Category Archives: United States

The Late Show by Michael Connelly

01 Wednesday Mar 2023

Posted by in action, crimes against, detective, Fiction, murder, murder and investigation, mystery, suspense, United States

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This was my first time reading the prolific Michael Connelly, and I loved this mystery that introduces us to Renee Ballard, a detective in LA working the overnight shift. Ballard is a great character and the cases she tries to solve in this first story are compelling.

The Late Show introduces a terrific female character: Detective Renee Ballard…The pacing of Ballard’s debut story is breathless…Ballard is complicated and driven enough to sustain the series Connelly doubtless has in mind for her.– “New York Times”

A hard-hitting police procedural that captures the imagination from page one.– “RT Book Reviews (4 stars)”

The most intriguing mystery in The Late Show, though, is Ballard herself. Connelly is too skillful to hand us her resume in one document dump; instead, he fills out her portrait with a subtle hand over the course of the novel, a little background here, a glimpse of her temperament there, the revelation of her unusual living conditions sketched in between.– “Tampa Bay Times”

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Stolen : Five Free Boys Kidnapped into Slavery and Their Astonishing Odyssey Home by Richard Bell

01 Wednesday Feb 2023

Posted by in Biography, History, Non-fiction, Uncategorized, United States

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“A well-told story… A deep dive into the extraordinary risks faced by free blacks in the antebellum era.”–Kirkus Reviews

“Opening an unknown world from an unsung tragedy that started in early national Philadelphia and stretched grimly South, Stolen offers a worm’s eye view of the leviathan of American slavery, and of some of its most dastardly perpetrators and its most remarkable survivors. Richard Bell has researched inventively and mastered a vast body of scholarship, as we would expect from so distinguished a historian. But he also imbues his tale with the deep humanity of a great novelist. Both riveting and heartrending, Stolen joins the great literature of America’s founding tragedy, earning a place alongside the work of Harriet Beecher Stowe, Edward P. Jones, and Toni Morrison.” – Jane Kamensky, Jonathan Trumbull Professor of American History, Harvard University

“Stolen is historical storytelling at its best. Bell makes brilliant detective work come alive with vivid, powerful writing. The saga of these five boys, kidnapped and smuggled from Philadelphia to Mississippi in the 1820s, captures both the powerful undertow of slavery in the free black communities of the North and the urgent dawning of the abolitionist movement. There’s been nothing like it since Northup.” –Adam Rothman, author of Beyond Freedom’s Reach: A Kidnapping in the Twilight of Slavery

“Rigorously researched, heartfelt, and dramatically concise, Bell’s investigation illuminates the role slavery played in the systemic inequalities that still confront Black Americans” (Booklist)

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Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris

18 Wednesday Jan 2023

Posted by in adventure, Fiction, Historical Fiction, murder, Uncategorized, United States

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At the very end of the Civil War, two newly freed slave brothers have no way to make a living and no where to go.  Running parallel to this story is the forbidden romance of two Confederate soldiers.  When these two stories collide, chaos ensues.  Written so deliberately and well paced, it is hard to believe it is a debut novel!

“Harris’s lucid prose and vivid characterization illustrate a community at war with itself, poisoned by pride and mired in racial and sexual bigotry. Prentiss and Landry are technically free, but they remain trapped by a lifetime of blighted hopes and broken promises. Reconstruction will prove to be yet another lie. Harris’s first novel is an aching chronicle of loss, cruelty, and love in the wake of community devastation.”―Lesley Williams, Booklist (starred review)

“Deeply moving… Harris’s ambitious debut explores the aftermath of the Emancipation Proclamation in rural Georgia… Harris peoples the small community with well-developed characters… [He] writes in intelligent, down-to-earth prose and shows a keen understanding of his characters.”―Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“A timeless portrait of warring factions seeking peace… There is a shared longing at the heart of Harris’ novel… Harris draws readers into this sense of longing by exploring silences… Celebrating all manner of relationships that combat hate, this novel is a hopeful glimpse into the long legacy of American racial and civil tensions.”―Mari Carlson, Bookpage (starred review)

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Signal fires by Dani Shapiro

11 Wednesday Jan 2023

Posted by in Fiction, United States

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I really enjoyed this book.  217 pages, not a wasted word, original story, characters that you believe in – an unfolding origami puzzle – just as the Booklist review below suggests.

