This my first experience reading anything by Claire Keegan, but I was very impressed. Sometimes the quietist book can send the biggest message, and this is a clear (deserved) condemnation of the Catholic church in Ireland. Set in a small village in Ireland just before Christmas in the mid-1980s, when many people are out of work and suffering, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and father to four daughters, is still making ends meet. When making … Read More “Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan” »
Category: Literary Fiction
This book starts out strong, but then gets a bit slow as it continues. It is still a good story, which I enjoyed reading, but keep in mind this isn’t going to be a quick thriller that keeps you turning the pages as fast as you can to find out the twist, but rather a slower burn suspense novel that takes time to get where it ultimately goes. A famous scientist, Vidor Kiraly, is receiving … Read More “The Double by Ann Gosslin” »
This book has been on my TBR list since it was released, but it took my book club choosing it for our June book to move it up on my list, and I’m so glad I did. This was an understated and haunting novel about a family split apart when their teenage twins disappear and only one of them returns. It tells the story of three generations of the women in this family. Desiree and … Read More “The Vanishing Half by Britt Bennett” »
I really enjoyed this book, and I especially liked the author’s next-level writing style, which almost seemed itself musical with parts of the book that were smooth and easy, rising into crescendos that pushed David and Ameena’s relationship almost to its limits. Ameena, a Pakistani-Muslim writer by day and artist by night, left her home in Manchester for New York to avoid being forced into an arranged marriage by her very conservative and religious parents. … Read More “David and Ameena by Ami Rao” »
The publisher describes this book as “Upstairs, Downstairs meets Parasite,” which does well in explaining the class issues examined here, although it doesn’t quite describe the full racial undertones within this book, which adds a new dimension to this theme. August Sitwell has dedicated his life to the Barclays since he was a teenager when they “rescued” him from an orphanage and gave him a job at their estate. He’s part of their all-Black staff, … Read More “The Rib King by Ladee Hubbard” »