“Her mother had named her the name he’d taken – her given name a version of her surname. She was a hint, a riddle, a remembrance.” Longlisted for the 2023 National Book Awards, Jayne Anne Phillips’s Night Watch (Knopf 2023) is a powerful historical novel that echoes with Faulkner but with a feminine energy thatContinue reading “NIGHT WATCH- Jayne Anne Phillips”
Tag Archives: 2023 release
STARTER VILLAIN – John Scalzi
Sometimes you buy a book strictly because of its cover. This is one of those times. Admittedly the cover should have an orange and white kitty on it, and this annoys me, but how fun is this? I’ve never read John Scalzi before, but his brand of quirky SF is exactly the kind of candyContinue reading “STARTER VILLAIN – John Scalzi”
THE RIVER WE REMEMBER – William Kent Krueger
“Charlie Bauer doesn’t intend to leave this life filled with rancor or regret or plagued by the demons of if only. She intends to lie down in peace. And so, she sips her whiskey and reads her books and every once in a great while allows herself the pleasure of a cigar, and she awaitsContinue reading “THE RIVER WE REMEMBER – William Kent Krueger”
WILDWOOD MAGIC – Willa Reece
“Here be witches and wayward girls grown into lonely women spooked by the wind.” I recently finished Alice Hoffman’s The Invisible Hour, and for me, it just fell short. Imagine my surprise when I opened Willa Reece’s Wildwood Magic (Redhook 2023 – thanks to the publisher for the finished copy!) and found myself faced withContinue reading “WILDWOOD MAGIC – Willa Reece”
THE INVISIBLE HOUR – Alice Hoffman
“Trick your enemy, do what you must, believe in enchantments, save yourself.” Alice Hoffman’s The Invisible Hour (Atria Books 2023) is a slim, magical novel that smells like apples and fall. It’s also my first Hoffman work. (I know – that’s surprising considering my love of magical realism and of the movie Practical Magic.) TheContinue reading “THE INVISIBLE HOUR – Alice Hoffman”
SHIELD MAIDEN – Sharon Emmerichs
It’s been years since I’ve read Beowulf. I remember when Seamus Heaney’s translation came out and the hoopla over him being a poet and not a scholar. His version is known for being both poetically beautifully and historically accurate, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Bang-up job. I’m no stranger to the lore, though I amContinue reading “SHIELD MAIDEN – Sharon Emmerichs”
THE LAST ANIMAL – Ramona Ausubel
Jane said, “If we go, we can visit the iceman. Which is as close as we can get to visiting your dad.” Vera was helpless against this. She looked at her hands, small and pale. She did not know what they would reach for in her life, what they would make or take apart. Now,Continue reading “THE LAST ANIMAL – Ramona Ausubel”
THE FRAUD – Zadie Smith
Zadie Smith’s White Teeth was barely in paperback when it showed up on a syllabus for one of my classes at UNC in 2002. Smith’s debut had a lasting impact, and, for over twenty years, I have read her novels as they were released. Unpopular opinion, but The Autograph Man (2002) is my favorite. Smith’sContinue reading “THE FRAUD – Zadie Smith”
CALIFORNIA GOLDEN – Melanie Benjamin
“Now you’re nothing but tinsel. Flimsy tinsel, here one day, in the garbage can the next.” Set primarily under the Californian sun and spanning 1955-1980, Melanie Benjamin’s historical California Golden (Delacorte Press 2023) is an easy read full of sunshine, salt water and grit. While I wish it had gone a bit deeper, it wasContinue reading “CALIFORNIA GOLDEN – Melanie Benjamin”
A SPELL OF GOOD THINGS – Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀
Booker season continues with Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ ’s A Spell of Good Things (Knopf 2023). The novel is Wole Soyinka (without the bitter wit) meets The Girl with the Louding Voice – full of political corruption, a hunger for both food and education, and a sharp division between classes while still showing, quite literally, that we allContinue reading “A SPELL OF GOOD THINGS – Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ “
A Girl Named Tommi 