“…lost in a memory stirred alive by the moon.” Amanda Peters’s debut The Berry Pickers (Catapult 2023) is a quiet triumph of a novel about grief, anger, loss, identity, and forgiveness. When I was a child, I asked for The Face on the Milk Carton for Christmas. (It’s one of a few books I rememberContinue reading “THE BERRY PICKERS – Amanda Peters”
Tag Archives: Fiction
JOLLOF RICE AND OTHER REVOLUTIONS – Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi
“…oga dinma, oga dinma, it will be okay. Today. Tomorrow. Someday.” Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi’s Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions: A Novel in Interlocking Stories (Amistad 2022) is my favorite kind of short story collections – the kind where the stories weave in and out of each other, building the reader’s connection to a full castContinue reading “JOLLOF RICE AND OTHER REVOLUTIONS – Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi”
THE VANISHING HALF – Brit Bennett
“You could never know who might hurt you until it was too late.” I finally got around to reading Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half (Riverhead 2020) – it was likely the most hyped on my TBR that had just been sitting there for ages, and it was on my “Must Reads” for 2024. (Yes. IContinue reading “THE VANISHING HALF – Brit Bennett”
THE BEAR AND THE NIGHTINGALE – Katherine Arden
“Will you tell her?” asked the mare. “Everything?” the demon said. “Of bears and sorcerers, spells made of sapphires and a witch that lost her daughter? No, of course not. I shall tell her as little as possible. And hope that’s enough.” One of my favorite courses at UNC was one devoted to Russian fairytales;Continue reading “THE BEAR AND THE NIGHTINGALE – Katherine Arden”
THE OGRESS AND THE ORPPHANS – Kelly Barnhill
“But it’s best you know this now, at the beginning of this book. Every story has a villain, after all. And every villain has a story.” Kelly Barnhill is an absolute gift to literature, and not just children’s lit. She’s another one of my “heart hug” authors, but her hugs come in the form ofContinue reading “THE OGRESS AND THE ORPPHANS – Kelly Barnhill”
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”
MEN AND DOGS – Katie Crouch
Katie Crouch’s Men and Dogs (2010) drew my attention because of the title and the cover. While the cover meets the aesthetic of Crouch’s first novel, Girls in Trucks, (which I have not read) neither it nor the title suit this novel and I’ve been trying to reconcile the disconnect since reading the first chapter.Continue reading “MEN AND DOGS – Katie Crouch”
HORSE HEAVEN – Jane Smiley
There are some books that leave a lovely ache. Some books that reach into your bones and squeeze until you say “NO MORE” but you keep reading anyway. For me, Jane Smiley’s HORSE HEAVEN is one of those books. Smiley is a talented author who can write with that perfect level of fervent passion thatContinue reading “HORSE HEAVEN – Jane Smiley”
Christopher Moore – Lamb, the Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal
“Nobody’s perfect… Well, there was this one guy, but we killed him.” An only child, Christopher Moore spent much of his childhood in Ohio entertaining himself with books and his imagination; it paid off – big time. With titles like You Suck: A Love Story and Fluke, or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings,Continue reading “Christopher Moore – Lamb, the Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal”
A Girl Named Tommi 