Random House – A Girl Named Tommi

MEMPHIS – Tara M. Stringfellow

“The things women do for the sake of their daughters. The things women don’t. The shame of it all.” I’m still toying with the idea of reading the Women’s Prize for Fiction longlist, and I put in several holds at the library. Since I’ve already read a couple and intended to read a few moreContinue reading “MEMPHIS – Tara M. Stringfellow”

SPARE – Prince Harry

When I was a sophomore in high school, I watched two young boys walk behind their mother’s coffin. Theirs was a posh world of opulence, royalty and history. These were young princes, the heir and the spare, to the Crown that had dominated the world, but in that moment, they were two brothers struggling withContinue reading “SPARE – Prince Harry”

OH WILLIAM! – Elizabeth Strout

My fourth read of the 2022 Booker Prize longlist was Elizabeth Strout’s Oh William! (Random House 2021). Despite being the third in a trilogy, Oh William is crafted such that it can be read as a standalone. Written as a fictional memoir, the novel scratches at some things I typically dislike in fiction. Not surprisingly,Continue reading “OH WILLIAM! – Elizabeth Strout”

TRUE BIZ – Sara Nović

I’ve read a lot of books in the past almost four decades, and I can say with absolute certainty that none of them were like Sara Nović’s True Biz (Random House 2022); deaf representation has been woeful absent in my literary canon. This book is… I’m not sure I can find the words. Part teenageContinue reading “TRUE BIZ – Sara Nović”

NO HEAVEN FOR GOOD BOYS – Keisha Bush

Keisha Bush’s No Heaven for Good Boys (Random House 2020) is one of the more delicate and devastating debut novels I’ve read in a long while. The tragedy of it is exquisitely crafted, clinging to the reader like small, dirty hands begging for money, or a hungry child suckling at his mother’s breast. It’s aContinue reading “NO HEAVEN FOR GOOD BOYS – Keisha Bush”

SKIN OF THE SEA – Natasha Bowen

“Here is a story. Story it is…” Billing Natasha Bowen’s Skin of the Sea (Random House 2021) as Children of Blood and Bone meets The Little Mermaid does it a bit of disservice; just because a book centers around Yoruba spirits (Orisa/Orisha) doesn’t mean it has to be compared to every other book that alsoContinue reading “SKIN OF THE SEA – Natasha Bowen”

WE WENT TO THE WOODS – Caite Dolan-Leach

I probably wouldn’t have picked up Caite Dolan-Leach’s We Went to the Woods (Random House 2019) had I seen the comparison to Donna Tartt. I don’t know if Dolan-Leach studied the literary brat pack from Bennington, but her work is certainly reminiscent of that particular group of writers and their self-absorbed and unlikeable characters whoContinue reading “WE WENT TO THE WOODS – Caite Dolan-Leach”