What a delightful book. It is spare and quirky and dryly humorous. Though it includes numerous fantastical occurrences, I wouldn't quite call it magic realism; more like metaphorical absurdity. Surreal things happen, and the characters grapple with them just like anything else that happens, because sometimes life feels absurd.
Sometimes you begin a book, and you know after a few chapters that the book is "reading you" instead of you reading the book. It hits your core hard and churns stuff up, compelling you to turn pages. All That's Left to Tell is such a book, and it's Daniel Lowe's debut at that. From its first sentence to its last, it doesn't let go--making you question your own life and choices. Do we choose?
There has never been a conflict-free time in Israel. The times between wars carry their own tensions, disputes, incidents and attacks. While there are numerous books about the larger wars and about the relationship between Israel and the Arabs who surround her, little has been written about Israel's presence in Southern Lebanon in the 1980's and '90's. Until now.
The Natural Way of Things opens dramatically as Yolanda discovers she is being held captive in the Australian Outback. She is one of a small group of women who all have a curious, not immediately obvious, connection: they have all been part of public sex scandals. While the story leaves a lot unanswered and is incredibly dark in content and description, the beautiful writing was enough to keep me engaged until the end.
This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel is a powerful story about a mother and father faced with making a life-altering decision concerning their youngest child: how do they support their son, Claude, as Claude transitions to become their daughter Poppy?
In The Forgotten Girls, Detective Louise Rick returns to the area she grew up in for a fresh start. As the new head of the Missing Persons Department, she finds that her familiarity with the terrain makes things easier, however, confronting people from her past is tougher than she expects.
While reading, you get an inkling that there may be more than one mystery to be solved. True to Scandinavian crime fiction, this book doesn't shy away from tough subjects or gory details.
Did you know that the United States does not have a writers museum? We celebrate authors and have museums for visual arts (among many other things), but we don't really have a museum for writers and their books.
An article from Smithsonian.com recently caught our eye, not only for its content but because it also resembles something happening locally.
Today we get to feature a writer who splits her time between authoring fiction and offering guidance to aspiring authors. Booklist described her most recent release as an enjoyable yet sobering mystery with a surprising twist for inquisitive readers.
“Why can’t music be magic? Aren’t spells just words you repeat? And what are songs? Lyrics that play over and over again. The words are like a formula.”
