Sorrowland is a completely unexpected, but ultimately disappointing, tale. Fifteen and pregnant, Vern runs away from everything she knows. The abusive husband and cult that she is fleeing hunts her down in the nearby woods, but she evades them. Meanwhile, Vern gives birth to twins while learning to live offContinue Reading
Hmmm…Hot Stew is the perfect title for this book. It has two completely different plots that are rubbing uncomfortably together like too tight shoes on bare feet. The first story is a brothel that is fighting gentrification in Soho, London. I liked the strong female prostitutes. There were no victimsContinue Reading
In The Last Thing to Burn, Thanh Dao and her sister Kim-Ly are smuggled into the UK by shipping container from Vietnam. They promised before leaving to pay off their transportation costs over ten years. After that, they would both be free of work obligations. However, after a couple ofContinue Reading
The Final Revival of Opal & Nev is clearly in the same sub-genre of fictional 1970s music biography as Daisy and the Six. But this book layers on more of the era’s potent political activism and violent tendencies. Unfortunately, many of the issues are still relevant today. The characters withinContinue Reading
A poor house painter finds a stash of money, quits his job, and boards an elevated train. When he accidentally trips and falls, the voices within his head become unbearable and he lashes out. How these actions impact everyone in the train car is the subject of A Matter ofContinue Reading
In Good Eggs, Kevin Gogarty has 99 Problems and a light-fingered mum is one. Eighty-three year-old Millie is caught shoplifting in the local shop. But it was only a birthday card and a packet of crisps. What’s the worst that could happen? “A single horrid thought filters through: if theContinue Reading
In The Kaiser’s Web, two people are running for German chancellor: the incumbent, Marie, and her fiery opponent, Pohr. Pohr is a strict nationalist bordering on Nazism. However, when Cotton and Cassiopeia hear his claims that Hitler’s best friend and girlfriend both survived the bunker, they investigate. Can they alsoContinue Reading
In The Four Winds, Elsa Wolcott is a plain and incredibly tall unmarried woman of twenty-five. Her parents hoard their love for her making her think she is unlovable. It is 1921. “By twenty-five, the die was cast. An unmarried woman was a spinster. ‘On the shelf’ they called her,Continue Reading
Truly Like Lightning is an engrossing tale of an unconventional family of polygamists who are forced to deal with modern society by a predatory real estate developer. There is so much description, character development, and hidden meaning here that I feel I may need a college literature class to decipherContinue Reading
Thirty Names of Night is a heartfelt tale of two women. One is a modern NYC first-generation Syrian-American painter of birds, who feels her assigned gender is incorrect. The other, Laila, is telling the story of her life through her journal. Her story begins a century earlier in Syria. ItContinue Reading
I love the premise of Novel Advice. “I’ll be the agony aunt for the unreal. You can call me Aunt Antigone.” The book writes Dear Abby letters from the characters of most classic fiction and a few modern books too. Then the book’s author answers them. For example, Aunt AntigoneContinue Reading
Ivy is a first generation Chinese immigrant who has totally internalized the American Dream of being in the top 1% regardless of the cost. It fact, Ivy is trying to be what she thinks rich, white Gideon wants in a wife by becoming White Ivy. The pacing is more atContinue Reading
There is a reason no one has found the mythical philosopher’s stone, a stone that can change any metal into gold. Anyone creating it goes mad. Just ask Thea, whose own mother smashed the stone and then tried to kill Thea after, almost, creating it. It truly is A GoldenContinue Reading
The exquisite Call Me Ismael Phone Book is in the style of a retro phone book, if you remember those. I haven’t seen one in at least two decades. Short history lesson (feel free to skip this paragraph) They used to drop large paperback phone books off for free atContinue Reading
Ready for a clever, totally politically incorrect, story of a whole hidden nationality within the United States? That’s right, the Can-Am people are not from Canada. They are Cannibal-Americans from the Old Country. Which Old Country? They don’t remember. They do remember their rituals. Especially about having Mother for Dinner,Continue Reading
This is what happens when A Libertarian Walks into a Bear. Grafton, New Hampshire, has always been famous for its bears. The bears snatch food, chickens, cats, and even children occasionally from the townsfolk. When a group of Libertarians decide to make a model town with minimal government right thereContinue Reading