A little embarrassed to admit that I hadn't read THE WHITE ALBUM until this past August. But, though late to the party, I'm very glad I got there. It A little embarrassed to admit that I hadn't read THE WHITE ALBUM until this past August. But, though late to the party, I'm very glad I got there. It was, in some ways, a return to my childhood -- both moments I could recall and some that I could not because I was too little (the Doors or the Manson murders I recall only dimly, and then only through the reactions of my parents). But Didion was one of our most astute observers of the changing world of the 1960s and 1970s, and most of these essays transcend the era in which she wrote them. Her thoughts on Hawaii, Malibu, and Los Angeles traffic are downright timeless....more
An epic science fiction saga of worlds at war — and a timely parable of how easy it is for one galaxy's fragile peace to be upended by duplicity and vAn epic science fiction saga of worlds at war — and a timely parable of how easy it is for one galaxy's fragile peace to be upended by duplicity and violence. Lou Diamond Phillips, with the help of Yvonne Phillips’s haunting illustrations, has given fantasy readers the perfect followup to his first novel, The Tinderbox, and a wonderful new story....more
A big, sprawling family saga that is riveting, funny, surprising, and smart -- and deeply moving. A successful Long Island father and businessman is kA big, sprawling family saga that is riveting, funny, surprising, and smart -- and deeply moving. A successful Long Island father and businessman is kidnapped, and now, roughly forty years later, he and his wife and his mother and his three children are still coping (badly, SO badly) with the legacy. They're all haunted, damaged by the trauma even if (in theory) the kidnapping ended well: Dad came home! But beneath the surface swim the sharks of trauma. It's a brilliant book and I loved it in much the same way I devoured Jonathan Franzen's THE CORRECTIONS and Jenny Jackson's PINEAPPLE STREET....more
I'm a huge fan of J. Courtney Sullivan, but I was still unprepared for the way I would devour her new novel. Imagine -- I am not kidding -- the brilliI'm a huge fan of J. Courtney Sullivan, but I was still unprepared for the way I would devour her new novel. Imagine -- I am not kidding -- the brilliant ghost story, POLTERGEIST, meets Daniel Mason's brilliant novel, NORTH WOODS. Sullivan's latest, THE CLIFFS, is a sweeping tale of a woman trying to claw her way back from the alcoholic sinkhole of her life in a coastal Maine town. Her research into the abandoned house she adored as a teen, which has now become a gentrified McMansion, turns up the ghosts of Shakers, indigenous people ensnared and enslaved by the European settlers, a horrifying shipwreck within sight of land, adulterous trysts, and a dead girl who wants her mother to know her corpse has been moved. And it works, every page. Every single page. Another treasure from Sullivan....more
"The God of the Woods" has to be among the smartest, surprising, most literate mysteries I've read in a while. The setting is an Adirondack summer cam"The God of the Woods" has to be among the smartest, surprising, most literate mysteries I've read in a while. The setting is an Adirondack summer camp in the 1960s and 1970s, and not one but two children of monied New York State royalty disappear there: a boy in 1961 and a girl in 1975. Part police procedural -- and what a great cop Liz Moore has given us, a smart young woman whom the old male detectives don't take seriously -- and part character study of a wealthy family with an awful lot of skeletons in their rambling, walk-in closets, I really did stay up one until two in the morning to finish this treasure of a tale. And because I am writing this on the last day of the Olympics, let me add: wowza, does Moore stick the landing....more
Rufi Thorpe is fascinated by professional wrestling, and the literary world is a better place for it. Her new novel, MARGO'S GOT MONEY TROUBLES, is wiRufi Thorpe is fascinated by professional wrestling, and the literary world is a better place for it. Her new novel, MARGO'S GOT MONEY TROUBLES, is wildly funny and deeply moving. Margo, a college student, is knocked up by her smarmy, married English professor, and she decides to keep the baby. And there she discovers what a dumpster fire it is to be a 20-year-old single mom in America, especially given that her own single mother is clearly going to be useless. Thank God, she had a former professional wrestler for a dad: the guy was not involved to any great degree in raising her, but he's fallen on hard times now, moves in with her, and things begin to look up. . .especially when Margo starts getting rich from her "Only Fans" account. Ah, but then Margo's baby's father decides he wants custody, and the tension mounts along with the comedy. This novel is a delight and Margo's voice -- and Thorpe, in a deeply meta twist, offers it in both the first and Margo-written third person versions -- is a delight. Another gem from Rufi Thorpe....more
