Tom Perrotta has a talent for creating very relatable, very human characters and setting them in novels that feel timely and contemporary. With the exception of The Leftovers, which had a fantasy element, reading his…
Firing On All Cylinders
Like Will, I wasn’t a big fan of Celeste Ng’s Everything I Never Told You. However, even in reading that book I didn’t enjoy it was apparent Ng was a writer to be reckoned with…
Everything I Ever Crammed Into A Melodrama
Celeste Ng’s debut novel If you say “Harvard” a lot and have your characters work as professors and aspire to be doctors, can you make A Serious Novel out of a soap opera plot? That’s…
The Good Daughter
I can always tell if a mystery is really good because the moment I finish it I will text my friend, Adam, and tell him how much he needs to read it so I can…
Sing, Unburied, Sing
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward is a haunting tale of the Jim Crow south and its reverberations, generations deep. In rural Mississippi, thirteen-year-old Jojo lives with his aging grandparents who he refers to as…
But That’s Not How it Worked
I have a bone to pick with Jane Young/Aviva Grossman. In 1999, you could not just flop down on the bed of your dorm room with your laptop (which would have had to been plugged…
Well, That Was Offensive
I’m not sure why so many people who read Mona Awad’s collection of linked short stories, 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl, found it so funny. What was hilarious? The way the main…
Eleanor Oliphant is Okay at Best, Annoying at Worst
One thing to know before you crack into Gail Honeyman’s novel Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine is that it’s very voicey. You are immediately and wholly ensconced in Eleanor’s world and her voice drives and…
Three Quickie Reviews
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi One of my weaknesses as a reader, and as a human, is that I’m not too keen on history. I don’t like to read about olden times. If a book takes…
Ballad of the Sad Middle-Aged Man
There are times when there’s a comfort to cliched material. It’s pleasantly familiar, devoid of the unexpected – like a favorite meal or well-worn sweatshirt, it holds only satisfaction, not surprise. One Last Thing Before…
Feeling Wisconsin
Recently, a friend pointed out on Twitter that a book he was reading would drive me bonkers because it touched upon very many of my literary pet peeves. “Dick Lit to the extreme. Selfish, sad-sack,…