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Category Archives: What I’m Reading

The Dollhouse by Fiona Davis

A pretty thinly told story of Rose, squatting in the apartment of the Barbizon after being dumped by her boyfriend.  Rose investigates Daphne, an older woman who has been living in the Barbizon since the 1950s when it was a hotel for girls waiting to meet a man in the big city.

Perfect Little World

By Kevin Wilson, author of the Family Fang. Izzy is newly single and pregnant when she signs on to participate in The Infinite Family project, a 10 year study in which 10 families raise their children communally without identifying individual parents.  Parts of this were interesting but I never felt like it whipped up into […]

Salt To The Sea

Wonderful YA historical fiction about a WWII maritime tragedy of which I had never heard: the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff.

Lillian Boxfish Takes A Walk

Delightful.  Lillian Boxfish is based on real-life trail blazer Margaret Fishback, a poet who made her name writing ad copy for Macy’s in the 1930’s.  Kathleen Rooney has Lillian, at age 84, take a long walk through Manhattan on New Year’s Eve, remembering her unusual life.  I loved this novel.  Lillian’s voice was crystal clear.

Pull Me Under by Kelly Luce

A bad cold is forcing me to copy, paste, and edit an Amazon description of this book: Chizuru Akitani is the twelve-year-old daughter of the famous violinist and Japanese “Living National Treasure” Hiro Akitani. Overweight and hafu (her mother is white), she is tormented by her classmates and targeted by the most relentless bully of […]

The Life We Bury

I don’t suppose mysteries require that the title mean much.  Look at Dick Francis books or Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum novels.  So I’ll forgive Allen Eskens or his publishers for this dumb title especially since Eskens delivers a swiftly paced story with a main character I want to root for.  College student Joe Talbert should […]