02 Monday May 2022
Posted in Fiction
Tags
brothers and sisters, Caribbean Americans, families, family secrets, mother's death, surfers, swimmers
Bereft at their mother’s death, Benny and Byron have the shock of their lives when the lawyer tells them their mother left a voice message revealing a heartbreaking story that they never knew. The instructions to them were to share the family traditional black cake when the time was right. A mother’s wisdom: we can’t choose what we inherit … but we can choose who we become?
28 Monday Feb 2022
Posted in 20th century, detective, Fiction, mystery
Tags
The author does a great job of creating the atmosphere of the 1970’s – it felt nostalgic and like a trip back to a simpler time.
“Amy Mason Doan creates a whole world and mood with her exquisitely crafted novel, Lady Sunshine. It’s replete with late-’70s nostalgia, and Doan masterfully renders the lives of musicians and those who are drawn to them, no matter the price. A delicious daydream of a book.”
—Elin Hilderbrand, New York Times bestselling author of 28 Summers
“With a winning combination of lyrical writing and a page-turning plot, Amy Mason Doan chronicles the evolution and mysterious demise of the friendship between two young women at the California estate-cum-commune of a renowned musician. A tone-perfect evocation of the free-spirited late 1970s and a riveting coming-of-age story, Lady Sunshine captures the highs of artistic creation, the dangers of hero worship, and the costs of trying to outrun your past. This sun-dappled book has it all: heart, smarts, and an irresistible musical beat.”—Karen Dukess, author of The Last Book Party
13 Wednesday Oct 2021
Tags
families, FBI, investigation, missing persons, Sausalito (CA), Secrecy, stepdaughters, thriller fiction
17 Saturday Jul 2021
Posted in 20th century, Fiction, United States
“A quiet gem of a first novel. The author’s lyrical prose and stark portrayal of grief and guilt…is conveyed so movingly this story is hard to put down. With language poetic in its cadence and capable of seamlessly transporting our minds and emotions to another place and time, this accomplished debut will be welcomed by readers of authors such as Willa Cather, Alice Munro, Amy Tan, or Lisa See.”―Library Journal
“Beneficence is amazing in its vision. Luminous. With wisdom and compassion, Meredith Hall writes about the capacity for atonement. Beneficence, then. Goodness. Generosity to see deeply, to live through fear and pain on your journey toward the awareness of splendor.”―Ursula Hegi
“These voices from the past speak so clearly to our time, at a moment when many of us wonder whether we’ll lose the things that we consider blessings….Beneficence is a quiet but steady book, one that echoes ancient and important rhythms.”―Washington Post
“Spare but decked with moments of crystalline beauty…. A family flounders in grief, but finds their way home through forgiveness and acceptance, in Beneficence, Meredith Hall’s gorgeous and moving new novel.”―Foreword, starred review
Readers of Kent Haruf would like this book.
21 Monday Jun 2021
Posted in 20th century, Fiction, murder and investigation, United States
Tags
coming of age, detective and mystery, drugs, families, Indians of North America, Michigan, Ojibwa Indians, racially-mixed people, undercover operations
“Boulley, herself an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, writes from a place of love for her community and shares some key teachings from her culture, even mixing languages within the context of the story. She doesn’t shy away from or sugar-coat the very real circumstances that plague reservations across the country, and she tackles these through her biracial hero who gets involved in the criminal investigation into the corruption that led to this pain. An incredible thriller, not to be missed.” ―Booklist, Starred Review
“A suspenseful tale filled with Ojibwe knowledge, hockey, and the politics of status.” ―Kirkus Reviews
“Though Firekeeper’s Daughter contains gripping action sequences and gasp-inducing twists, it’s Daunis’ mission of self-discovery, which begins as a low and steady growl and grows to a fierce, proud roar, that has the most impact… Though it both shocks and thrills, in the end, what leaves you breathless is Firekeeper’s Daughter’s blazing heart.” ―BookPage, Starred Review
“Immersive and enthralling, Firekeeper’s Daughter plunges the reader into a community and a landscape enriched by a profound spiritual tradition. Full of huge characters and spellbinding scenes, it gives a fascinating insight into life on and off the reservation, with Daunis as a tough and resourceful heroine through every vicissitude.” ―Financial Times
**While this book may be classified as Young Adult in some libraries, I surely enjoyed reading it as an adult.
28 Sunday Mar 2021
Posted in Fiction
Tags
families, immigrants, Iran, Iranian American teenagers, middle school boys, Oklahoma, truthfulness and falsehood
“At the front of a middle school classroom in Oklahoma, a boy named Khosrou (whom everyone calls “Daniel”) stands, trying to tell a story. His story. But no one believes a word he says. To them he is a dark-skinned, hairy-armed boy with a big butt whose lunch smells funny… But Khosrou’s stories, stretching back years, and decades, and centuries, are beautiful, and terrifying, from the moment his family fled Iran in the middle of the night with the secret police moments behind them, back to the sad, cement refugee camps of Italy….and further back still to the Jasmine-scented city of Isfahan.”–Amazon. While this beautifully written novel is aimed at children and young adults, adult readers will be astounded by this true story.
