Fun, fast read that made me laugh out loud. Told in a refreshing manner with select email exchanges being read by another, with that person’s story shared in more detail, the book kept me wanting to know more and cheering for a happy ending. That said, the ending was not at all as I expected…
Dear Committee Members reads to me like a secret file on one’s computer where, when asked to write a recommendation letter, one pens what promptly (sassily, and sometimes even passive aggressively) comes to mind, sniping and smirking and shaming and such only to then start with a new, blank document and write the letter actually…
What do parents do to shape their children, and how much is merely an attempt to live out the parents’ own dreams? Everything I Never Told You focuses on this question as it explores the death of a young girl—a middle child in a mixed-race family in the 70s. It does so gracefully and with…
Too many people associate King with the horror genre, but his writing spans so much more. 11/22/63 is a great example. Sure, there’s a science-fiction element (sci-fi or supernatural? what’s the difference? I really don’t know) with the time-travel notion, but for the most part, it’s part historical novel, part love story, part human condition…
My first Flynn book was the acclaimed Gone Girl. And although Sharp Objects was good, it lacked the depth of mystery and intrigue the later book has. So much about the characters of Sharp Objects seems to just be there, sitting, as if we too have plopped into the middle of this Missouri town much…
Having been captivated by NOS4RA2 (2013), I looked forward to another story by Joe Hill (who will for many years be referred to, of course, as Stephen King’s son), so I picked Horns. Horns is an earlier work by a few years (2010); if I hadn’t known that already, I think I would have been…
The best word I can find to describe the book is exactly that used to describe its characters: interesting. In a way, the book is unremarkable. But on reflection and conversation with a fellow reader, that is just what makes this book so rich. My initial comment to a friend regarding the book involved the…
Having finished reading a well-written, dense, deep novel earlier followed by another thought-provoking novel, I sought something lighter, something shorter, something quicker. In The Husband’s Secret, I found those things. The story takes a bit of time to follow as each chapter early on brings in a new set of characters. I was sure the…
When this book was recommended to me, I was basically told, “I’m not going to tell you anything about it. Just read it, and then we’ll talk. Don’t read anything about the book—not even the book jacket or cover. Don’t even look at the cover—just read the book.” And so I did. And so I…
The Fault in Our Stars is another young adult novel in which the highlighted young adults speak/think/act/live well beyond their years. On the one hand, that makes the story appeal to a wider audience and romanticizes the two for others; on the other hand, though, it gave me too much of a skeptic’s eye in…
Having started this book just before Christmas, it took some time to finish—me needing to give up reading-for-pleasure for a bit when I was barely a quarter way through. But somehow, that seemed right with this tale. The Goldfinch covers a span of time. And it does so patiently, endearingly, and with a strange tenderness…
The Book Thief is another book I picked up to “read before the movie,” and I’m delighted I did. The genre (1940s Germany) isn’t what I typically turn to, but the story is told from a perspective of a young girl that allowed me to slip into this time and tragic period and settle into…
“Hello, Wendy. I’m home.” And so it felt to this Stephen King fan—coming home. So perhaps that was to a creepy, sinister home, but one, at the same time that was as familiar and comfortable as some old sheepskin slippers. It had been perhaps twenty (at *least* fifteen) years since I read some King. Having…
Reconstructing Amelia suffers from having been compared too much to Gone Girl. Gone Girl, it is not. But it’s not bad. It entertains—enough. And it is well written—enough. Reconstructing Amelia is a mystery, not-quite-thriller, told in the new style of piecing together a full story from different perspectives. The problem, though, is that the delivery…
What a gifted writer! Ron Rash brings to life a compelling story in his novel “Serena.” It is unlike most of the novels I read, this being set in depression-era North Carolina. But its language paints so detailed and so colorful the setting that no matter the topic of the story, I am certain I…