“Acclaimed novelist/memoirist Shapiro (Inheritance) writes with compassion and a deep understanding of the damage that secrets wreak. Shapiro’s first novel in 15 years was well worth the wait.” —Library Journal

“I don’t know of anyone who writes about family with the same generous understanding and gem-cut sentences as Dani Shapiro. Signal Fires confirms her as an artist of the highest order.” —Gary Shteyngart, author of Super Sad True Love Story

“Wise, deeply perceptive, suffused with light in spite of life’s darkness—Claire Messud, author of The Woman Upstairs

“Stunning in depth and breadth, this luminous examination of loss and acceptance, furtiveness and reliability, abandonment and friendship ultimately blazes with profound revelations . . . Like creating an intricate origami puzzle, Shapiro folds together the events that define these lives over decades, focusing on specific interludes to divulge old secrets or bury new ones. Returning to fiction after touching readers with her courageous and probing memoirs, including Inheritance, Shapiro delivers keen perceptions about family dynamics via fictional characters that exude a rare combination of substance and delicacy.” —Booklist [starred review]

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When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill

21 Wednesday Dec 2022

Posted by in fantasy, Fiction, Uncategorized, United States

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I loved this book.  Having grown up in the ‘50’s this book took me back to my childhood when I was trying to be the best I could be, but told to “let the boys win”.  Why did my mother wear high heels to vacuum?    Why one day did my father ask my mother to explain to me why I should stop playing neighborhood football with my buddies.  Rage, rage.rage….

“A deeply felt exploration of feminism in an alternate fantastical history…This allegory packs a punch.”—Publishers Weekly

“Completely fierce, unmistakably feminist, and subversively funny, When Women Were Dragons brings the heat to misogyny with glorious imagination and talon-sharp prose. Check the skies tonight—you might just see your mother.”—Bonnie Garmus, author of Lessons in Chemistry

“A complex, heartfelt story about following your heart and opening your mind to new possibilities. This novel’s magic goes far beyond the dragons.” —Kirkus (starred review)

“Kelly Barnhill’s poetic, pointed tale tackles the era’s pervasive silence concerning all things female.”
—Christian Science Monitor

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Chasing Me To My Grave: An artist’s memoir of the Jim Crow South by Erin Kelly

07 Wednesday Dec 2022

Posted by in Biography, History, memoir, United States

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WINNER OF THE 2022 PULITZER PRIZE IN BIOGRAPHY

On January 18, 2023 at 7 PM, the author Erin Kelly and Lillian Rembert one of Mr Rembert’s daughters, will come to Weston for a program celebrating Winfred Rembert’s life and art. 

This memoir describes the incredible life and art of Winfred Rembert, an African American man who survived a lynching attempt in Georgia during the civil rights movement. He later became an artist who created stories of his youth using leather tooling skills. While the memoir does include chapters describing the violence he survived, the book is also full of love, laughter, stories, art, and humanity.

“This is a book like no other, from Winfred Rembert’s unique and uniquely powerful autobiographical paintings to his disturbing and courageous life story . . . Rembert recounts diabolical abuse and violence with rare candor and precision . . . By using carved, tooled, and dyed leather as the medium for vibrantly patterned scenes from his life, Rembert turned the scars on his body and soul into artworks of clarion witness and reckoning. With a foreword by Bryan Stevenson and superb color reproductions, Rembert’s self-portrait in word and image belongs in every library.” – Donna Seaman, Booklist, starred review, “Best Books of the Year”

“Frank and compelling . . . An ultimately uplifting journey from the ugliness of virulent racism to the beauty of art.” – Kirkus, starred review

“Visually and narratively stunning . . . Rembert’s artistic talent was a gift; his use of that talent to create memorable images―of an era before modern cameras were ubiquitous―is a gift to history.” – Library Journal

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Fellowship Point  by Alice Elliott Dark

28 Monday Nov 2022

Posted by in Fiction, nature, United States

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“Fellowship Point is a marvel. Intricately constructed, utterly unique, this novel set on the coast of Maine is filled with insights about writing, about the perils and freedoms of aging, about the great mysteries, as well as the pleasures, of life. The story about the relationships between three women unfolds, as life does, through joys and losses, confrontations and confessions, with twists along the way that change your perception of all that came before. This is a world is so closely and acutely observed that I felt I lived in it. I was sorry to leave.”—Christina Baker Kline, #1 New York Times bestselling author

“Longing for an old-fashioned 19th century novel – but without the time travel? FELLOWSHIP POINT earns its nearly 600 pages with a quietly complex structure, starring two octogenarian women whose long friendship is entangled with their families’ landholdings in coastal Maine. As they seek to save the acreage from development, Agnes Lee and Polly Wister must also confront their past choices and find some peace in the present.”—Los Angeles Times

“Dark (Think of England) celebrates women’s friendships and artistic mentorship in this expansive yet intimate novel. The families and their grudges and grievances fill a broad canvas, and within it Dark delves deeply into the relationships between Agnes and her work, humans and the land, mothers and children, and, most indelibly, the sustenance and joy provided by a long-held female friendship. It’s a remarkable achievement.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Enthralling, masterfully written . . . Fellowship Point is a novel rich with social and psychological insights, both earnest and sly, big ideas grounded in individual emotions, a portrait of a tightly knit community made up of artfully drawn, individual souls.”–Kate Christensen, New York Times Book Review

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The Guncle by Stephen Rowley

21 Monday Nov 2022

Posted by in Fiction, Humor, United States

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If you liked the movie, The Birdcage – this one is for you. It’s the heartwarming and sweet story of a gay man who takes his niece and nephew for the summer following family tragedy. 