A modern masterpiece – as epic as the Iliad and Shahnameh, and as heartwarming as Charlotte’s Web. It’s for the kids at the lunch table; the heroes of tomorrow, just looking to survive the battle of adolescence. – NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
Supple, sparkling and original. – THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
“A distinctive voice. A rare treasure of a book.” – PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (starred review)
“A journey as intimate as it is epic.”BOOKLIST (starred review)
“A story that soars. Readers will be transported.”- BCCB (starred review)
04 Monday Jan 2021
Posted in 20th century, Fiction
Tags
brothers, California, death, depressed persons, faith, families, Ghanaians in U.S., grief, mentally ill mothers, psychiatry research, women medical students
Gifty is a PhD candidate in neuroscience at Stanford. She studies addiction and depression in mice, but both exist in her family as well. Gifty is very much a contemporary, forward-looking character—a Ghanaian-American woman who is excelling in science at one of the best schools in the world—but she is also drawn by memories of faith and family in Alabama where she grew up. Quite different from her first book, Homegoing. A compelling read.
“Unforgettable… Transcendent Kingdom has an expansive scope that ranges into fresh, relevant territories—much like the title, which suggests a better world beyond the life we inhabit.”—BookPage [starred review]
“Gyasi’s wise second novel pivots toward intimacy… In precise prose, Gyasi creates an ache of recognition, especially for readers knowledgeable about the wreckage of addiction. Still, she leavens this nonlinear novel with sly humor… The author is astute about childhood grandiosity and a pious girl’s deep desire to be good; she conveys in brief strokes the notched, nodding hook of heroin’s oblivion…final chapter that gives readers a taste of hard-won deliverance.”—Kirkus Reviews [starred review]
“Yaa Gyasi’s profoundly moving second novel takes place in the vast, fragile landscape where the mysteries of God and the certainties of science collide. Through deliberate and precise prose, the book becomes an expansive meditation on grief, religion, and family.”—The Boston Globe
14 Friday Feb 2020
Posted in 20th century, anecdotes, Biography, Non-fiction, Travel
Heartwarming, funny, full of good intentions, journalist, Dan Kois is determined to break out of the East coast parenting bubble to find a better quality lifestyle for his wife and two preteen girls. One year, four locations: New Zealand, the Netherlands, Costa Rica, and small town Kansas.
“In this highly entertaining and wryly insightful book, Dan Kois shows how elastic the very concept of family is. As he recounts his family’s encounters with four foreign cultures, he illuminates not only those other societies, but also our own. He argues persuasively that we have much to learn from divorcing ourselves from our own assumptions.”―Andrew Solomon, author of Far and Away and Far From the Tree
“Lots of people talk about pulling up stakes and traveling for a year. Dan Kois and his family actually did it. He’s funny and honest about how it all turned out.”―Pamela Druckerman, author of Bringing Up Bébé and There Are No Grown-Ups
“This sometimes hair-raising adventure in family togetherness across many continents took courage even to attempt, and a lively sense of humor to describe. Kois has produced a delightful and eye-opening book about what it means to be a family in the modern world.”―Ian Frazier, author of Family and Coyote V Acme
14 Tuesday Jan 2020
Hang-on! Debut sister writers! 17 year old Alaine has stepped off the path to college for now after “the incident”. Join her on her punishment suspension doing community service in her mother country Haiti to which she has never visited. It is a roller coaster of surprises, family secrets, and even a family curse!
“…. Alaine Beauparlant is that rare character who feels like your complicated but indispensable friend, one you wish you could stay in touch with and hear more fascinating and absorbing stories from long after finishing the book.” -Edwidge Danticat, author of Breath, Eyes, Memory
“The Moulite sisters’ well-conceived debut is an alternately funny and bittersweet story of loss, regret, love, and sacrifice… Seamlessly blending story lines and allusions to Haiti’s history and culture, the authors create an indelible, believable character in Alaine-naive, dynamic, and brutally honest-who stretches and grows as her remarkable, affectingly rendered family relationships do.”-Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“Alaine’s adventures in Haiti were so intense and engaging, I could almost feel the dirt beneath my fingernails, could almost smell the peanuts and plantains. But I think my favorite part was ultimately the female empowerment that permeated every part of this tale, past and present. It left me with a sort of Practical Magic feeling, and that is never a bad thing. Maika and Maritza Moulite have created quite the masterpiece here. I look forward to seeing what they do next!” –Alethea Kontis, NPR
28 Monday Oct 2019
Posted in Fiction, Historical Fiction
Tags
brothers and sisters, dysfunctional families, families, inheritance and succession, life changing events, Philadelphia (PA), poverty, stepmothers
Can a house/a childhood home dominate the grown-up lives of a brother and sister who grew up with a father and caring staff in a fairy-tale huge house in Pennsylvania? A quiet read, a re-examining of childhood loss and forgiveness, but two indelible characters you won’t forget long after the book is finished.
“Patchett’s splendid novel is a thoughtful, compassionate exploration of obsession and forgiveness, what people acquire, keep, lose or give away, and what they leave behind.” (Publishers Weekly (starred review))
“…you won’t want to put down this engrossing, warmhearted book even after you’ve read the last page.” (NPR)
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