“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”
Category Archives: Uncategorized
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 TOWN CALLED SOLACE – Mary Lawson
I set a goal last year to read all the 2021 longlisted Booker Prize books. The delay in US publishing meant my goal spilled over into 2022, but I’m still chipping away. After Mary Lawson’s A Town Called Solace (Knopf Canada 2021), only one remains from the list, and I’m curious to see if IContinue reading “A TOWN CALLED SOLACE – Mary Lawson”
FEVERED STAR – Rebecca Roanhorse
“We are but fevered stars… Here a little while, bright with promise, before we burn away.” I preordered Rebecca Roanhorse’s Fevered Star (SAGA PRESS 2022) after reading Black Sun. Much like the first of the series, Fevered Star, the second in the Between Earth and Sky series,is full of strong female characters, magic, politics, andContinue reading “FEVERED STAR – Rebecca Roanhorse”
BEARTOWN – Fredrik Backman
“Late one evening toward the end of March, a teenager picked up a double-barreled shotgun, walked into the forest, put the gun to someone else’s forehead, and pulled the trigger. This is the story of how we got there.” With perhaps the most memorable of openings, Fredrik Backman begins Beartown (Atria 2017, English translation byContinue reading “BEARTOWN – Fredrik Backman”
A CONSPIRACY OF MOTHERS – Collen van Niekerk
South African. Historical. Magical Realism. Colleen Van Niekerk’s A Conspiracy of Mothers (Little A 2021) is a novel of mothers and the lengths they will go to protect their children. It’s a novel of magic and calling on the ancestors. It’s a novel of Black, coloured, and white. It’s a novel of forbidden love, violentContinue reading “A CONSPIRACY OF MOTHERS – Collen van Niekerk”
TRUE BIZ – Sara Nović
I’ve read a lot of books in the past almost four decades, and I can say with absolute certainty that none of them were like Sara Nović’s True Biz (Random House 2022); deaf representation has been woeful absent in my literary canon. This book is… I’m not sure I can find the words. Part teenageContinue reading “TRUE BIZ – Sara Nović”
PROOF OF ME & OTHER STORIES – Erica Plouffe Lazure
Erica Plouffe Lazure’s Proof of Me & Other Stories (New American Press 2022) cements her rightful place as one of my favorite southern contemporary short story authors. We studied at ECU together and I’ve been a fan since that first story we workshopped. I’ve previously compared her work to Bobbie Ann Mason and Flannery O’Connor,Continue reading “PROOF OF ME & OTHER STORIES – Erica Plouffe Lazure”
A Girl Named Tommi 