“I see you. I see all those who men call monsters. And I see the men who call them that. Call themselves heroes, of course.” The story of Medusa isn’t about just Medusa. It could never be just about Medusa because mythology weaves in and out. The gods and goddesses, the Fates and Greys andContinue reading “STONE BLIND – Natalie Haynes”
Tag Archives: book review
TRESPASSES – Louise Kennedy
“They were like a tag team, taking turns to fall apart.” Set in Ireland during “The Troubles,” Louise Kennedy’s Trespasses (Riverhead 2022) is a weeping wound of a novel about womanhood, love, and family with a violent backdrop of the politics that defined Northern Ireland in the early 1970s. Admittedly, it wasn’t on my radarContinue reading “TRESPASSES – Louise Kennedy”
THE FAIRY BARGAINS OF PROSPECT HILL – Rowenna Miller
Rowena Miller’s The Fairy Bargains of Prospect Hill (Redhook/Orbit, publication date 3/28/2023) is a bit The Once and Future Witches meets Practical Magic, but with fae instead of witches. It’s a cozy fantasy of sisters, mothers, and womanhood woven with brilliant bits of family, society, and legends. (A huge thanks to the publisher for thisContinue reading “THE FAIRY BARGAINS OF PROSPECT HILL – Rowenna Miller”
LEMON – Kwon Yeo-Sun
“Lemon, I muttered. Like a chant of revenge, I muttered: Lemon, lemon, lemon.” Da-on “Her beauty was urgent, precarious, like the piercing wail of a speeding ambulance. I could not look away.” – Sanghui’s description of Taerim Lemon (Other Press 2021, translated from the Korean by Janet Hong) is Kwon Yeo-sun’s first novel to beContinue reading “LEMON – Kwon Yeo-Sun”
THE CRANE HUSBAND – Kelly Barnhill
The Crane Wife is a Japanese folktale wherein a man saves a wounded crane, and the crane returns as a beautiful woman. The man is poor, and the crane weaves her own feathers into beautiful garments that are sold for large sums. The woman is becoming increasingly ill as she is using her own feathersContinue reading “THE CRANE HUSBAND – Kelly Barnhill”
THE MARRIAGE PORTRAIT – Maggie O’Farrell
“All she knew was that she was being borne away from something she loved more than anything else in the world, that the distance between them was increasing, with every step taken.” Maggie O’Farrell is an author who has been on my radar for a bit, but one I’ve never read until I decided toContinue reading “THE MARRIAGE PORTRAIT – Maggie O’Farrell”
THE DOG OF THE NORTH – Elizabeth McKenzie
“They were the whimper rather than the bang at the end of my world, but I could not move forward if I were to permit myself the full brunt of my feelings.” In continuing with the 2023 Women’s Prize for Fiction longlist, I recently read Elizabeth McKenzie’s The Dog of the North (Penguin Press 2023).Continue reading “THE DOG OF THE NORTH – Elizabeth McKenzie”
BOMB SHELTER – Mary Laura Philpott
I purchased this for the cover. I know it. I could say otherwise, but the cover of Mary Laura Philpott’s Bomb Shelter: Love, Time, and Other Explosives (Atria 2022) had me hit “select” without further consideration. I knew it was a collection of nonfiction, slice of life essays and that Philpott was known for herContinue reading “BOMB SHELTER – Mary Laura Philpott”
BABEL – R.F. Kuang
My first read of 2023 was Babel by R. F. Kuang (Harper Collins 2022). Before I get into the review, I must mention the Harper Collins strike. Employees with the company have been on a strike since November, and they are striking for fair wages, stronger diversity commitments, and union rights. To read more aboutContinue reading “BABEL – R.F. Kuang”
AFTERLIFE – Julia Alvarez
“It tells a story. That it has been broken.” My last read of 2022 was by an author that fits in a special place in my booklover’s heart. I haven’t read Julia Alvarez in years, but you don’t forget How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents or In the Time of the Butterflies that easily. Continue reading “AFTERLIFE – Julia Alvarez”
A Girl Named Tommi 