Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

11 Friday Aug 2023

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A modern love story about two childhood friends, Sam and Sadie, who reunite as barely-out–of-college adults to become partners in the intricately imagined world of video game design, finding an intimacy in their digital worlds that eludes them in their real lives.  

P.S. I never played a video game in my life but was swept away by this magnificent story and female heroine.

“Utterly brilliant. In this sweeping, gorgeously written novel, Gabrielle Zevin charts the beauty, tenacity, and fragility of human love and creativity. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is one of the best books I’ve ever read.” —John Green, author of The Anthropocene Reviewed

“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

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Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane

04 Friday Aug 2023

Posted by in action, Fiction, suspense, thriller

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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)

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The Midcoast by Adam White 

24 Monday Jul 2023

Posted by in action, adventure, Drama, Fiction, murder and investigation, United States

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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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Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson

17 Monday Jul 2023

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In a wealthy section of Brooklyn Heights lives the Stockton family, where each of the three adult children navigates love, marriage, and their careers, including the spouses who marry into this unique family of great privilege. This is a well written book to bring to the beach this summer.

“A charming, funny, and keenly observed story about New York City’s one percent—and what it means to find yourself among them, whether by birth or marriage.”


—Town and Country “Love is at the heart of this sparkling debut novel by Jenny Jackson, which excavates old money and contemporary problems with satiric flair.”
—Southern Living

“This novel…is laugh-out-loud good….Love and money have always mixed like oil and water (not well), but Jackson finds new humor and warmth in her particularly witty debut.”—Harper’s Bazaar

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The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese

05 Wednesday Jul 2023

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Doctor-writer Abraham Verghese is one of my all-time favorite authors.  It has been 14 years since he wrote his best seller, Cutting for Stone.  Come to Kerala, India and one family who suffers from The Condition –  where one family member every generation dies by drowning. Follow Big Ammachi as she survives tragedy and triumph for seventy years, starting as a 12 –year-old bride to grand matriarch, along with her country.

“Instantly and utterly absorbing is the so-worth-the-wait new novel by the author of Cutting for Stone . . . Verghese—who gifts the matriarch his mother’s name and even some of her stories—illuminates colonial history, challenges castes and classism, and exposes injustices, all while spectacularly spinning what will undoubtedly be one of the most lauded, awarded, best-selling novels of the year.”—Terry Hong, Booklist (starred review)

“One of the best books I’ve read in my entire life. It’s epic. It’s transportive . . . It was unputdownable!”—Oprah Winfrey, OprahDaily.com

“A masterpiece. Put it on your bookcase next to A Passage to India by E.M. Forster or anything by the brave and brilliant Salman Rushdie. Indeed, put it next to any great novel of your choice. Sprawling, passionate, tragic and comedic at turns . . . Verghese, probably the best doctor-writer since Anton Chekhov, upends all of our expectations . . . You won’t want it to end.”—BookPage (starred review)

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Someone Else’s Shoes by Jojo Moyes 

28 Wednesday Jun 2023

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When two women accidentally take each other’s bags at the gym, it sets off a series of events and misunderstandings. Sam and Nisha are two mothers in their 40s living in London, each dealing with personal issues in their careers and families. I always enjoy reading Jojo Moyes, and this was more comedic than some of her other books, while still being thoughtful and poignant.

“[Someone Else’s Shoes] showcases Moyes’ ability to portray emotion and female friendship with themes of love, betrayal, family, and hope. It is action packed and will have readers rooting for Nisha and Sam.”—Booklist, STARRED review

“This is a novel about women of a certain age who suddenly find themselves invisible — to their spouses, to their colleagues, to the world — and find pleasure in being “seen” by each other.”—The New York Times

“Nobody writes women the way Jojo Moyes does—recognizably real and complex and funny and flawed—which is what makes her novels an auto-buy for me.”—Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author

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Finding Me: A Memoir by Viola Davis  

24 Saturday Jun 2023

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I highly recommend the audio version because it is read by the author. Heartbreaking and sad in many places, it is also funny at times too. I loved when she spoke as a friend or family member using their accent and voice.

