Next installment of Tommi Reads the World – still in the As. Country: ArmeniaTitle: The Sandcastle GirlsAuthor: Chris BohjalianLanguage: EnglishTranslator: N/APublisher: Doubleday (2012), First Vintage Contemporaries Edition (2013) “But history does matter. There is a line connecting the Armenians and the Jews and the Cambodians and the Bosnians and the Rwandans. There are obviously more, but,Continue reading “THE SANDCASTLE GIRLS – Chris Bohjalian”
Tag Archives: book review
THE PIANO TEACHER – Elfriede Jelinek
Next installment of Tommi Reads the World – still in the As. Country: AustriaTitle: The Piano TeacherAuthor: Elfriede JelinekLanguage: GermanTranslator: Joachim NeugroschelPublisher: Rowholt Verlag GmbH (1983), English translation by Weidenfeld & Nicolson (1988) What on earth did I just read? The Piano Teacher is one of the more disturbing novels I’ve cracked the spine of. TheContinue reading “THE PIANO TEACHER – Elfriede Jelinek”
TONIGHT, I BURN – Katherine J. Adams
Katharine J. Adams’s debut novel, Tonight, I Burn, (Orbit – expected 7 Nov 2023) echoes with legends, fairytales and folklore that came before. While I heard Hades and Persephone and Beauty and the Beast the most; I wouldn’t call this a retelling of either. Adams is a reader first, and it shows beautifully in herContinue reading “TONIGHT, I BURN – Katherine J. Adams”
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”
THE UNMAKING OF JUNE FARROW – Adrienne Young
I love magical realism. I do not love time travel. Admittedly, I should have looked into Adrienne Young’s The Unmaking of June Farrow (Delacorte Press 2023) beyond the magical realism and North Carolina setting BEFORE selecting it for my BOTM box, but I did not. This novel has overwhelmingly positive reviews so take this forContinue reading “THE UNMAKING OF JUNE FARROW – Adrienne Young”
THE STAR OF ALGIERS – Aziz Chouaki
Next installment of Tommi Reads the World – still in the As. Country: AlgeriaTitle: The Star of AlgiersAuthor: Aziz ChouakiLanguage: FrenchTranslator: Ros Schwartz and Lulu NormanPublisher: Graywolf Press (2005), éditions Balland (2002) Aziz Chouaki fled Algeria in 1991 due to the civil unrest and the placement of the author on an assassination list. He died inContinue reading “THE STAR OF ALGIERS – Aziz Chouaki”
GHOSTS OF HARVARD – Francesca Serritella
“They were ghosts, after all, and happy endings don’t haunt anyone.” Francesca Serritella’s Ghosts of Harvard (Random House 2020) is a rather ambitious work that suffers from trying to do too much. There’s a lot of good things, but the ghost story, mental health awareness, and political thriller don’t always mesh that nicely in theContinue reading “GHOSTS OF HARVARD – Francesca Serritella”
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 TEACHER OF CHEOPS – Albert Salvadó
Next installment of Tommi Reads the World – still in the As. Country: AndorraTitle: The Teacher of CheopsAuthor: Albert SalvadóLanguage: CatalanTranslator: Marc Brian DuckettPublisher: Indie Published (2012) The tiny country of Andorra has thus far proved the most difficult to find a selection of fictional works translated into English. Nearly every other reader also seeking toContinue reading “THE TEACHER OF CHEOPS – Albert Salvadó”
A Girl Named Tommi 