ensues! This is a darkly funny, cynical take on race, the publishing world, and cancel culture.
“Her magnificent novel uses satire to shine a light on systemic racial discrimination and the truth that often hides behind the twisted narratives constructed by those in power.” — Booklist (starred review)
“At once a brilliant satire that mixes horror and humor; a nuanced exploration of race, heritage, identity, and diversity in publishing; and an honest look at the hell that is social media, this might just be Kuang’s best.” — Boston Globe
“This is a great read. Crime, satire, horror, paranoia, questions of cultural appropriation. Plenty of nasty social media pile-ons, too. But, basically, just a great story. Hard to put down, harder to forget.” — Stephen King, #1 New York Times bestselling author
22 Friday Sep 2023
Posted in Fiction, Historical Fiction, United States
This is a disturbing look at slavery through the lens of forced conception and birth as a means to increase wealth for slave owners. Peyton’s use of language is beautiful and powerful
“Engaging, arresting…. Peyton positions Night Wherever We Go in conversation with contemporary novels that reimagine the expansion of possibilities for Black enslaved people in the American South…. [Night Wherever We Go] asks us to remember that our personal history—acting with whatever power, big or small, we have in our reach—transforms our communities, too.” — Boston Globe
“A powerful and inspired achievement. Tracey Rose Peyton gives voice to the enslaved women of this nation’s past who have, for far too long, had their voices gone unheard in the annals of history. She does them justice and then some. This one is not to be missed.” — Nathan Harris, author of The Sweetness of Water
“Night Wherever We Go is extraordinary: a beautiful book about harrowing things, beautiful because of its understanding of humanity, its astonishing language, and the plain brilliance of its author. I’m not sure I’ve recovered from the experience of reading it, or ever will, or ever should.” — Elizabeth McCracken, author of The Souvenir Museum
15 Friday Sep 2023
Posted in Fiction, Historical Fiction, United States
Tags
ambition, book clubs (Discussion groups), female friendship, Helen Gurley Brown, New York (N.Y.), women photographers, young women
I loved this very funny historical fiction story from the 1960’s told from the point of view of the woman who became Helen Gurley Brown’s secretary when she took over running Cosmopolitan magazine.
“Where the book sparkles brightest is in Rosen’s complete success in creating a soapy, small-town-girl-in-the-big-city story that includes sophisticated bad boys, designer clothes, and lots of smoking and day drinking. An ode to idealized 1960s New York, this champagne bubble of a novel takes the Mad Menapproach to depicting single, twentysomething women.”—Booklist
“Instantly absorbing, thoroughly researched and a fun, breezy read. It’s like revisiting ‘Mad Men,’ but from Peggy and Joan’s points of view.”—BookReporter
“Renée Rosen is my go-to for whip-smart heroines who love their work. Park Avenue Summer is a delightful summer cocktail of a read!”—Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Alice Network
06 Wednesday Sep 2023
Posted in action, adventure, History, murder, murder and investigation, Non-fiction, Travel
Tags
1700's, Great Britain, murder and investigation, mutiny, Patagonia (Argentina and Chile), shipwreck victims, shipwrecks, Wager (Ship)
The Wager is a grand tale of human behavior at the extremes told by one of our greatest nonfiction writers. Grann’s recreation of the hidden world on a British warship rivals the work of Patrick O’Brian, his portrayal of the castaways’ desperate straits stands up to the classics of survival writing such as The Endurance, and his account of the court martial has the savvy of a Scott Turow thriller. As always with Grann’s work, the incredible twists of the narrative hold the reader spellbound. (Amazon)
“The most gripping sea-yarn I’ve read in years….A tour de force of narrative nonfiction. Mr. Grann’s account show how storytelling, whether to judges or readers, can shape individual and national fortunes – as well as our collective memories.”—Wall Street Journal
“The beauty of The Wager unfurls like a great sail…He fixes his spyglass on the ravages of empire, of racism, of bureaucratic indifference and raw greed…one of the finest nonfiction books I’ve ever read.” — The Guardian (UK)
“His dogged search through ships’ logs and other contemporaneous accounts of the disaster and its mutinous aftermath has turned up the kind of sterling details that make his writing sing; he is also interested in the way these events were recorded and then recounted, with many different people trying to shape the memory of what happened. Grann simultaneously reconstructs history while telling a tale that is as propulsive and adventure-filled as any potboiler.”— The Atlantic
25 Friday Aug 2023
Tags
domestic fiction, family secrets, Hispanic Americans, Hurricane Maria 2017, Identity (Psychology)|, mother and child, political activists
Siblings Olga (a wedding planner) and Prieto (a politician) are lifelong New Yorkers navigating their careers and personal lives when they begin receiving messages from their mother, who left them years ago to return to Puerto Rico. Olga Dies Dreaming is both funny and serious, weaving the culture and history of Puerto Rico into a story about love and family.