“Davis’s grit and determination are moving, and her unflinching reckoning with the “racism and misogyny” she faced in Hollywood makes her story of overcoming all the more effective. Fans will be utterly enthralled.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Reading her memoir, Finding Me. . . you understand where her ability comes from: Only someone who has already been dragged into the depths of emotion readily knows how to get back there.”  — New York Times Magazine

“An unvarnished chronicle of hard-won, well-earned success.” — Kirkus Reviews

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Sam: a novel by Allegra Goodman

16 Friday Jun 2023

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This novel, about a young woman’s transition from childhood to adolescence to adulthood, felt so real I would swear it’s written about someone I know. It was hard to put down because I was cheering for Sam to stay strong in spite of all of the challenges that girls and young women face. Very well done.

“Sam is about as perfect of a coming-of-age story I have ever read. It explores what happens when one girl loses the wonder of childhood—the innocence of her early years only to reclaim her power and hope. I fell into this novel and read it in one sitting.”—Jenna Bush Hager, Today

“It’s impressive how much emotional power is packed into this . . . contained story.”—Publishers Weekly

“Sam is one of the most evocative and tender examinations of youth that I’ve ever read . . . One of the best writers around, Goodman has made something truly beautiful, evoking a feeling that is hard to name but stirs inside us with every line.”—Kevin Wilson, New York Times bestselling author of Nothing to See Here

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Small World by Laura Zigman 

07 Wednesday Jun 2023

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Small World is a treasure: a family story that is wistful one moment, witty and wry the next. Few novelists write as beautifully about the damaged heart and the wounded soul as Laura Zigman, or understand the emotional bonds of siblings and sisters. I loved this novel.”— Chris Bohjalian, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Flight Attendant

“I absolutely loved Small World — a wise, warm, and often hilarious exploration of sisterhood and community, set against a nuanced portrait of one family’s tragic past.” — Shelby Van Pelt, author of Remarkably Bright Creatures

“A tender story of two sisters who, both in midlife and both recently divorced, move in together. . . A moving story about the power of family secrets, sisterhood, and memory. Readers of authors such as Jodi Picoult, Barbara Kingsolver, or Kristin Hannah will be affected by Zigman’s skillful and sensitive chronicling of a sisterhood simultaneously affected by the past and finding a new future.” — Booklist

“Entrancing. . . . Zigman does a stellar job of creating well-rounded characters, and a satisfying ending tops off her well-crafted paean to sisterhood. Readers will love this.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“[Zigman] excels at depicting the emotional push and pull of sibling relationships. . . Yet she never loses her sharp sense of humor. . . A compassionate, often funny examination of shared family grief and love.” — Kirkus Reviews 

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Master Slave Husband Wife: an Epic journey from Slavery to Freedom by Ilyon Woo

26 Friday May 2023

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This book presents the remarkable true story of Ellen and William Craft, who escaped slavery through daring, determination, and disguise, with Ellen passing as a wealthy, disabled white man and William posing as “his” slave.

“Master Slave Husband Wife, like all of the truly great American stories, spent over a century lying in wait, desperate to be told. Enter Ilyon Woo.  Ellen and WIlliam Craft loved each other, but also loved freedom, and knew one was impossible without the other.  And so they embarked on one of the most daring feats ever attempted in American history, a breathless story captured with breathless prose, and we readers gasp in amazement and wonder at the tragedy and triumph.” — Marlon James, winner of the 2015 Booker Prize

“A gripping adventure. . . . suspenseful and wonderfully told.  A captivating tale that ably captures the determination and courage of a remarkable couple.” ― Kirkus Reviews (starred review

“For those of us who already were familiar with Ellen and William Craft, we’re so grateful for this reconsideration of this courageous couple’s story. Ilyon Woo has accomplished a phenomenal feat, presenting previously unpublished archival excavations. Certainly, this is an essential addition to early African American studies—but more than research, Woo offers the Crafts’ travels with such grace, such tenderness. Here is a necessary rendering of Black love, Black resilience, and Black humanity during one of our nation’s most fraught times.” — Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, author of The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois)

“A narrative of such courage and resourcefulness it seems too dashing to be true. But it is. . . . The story is so richly dramatic, and Ms. Woo so skilled at spinning it out, that at times it’s a genuine nail-biter.” — Priscilla M. Jensen ― The Wall Street Journal

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