A delightful, surprising, and spectacularly meta novel about the boy who is named (yes) "Not Sidney Poitier," and raised by (wait for it) Ted Turner, A delightful, surprising, and spectacularly meta novel about the boy who is named (yes) "Not Sidney Poitier," and raised by (wait for it) Ted Turner, and counts among his professors when he goes to college. . .Percival Everett. I dove in after reading Everett's magnificent JAMES and then saw this earlier tale among the New York Times list of the funniest novels published in the 21st century....more
"Entitlement" is hypnotic: a brilliant fever dream of the allure of money and what money means. But this is no ordinary tale of grifters and schemers:"Entitlement" is hypnotic: a brilliant fever dream of the allure of money and what money means. But this is no ordinary tale of grifters and schemers: it's a story of one woman seduced by the world of philanthropy, who begins to confuse what people need with what she wants -- and the unraveling is catnip for a reader like me. I devoured LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND and devoured this one, too. I love Alam's work for a lot of reasons, but I think a big one is this: he understands well the most eerie, uncomfortable corners of the human psyche and brings them to light. This new novel arrives in September. You'll love it. ...more
Small World is a treasure: a family story that is wistful one moment, witty and wry the next. Few novelists write as beautifully about the damaged heaSmall World is a treasure: a family story that is wistful one moment, witty and wry the next. Few novelists write as beautifully about the damaged heart and the wounded soul as Laura Zigman, or understand the emotional bonds of siblings and sisters. I loved this novel.
Merged review:
Small World is a treasure: a family story that is wistful one moment, witty and wry the next. Few novelists write as beautifully about the damaged heart and the wounded soul as Laura Zigman, or understand the emotional bonds of siblings and sisters. I loved this novel....more
Garrett Graff is a treasure: a historian rather like Erik Larson with a vast curiosity. He's written some of the very best books out there on UFOs, WaGarrett Graff is a treasure: a historian rather like Erik Larson with a vast curiosity. He's written some of the very best books out there on UFOs, Watergate, and 9/11. (THE ONLY PLANE IN THE SKY: AN ORAL HISTORY OF 9/11 is brilliant -- and not for the faint of heart.) Now he has turned his attention to D-Day, the invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944, and again he has added so much to what we know and what happened that day (and in the months leading up to it). Using the words of the men and women who were there -- some famous, most not -- he has crafted a moment by moment and beach by beach narrative that is riveting. As the nephew of a member of the 101st Airborne, Easy Company, it was deeply moving to learn more specifically what my uncle experienced. But, the fact is, you don't need a personal connection to someone who was there to have "all the feels." This is the sort of book that is smart, inspiring, and powerful -- and adds so much to our knowledge of what that day was like and its historic importance forever....more
Yes, there's lots of sex, but what struck me most was how beautiful and moving this novel was about a woman at absolute mid-life and her fears that thYes, there's lots of sex, but what struck me most was how beautiful and moving this novel was about a woman at absolute mid-life and her fears that the second half will be a deep dive into despair and ever lessening pleasures. That doesn't mean that the novel also isn't funny as hell: it often is. The tone is wry and gently comic, and some of the smallest asides had me laughing out loud. But there is a depth to the tale that's easy to miss if you're focused only the narrator's exploration of what she craves physically. ...more
I've been a fan of Jayne Anne Philips for years, and yet (somehow) I missed this one until it won the Pulitzer Prize. Well, thank you Team Pulitzer foI've been a fan of Jayne Anne Philips for years, and yet (somehow) I missed this one until it won the Pulitzer Prize. Well, thank you Team Pulitzer for bringing it to my attention, because it's fantastic. Moving back and forth between 1864 and 1874, between the cataclysm of the Battle of the Wilderness and the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in West Virginia (a real place), this beautiful novel follows the lives of three people still reeling from the Civil War: scarred, silent, confused. And very, very damaged. Phillips is a brave, unflinching storyteller, and NIGHT WATCH is a gem....more
