Nunn, Kem. Chance Scribner, 2014 ISBN 978–1–5011–6467–5 San Francisco hosts this novel, but not the charming city by the bay. This is the San Francisco of fog, mist, and nighttime crime, where thoughts and desires scuttle off down the darkest paths and then emerge from the depths to bite us. This is where we meet […]
What are the novels that you remember most fondly, even long after you’ve read them? Here are five that have stuck with me over the years. 1. Broken for You by Stephanie Kallos Margaret Hughes, age 75, has just learned that she has a brain tumor. Margaret lives alone in a huge mansion in the
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Vonnegut, Kurt, Jr. Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children’s Crusade Delacorte Press, 1969 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 69–11929 Rereading this book leaves me speechless every time—not because I have nothing to say about it, but because there’s so much to say that I don’t know where to start. Just as the bumblebee flies anyway, this
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Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney Rooney, Kathleen. Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk St. Martin’s Press, 2017 ISBN 978–1–250–11332–0 I am old and all I have left is time. I don’t mean time to live; I mean free time. Time to fill. Time to kill until time kills me. I walk and
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Burns, Olive Ann. Cold Sassy Tree Dell, 1984; rpt. 1994 ISBN: 0–385–31258-X On July 5, 1906, Grandpa Blakeslee instructs his grandson, 14-year-old Will Tweedy, to summon relatives to a family meeting. Grandpa then informs the family that he intends to marry Miss Love Simpson. The announcement causes a scandal in the town of Cold Sassy,
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January was my month for reading memoirs, according to my reading plan for 2017. I only read two, but both, which had been on my TBR shelf for quite a while, were very good. Macdonald, Helen. H Is for Hawk Grove Press, 2014 ISBN: 978–0–8021–2341–1 Highly Recommended When Helen Macdonald’s father died unexpectedly, she was
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The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena Viking, 2016 Anne and Marco Conti appear to have an ideal life: a loving marriage, a nice home, and a beautiful baby daughter, Cora. One summer night they are invited to have dinner at the home of the neighbors with whom they share a duplex wall. When the
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It’s time to report back on The Classics Spin #13, as explained in my post. Burns, Olive Ann. Cold Sassy Tree Dell, 1984; rpt. 1994 ISBN: 0–385–31258-X On July 5, 1906, Grandpa Blakeslee instructs his grandson, 14-year-old Will Tweedy, to summon relatives to a family meeting. Grandpa then informs the family that he intends to
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Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert Original publication date: 1857 Translated by Lydia Davis (Penguin Books, 2010) Highly recommended Madame Bovary is a seminal work in the rise of literary realism: an approach that attempts to describe life without idealization or romantic subjectivity. Although realism is not limited to any one century or group of writers,
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A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr. © 1959 This book was popular when I was in college back in the late 1960s. I never got around to reading it back then, and the same mass market paperback has been kicking around on my bookshelves ever since then. It won the 1961 Hugo
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