An NPR Book of the Year

Finalist for the 2021 Goodreads Choice Awards

“Heartwarming, hilarious…Rowley finds humor and poignancy in the snappy narrative….Readers will find this delightful and illuminating.” –Publishers Weekly

“Patrick is a memorable character, and it’s genuinely thrilling to read screenwriter-turned-novelist Rowley’s take on the mechanics of stardom….There’s true insight here into the psychology of gay men, Hollywood, and parenting. A novel with some real depth beneath all its witty froth.” –Kirkus Reviews

“Influenced by comic dialogue that would make Neil Simon jealous, the novel’s serious undercurrent of loss gives way, in the end, to a warmth that will make readers smile….A funny, gentle tale of family and friends, and a salve for the wounds they often cause.” –Library Journal
 
“Rowley’s sensitive and witty exploration of grief and healing soothes with a delectable lightness and cunning charm.” –Booklist

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Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout

14 Monday Nov 2022

Posted by in Fiction, United States

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This book follows Oh William!  in the Lucy Barton series.  It’s 2020, and the virus is just starting to infiltrate New York city.  Lucy’s former husband whisks her away to a remote Maine cottage as the pandemic unfolds.  In just under 300 pages so much happens….

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From Pulitzer Prize–winning, #1 New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Strout comes a poignant, pitch-perfect novel about a divorced couple stuck together during lockdown—and the love, loss, despair, and hope that animate us even as the world seems to be falling apart. (Amazon)

“No novelist working today has Strout’s extraordinary capacity for radical empathy, for seeing the essence of people beyond reductive categories, for uniting us without sentimentality. I didn’t just love Lucy by the Sea; I needed it. May droves of readers come to feel enlarged, comforted, and genuinely uplifted by Lucy’s story.”—The Boston Globe

“[Strout} injects sneaky subterranean power into seemingly transparent prose.”—New York Times Book Review

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Properties of Thirst by Marianne Wiggins

02 Wednesday Nov 2022

Posted by in Fiction, Historical Fiction, United States

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A New Yorker Best Book of 2022

Fifteen years after the publication of Evidence of Things Unseen, National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize finalist Marianne Wiggins returns with a novel destined to be an American classic..(Amazon). I never wanted this book to end.  I just kept slowing down to forestall the inevitable.  A stunner.

“A changing American landscape is beautifully portrayed in PROPERTIES OF THIRST, a moving and gripping new novel by Marianne Wiggins.  At the start of World War II, while Japanese families are relocated to Manzanar, the Rhodes family, who live on a ranch near the camp are equally uprooted by memories and circumstances.  What follows is a rich and powerful portrayal of love, loss, and the enduring strength of family.  A novel to be read and savored.”—Gail Tsukiyama, bestselling author of Women of the Silk and The Samurai’s Garden

“A sweeping, cinematic story of love and family set against the dramatic backdrop of World War II and the American West…. What makes the novel soar is the way Wiggins can evoke landscapes both interior and exterior, especially the expansive valley that has come to exemplify America’s best qualities—and its worst. This majestic novel will satisfy those thirsting for an epic saga of love, family, and the complexities of the American way.”—Kirkus *Starred Review* 

“Wiggins manages to capture a big swath of mid-century America by placing a blue-blooded family into a desert inland complete with adobe haciendas, desert blooms, and Hollywood movie sets, while throughout, the Rhodes hold out hope for Stryker’s survival. Wiggins’s masterpiece is one for the ages.”–Publishers Weekly, *Starred Review*

“[a] grand novel of principled and creative individuals caught in the vise of history… Loss, desire, moral dilemmas, reflection, and zesty dialogue with the do-good energy of Frank Capra films generate a WWII home front tale of profound and far-ranging inquiry and imagination, scintillating humor, intrepid romance, and conscience.”—Booklist *Starred Review*

“Masterful…. Readers won’t be able to look away. Wiggins’ characters are raw and honest… [her] writing, which can be fragmented or polished depending on the page, opens up microscopic universes and sprawling landscapes alike. It’s a joy to read.”—Bookpage *Starred Review*

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