I devoured THE MIDNIGHT CLUB. It's a smart, surprising, and gripping mystery about the reality that we can't change who we were back in college, but wI devoured THE MIDNIGHT CLUB. It's a smart, surprising, and gripping mystery about the reality that we can't change who we were back in college, but we'd all be a lot better off if we could. And, for the characters in this fine novel, one of them might even still be alive....more
A classic for good reason: a devastating exploration of the losses that tear a family apart, and how, after an inexplicable tragedy, the survivors tryA classic for good reason: a devastating exploration of the losses that tear a family apart, and how, after an inexplicable tragedy, the survivors try to move forward. Beautifully written and impeccably observed -- and without a single wrong note. Just a treasure....more
Once more I have fallen behind in my reviews. I mention that because if you look at the dates I started and finished this spectacularly fine debut novOnce more I have fallen behind in my reviews. I mention that because if you look at the dates I started and finished this spectacularly fine debut novel, you'd think it took me a while to finish it. Nope. I inhaled it. Imagine a brilliant sci-fi story about time travel; a beautiful romance between a forward-thinking 21st-century executive and an eighteenth-century arctic explorer; and a riveting tale about spy craft and sage houses. This novel is all that in one perfect mash-up. I loved it. (PS: While you'll be fascinated by the eighteenth-century-explorer, you'll really devour the tart who survived the seventeenth-century plague.)...more
Tana French has become an auto buy for me. Her mysteries are smart, surprising, and driven by character -- which is what matters most to me in a novelTana French has become an auto buy for me. Her mysteries are smart, surprising, and driven by character -- which is what matters most to me in a novel, I think. This is the second of her novels featuring retired Chicago cop Cal Hooper in Western Ireland, a classic fish out of water, and local teen Trey Reddy, a quiet girl who is the embodiment of the truism that still waters run deep. When Trey's waster of a dad returns with a get-rich-quick scheme for the small village, things grow dark fast. Another gem from Tana French....more
A little behind on my reviews -- my apologies. But I savored every tale in Amor Towles's new collection. Each one is smart, surprising, irreverent, anA little behind on my reviews -- my apologies. But I savored every tale in Amor Towles's new collection. Each one is smart, surprising, irreverent, and rich with lush and idiosyncratic detail. Also? These stories are fun. Really fun. Towles movies seamlessly between the present and the past, and between New York and L.A. I devoured the book: you will, too....more
Imagine a police procedural about. . .vampyrs (note spelling). Imagine S.A. Cosby's ALL THE SINNERS BLEED meets Justin Cronin's THE PASSAGE. C.J. TudoImagine a police procedural about. . .vampyrs (note spelling). Imagine S.A. Cosby's ALL THE SINNERS BLEED meets Justin Cronin's THE PASSAGE. C.J. Tudor's THE GATHERING is that good. A detective is investigating the murder of a teenage boy in a very cold place called Deadheart, Alaska, and all signs point to one of the vampyrs at the nearby colony. But is that really the case? This one gots its fangs into me early on. I loved it....more
I reviewed this memoir earlier this month for the Washington Post. It's fantastic: curmudgeon novelist Caleb Carr is actually a wonderful softie at heI reviewed this memoir earlier this month for the Washington Post. It's fantastic: curmudgeon novelist Caleb Carr is actually a wonderful softie at heart. . .at least when it comes to Masha, the cat he rescued from a shelter in Vermont and with whom he would live for over a decade and a half in upstate New York. It was just the two of them, and this memoir chronicles their love for each other and how much they needed each other as they battled bears and age and, alas, cancer. Be prepared for all the feels in this beautiful chronicle of how much we, humans, need our companion animals....more
THE GREAT DIVIDE is a smart, moving, and wonderful novel. And while the title ostensibly refers to the Panama Canal, the real divide -- and this is thTHE GREAT DIVIDE is a smart, moving, and wonderful novel. And while the title ostensibly refers to the Panama Canal, the real divide -- and this is the brilliance of Cristina Henriquez -- is between the Americans who want to build the canal and the people who are supposed to carve a passage through the isthmus. With meticulous care, Henriquez brings her characters to life, and reminds us of the human cost of the massive construction project....more
Loading...