“Vibrant and raw…Olga Dies Dreaming delivers a roller coaster’s worth of beautiful highs and lows. All told, it’s an experience worth savoring.” ―BookPage
“Liberation is at the heart of Olga Dies Dreaming. The story’s driving tension derives from questions of how to break free…The book’s title is an allusion to the poem “Puerto Rican Obituary,” by Pedro Pietri, which contains the lines “Olga / dies dreaming of a five dollar raise.” But Gonzalez’s Olga will not go meekly to such a fate. Sometimes we must free ourselves ― even from dreams.” ― New York Times Book Review
“Atmospheric, intelligent, and well informed: an impressive debut.” ―Kirkus, starred review
18 Friday Aug 2023
Posted in adventure, Biography, meaning of life, Travel
Tags
biography, families, fathers and sons, Luke Russert, parenting, television journalists, Tim Russert 1950-2008, travel
‘This starts as the story of one father and one son, and soon grows into something much deeper and more profound: a meditation on loss, and grief, a search for home, a journey to find a missing hero that leads the author finally back to himself. It is Luke Russert’s story but in the end, the main character is you, the reader.’ — Wright Thompson, senior ESPN writer and bestselling author of Pappyland and The Cost of These Dreams
‘A rich and compelling account of family, grief and coming of age. Luke Russert turns tragedy into rich lessons of life.’ — Tom Brokaw, legendary journalist and author of The Greatest Generation
‘In Look For Me There, Luke Russert traverses terrain both physical and deeply personal. On his journey to some of the world’s most stunning destinations, he visits the internal places of grief, family, faith, ambition and purpose–with intense self-reflection, honesty and courage.’ — Savannah Guthrie, co-anchor Today
11 Friday Aug 2023
Posted in Fiction, romance, United States
Tags
ambition, friendship, man-woman relationships, romance, success in business, video game designers, video games
“Zevin… returns with an exhilarating epic of friendship, grief, and computer game development…. Zevin layers the narrative with her characters’ wrenching emotional wounds as their relationships wax and wane… Even more impressive are the visionary and transgressive games… This is a one-of-a-kind achievement.”—Publishers Weekly, starred
“Riveting… Zevin has written the book she was born to write, a love letter to every aspect of gaming…Zevin’s delight in her characters, their qualities, and their projects sprinkles a layer of fairy dust over the whole enterprise…Sure to enchant even those who have never played a video game in their lives, with instant cult status for those who have.”—Kirkus, starred
“You don’t have to be a gamer to appreciate the pulsing heart of this best-seller: In a story spanning three decades and references from Oregon Trail to Macbeth, Gabrielle Zevlin has written a modern, definitive story about work, love, and friends for whom you’d do and risk everything.”—Keely Weiss and Halie Lesavage, Harper’s Bazaar
04 Friday Aug 2023
Set in summer 1974 at the start of the Boston busing crisis, Small Mercies is an intense, gripping mystery about a woman trying to find her missing daughter after she disappears the same night a young man is killed. The novel explores issues of race, family, education, crime, and features one of the most memorable characters I’ve met in a while: Mary Pat, the South Boston mother at the center of the story.
“This taut, gripping mystery is also a novel of soul-searching, for the author and reader alike.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Powerful, unforgettable…[a] remarkable novel about racism, violence, and parental vengeance.” — Library Journal (starred review)
“A complex, multidimensional tragedy of epic proportions . . . Lehane straddles the line between historical fiction and thriller as dexterously as anyone, and this is his best work so far.” — Booklist (starred review)
24 Monday Jul 2023
Posted in action, adventure, Drama, Fiction, murder and investigation, United States
A propulsive drama that cares as deeply about its characters as it does about the crimes they commit, The Midcoast explores the machinations of privilege, the dark recesses of the American dream, and the lies we tell as we try, at all costs, to protect the ones we love. (Amazon)
“Looking for an addictive summer read? This crime drama embedded in a moving portrait of two Maine families marks the debut of a genius storyteller.”—People (Book of the Week)
“The Midcoast is a suspenseful, funny, and chilling uncovering of small-town secrets within a propulsive family drama. . . . A perfect summer read about a perfect vacation haven.”—Angie Kim, author of Miracle Creek
“In deft, knowing, and crystalline prose, Adam White writes, in essence, the novel about the Maine coast, a winsome, perplexing, and ultimately shadowy place that doesn’t give up its big secrets easily.”—Richard Ford
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