“He’s polish without substance, and I’ve hitched my wagon to nothing but a handful of glitter.” “The living must trespass on the dead; everything left behind a gift, an inheritance, no matter how unintentional.” Thao Thai’s debut Banyan Moon (Mariner Books 2023) is a heart hug of a family saga. From the 1960s Vietnam toContinue reading “BANYAN MOON – Thao Thai”
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THE MEMORY OF ANIMALS – Claire Fuller
“This is grief, Neffy… It is awful and terrible, and it will never truly leave, but you will learn to live with it, and you have to let me help you.” I didn’t anticipate having a pandemic book framed by a woman’s teetering-into-inappropriate relationship with an octopus as one of my top reads of theContinue reading “THE MEMORY OF ANIMALS – Claire Fuller”
VANISHING MAPS – Cristina García
“Names were destiny, I said. So, why pick one with a history of suffering?” “Our pasts were littered with heartbreak’s debris. Were our fates a family curse? Or were we lucky to have known passion at all?” In 1992, Cristina García’s debut novel, Dreaming in Cuban, was published. The novel focused primarily on the delContinue reading “VANISHING MAPS – Cristina García”
A DAY OF FALLEN NIGHT – Samantha Shannon
“We will all be stories one day, and I’d want someone to believe we existed. Wouldn’t you?” When I found out Samantha Shannon was returning to the world of The Priory of the Orange Tree, I was already smitten; she is a special author to me because I’ve been along for the ride since theContinue reading “A DAY OF FALLEN NIGHT – Samantha Shannon”
THE FORBIDDEN TERRITORY OF A TERRIFYING WOMAN – Molly Lynch
Molly Lynch’s The Forbidden Territory of a Terrifying Woman (Catapult 2023) was an unsatisfying but thankfully quick read. Billed as an exploration of motherhood during an ecological collapse, I was expecting more of a developed and likable even if morally grey character in Ada. Unfortunately, I didn’t care what happened to her, why it happenedContinue reading “THE FORBIDDEN TERRITORY OF A TERRIFYING WOMAN – Molly Lynch”
THE LAST RUSSIAN DOLL – Kristen Loesch
“She stood, with her doll beneath her arm, and she walked, across the blood-red floor, over her blood-red siblings, through the blood-red door, out of the blood-red house, all the way to the blood-red river. She forgot to wash her blood-red hands.” Spanning the period from 1916 to 1993, Kristen Loesch’s The Last Russian DollContinue reading “THE LAST RUSSIAN DOLL – Kristen Loesch”
THE GARDEN OF SECOND CHANCES – Mona Alvarado Frazier
When SparkPress reached out to me to see if I’d be interested in receiving a copy of Mona Alvarado Frazier’s young adult debut The Garden of Second Chances (6/6/2023), I said “sure.” As a former immigration attorney who worked primarily with the undocumented in removal proceedings and in the cross-sections with criminal and family law,Continue reading “THE GARDEN OF SECOND CHANCES – Mona Alvarado Frazier”
THE COVENANT OF WATER – Abraham Verghese
“What defines a family isn’t blood but the secrets they share.” “Yes, old man, yes, eyes open to this precious land and its people, to the covenant of water, water that washes away the sins of the world, water that will gather in streams, ponds, and rivers, rivers that float the seas, water that IContinue reading “THE COVENANT OF WATER – Abraham Verghese”
PROBABLY RUBY – Lisa Bird-Wilson
“…like a salmon swimming upstream. In her blood to go there. An irresistible pull. Only she didn’t swim away in the first place. That’s why it was so hard to know the way back. She was a little salmon scooped up in a big net.” Lisa Bird-Wilson’s Probably Ruby (Coteau Books(Canada), 2020 & Hogarth (US)Continue reading “PROBABLY RUBY – Lisa Bird-Wilson”
THE EAST INDIAN – Brinda Charry
For my birthday, I ordered a mystery box from Chapters Books & Gifts, an indie bookstore out of Seward, Nebraska. They tossed a couple of ARCS into the package as a fun little bonus, one being Brinda Charry’s The East Indian (Scribner – pub date 9 May 23). This is an ARC I want theContinue reading “THE EAST INDIAN – Brinda Charry”
A Girl Named Tommi 