“How many times had the hunger pangs tempted him? Set his belly afire for the wanting? Yet, his love for words and books was stronger.” Kim Michele Richardson’s The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek (Sourcebooks 2019) is historical fiction set in the 1930s in Troublesome Creek, Kentucky – deep in the heart of Appalachia. TheContinue reading “THE BOOK WOMAN OF TROUBLESOME CREEK – Kim Michele Richardson”
Tag Archives: book recommendation
ALL THE LITTLE BIRD-HEARTS – Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow
“I would not have knowingly allowed even the image of a bird into my home, however beautiful. But I lived for and loved a bird-heart that summer; I only knew it afterwards.” Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow’s All the Little Bird-Hearts (Algonquin Books 2023), my tenth read of the 2023 Booker longlist, is a peculiar and unsettling read. Continue reading “ALL THE LITTLE BIRD-HEARTS – Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow”
FOUR TREASURES OF THE SKY – Jenny Tinghui Zhang
“There is something about her that can be rewritten over and over again.” Jenny Tinghui Zhang’s Four Treasures of the Sky (Flatiron Books 2022) is a novel that I had to have when it was released, and a novel that’s sat on my physical TBR since. When curating my “ten before the end,” I pulledContinue reading “FOUR TREASURES OF THE SKY – Jenny Tinghui Zhang”
STOLEN – Ann- Helén Laestadius
“The reindeer were biekka oapmi, belonging to the wind.” Ann- Helén Laestadius’s Stolen (translated from the Swedish by Rachel Willson-Broyles, Scribner 2023 – originally published by Romanus & Selling in 2021) came to my attention in January when Fredrick Backman recommended it. I made a mental note to check it out and promptly forgot. ThisContinue reading “STOLEN – Ann- Helén Laestadius”
HOW TO SAY BABYLON – Safiya Sinclair
“With echoes of Educated” is not a selling point for me; I, in a very unpopular opinion, found that book overhyped with a narrator I neither trusted nor liked. Other than some fuzzy timelines and a focus on the power of learning, I’m pleased to say Safiya Sinclair’s How to Say Babylon (Simon & SchusterContinue reading “HOW TO SAY BABYLON – Safiya Sinclair”
AND EVERY MORNING THE WAY HOME GETS LONGER AND LONGER – Fredrik Backman
Fredrik Backman is a hearthug of an author, someone I can expect to break my heart while still wrapping me in a hug. I was looking for an audio book to read while travelling for Thanksgiving, and when I saw Backman’s And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer (Simon & Schuster 2016),Continue reading “AND EVERY MORNING THE WAY HOME GETS LONGER AND LONGER – Fredrik Backman”
NIGHT WATCH- Jayne Anne Phillips
“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”
FAIRY TALE – Stephen King
I’ve been reading Stephen King since the mid-nineties – devouring his works when I was in middle and high school. (My senior picture is of me reading The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon.) My favorites are Bag of Bones and Desperation, but I also have a special love for The Tommyknockers (which may or mayContinue reading “FAIRY TALE – Stephen King”
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”
SHARK HEART: A LOVE STORY – Emily Habeck
“There is never a right time to say goodbye.” I didn’t have being absolutely destroyed by a book about a man turning into a shark on my bingo card, but here we are. Emily Habeck’s Shark Heart: A Love Story (Marysue Rucci Books 2023) positively shattered me. It was very nearly a 5-star read, butContinue reading “SHARK HEART: A LOVE STORY – Emily Habeck”
A Girl Named Tommi 