Book lover, collector, and reviewer
Answer Creek tells the story of Ada Weeks, a fictional 19-year-old adopted daughter of an undertaker and his wife, who treks across the United States with the fated (and real) Donner Party. If you know anything about the Donner Party, you have a good overview of what happens in this book, although it goes on … Read More “Answer Creek by Ashley E. Sweeney” »
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 … Read More “David and Ameena by Ami Rao” »
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 … Read More “The Vanishing Half by Britt Bennett” »
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 … Read More “Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan” »
Sister Evelyn became a Catholic nun after her father made a vow that if his son (her brother) came back alive from the war, he would give his youngest daughter to God, and she never realized that she could make a different decision for herself. After a tough beginning, Evelyn founded Mercy House with two … Read More “Mercy House by Alena Dillon” »