A little more than a month before the Booker Prize 2022 longlist is announced, I finished the 2021 longlist. As several of the selections weren’t published in the States until this year, it took some time, but I did it. I ended with Karen Jennings’s An Island (Holland House Books 2020, Hogarth in the USContinue reading “AN ISLAND – Karen Jennings”
Author Archives: Tommi Powell
DAUGHTER OF THE MOON GODDESS – Sue Lynn Tan
Sue Lynn Tan’s Daughter of the Moon Goddess (HARPER Voyager 2022), with its gorgeous cover and intriguing premise, was a book I wanted to love more than I actually did. It’s far more juvenile and tropey than I expected, and I had issues with the pacing, world building, and character development. Xingyin is poorly developedContinue reading “DAUGHTER OF THE MOON GODDESS – Sue Lynn Tan”
UNLIKELY ANIMALS – Annie Hartnett
“You become responsible forever for what you’ve tamed.” ― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince Annie Hartnett’s Unlikely Animals (Ballantine Books, 2022) is a tenderly crafted work full of heart and quirkiness. We’re only in June, but I’m close to ready to call it as my favorite for 2022; it’s near perfect. The novel, set inContinue reading “UNLIKELY ANIMALS – Annie Hartnett”
THE COUNTRY OF ICE CREAM STAR – Sandra Newman
Sandra Newman’s The Country of Ice Cream Star (Chatto & Windus, 2014; HarperCollins, 2015) has been on my TBR for years, and I finally picked it up. This post-apocalyptic novel is about a destroyed America, set 80 some years after a “killing fever” called WAKS decimated the country. The white people died or fled toContinue reading “THE COUNTRY OF ICE CREAM STAR – Sandra Newman”
WHAT THE FIREFLIES KNEW – Kai Harris
“Her smile is like a gigantic, dripping ice cream cone, after I stuff my belly full with dinner. Even with a stomachache, I want that smile.” (7) Kai Harris’s debut novel What the Fireflies Knew (Tiny Reparations Books) is a classic Bildungsroman, with a loss, journey, conflict, and growth. What makes this novel unique isContinue reading “WHAT THE FIREFLIES KNEW – Kai Harris”
SIREN QUEEN – Nghi Vo
“We were stories that should never have met, or stories that only existed because we met. I still don’t know.” (108) Interior Chinatown meets Big Fish in this gay, fantastical nearly-noir of 1930s Hollywood, and I can’t find the words. Nghi Vo’s Siren Queen (TorDotCom 2022) is grotesquely gorgeous and unlike anything I’ve ever read. Continue reading “SIREN QUEEN – Nghi Vo”
YOUNG MUNGO – Douglas Stuart
“He was Mo-Maw’s youngest son, but was also her confidant, her lady’s maid, and errand boy. He was her one flattering mirror, and her teenage diary, her electric blanket, her doormat. He was her best pal, the dog she hardly walked, and her greatest romance.” Douglas Stuart’s follow-up to the Booker Prize-winning Shuggie Bain wasContinue reading “YOUNG MUNGO – Douglas Stuart”
LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY – Bonnie Garmus
Bonnie Garmus’s Lessons in Chemistry (Doubleday 2022) proved to be quite a timely read considering the recent SCOTUS leak – not because it features an abortion, but because it is wrapped in the confines of discrimination that have long held women hostage. I work in a male-dominated field. I frequently have clients assume I’m theContinue reading “LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY – Bonnie Garmus”
SEEKING FORTUNE ELSEWHERE – Sindya Bhanoo
Two short story collections in one month? Who am I?!?! Short story collections are underrated. The tight writing and one-sitting reads make them perfect to get out of reading slumps and to serve as palate cleansers. I really should add more to my TBR. Catapult sent me Sindya Bhanoo’s collection, Seeking Fortune Elsewhere (2022), andContinue reading “SEEKING FORTUNE ELSEWHERE – Sindya Bhanoo”
BLACK CAKE – Charmaine Wilkerson
Spanning more than half a century, Charmaine Wilkerson’s Black Cake (Ballantine Books 2022) is a sprawling family saga about family legacies, secrets, and treasures all wrapped up in those ties that bind. There’s a slow burn of a mystery that vibrates on the surface, but the heart of the novel is in the delicate threadsContinue reading “BLACK CAKE – Charmaine Wilkerson”
A Girl Named Tommi 