We Should All be Feminists was the book I had with me in the hospital when I gave birth to my daughter. We didn't know whether we were having a boy or a girl before Pearl was born and, to be honest, the thought of a girl scared me. Boys seemed straightforward. Girls seemed hard… Continue reading Book Review: Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
This book will be available for sale in May 2017. I read an Advanced Readers Copy, provided by the publisher. I believe I've mentioned that at the start of 2017 I decided I wanted to make sure I read more short stories this year than I did in 2016. Since I enjoyed Ferris' previous novel,… Continue reading Book Review: The Dinner Party by Joshua Ferris (Little, Brown, 2017)
This book will be available for sale in July 2017. I read an Advance Uncorrected Proof made available by the publisher. The Unwomanly Face of War was first published in the Soviet Union in 1985 and translated into English in 1988 but, as far as I can tell, has been out of print in English… Continue reading Book Review: The Unwomanly Face of War by Svetlana Alexievich
I've been sitting on this review for a while, pondering how I feel about A Little Life. Turns out, the longer I wait, the less I feel as though I really liked this novel. I heard several rave reviews of it before I started (including the cashier at Powells when I picked up a used… Continue reading Book Review: A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
I'm a big fan of Ernest Hemingway (the writing more than the man himself but that's a topic for another time) and I've read most of his writing. While in Washington recently, I spotted a Hemingway book I'd never read in a secondhand bookshop and so brought it home. It turns out that The Garden… Continue reading Book Review: The Garden of Eden by Ernest Hemingway
I have to start by saying this book is truly excellent. I'd been waiting for weeks for a copy at our local library and it came available right before we went away for Spring Break. Afraid they wouldn't hold it for too long, I took it with me and ended up reading it in the… Continue reading Book Review: The Break by Katherena Vermette
In the world of parenting books, one I had heard frequently recommended was How to Talk so Kids will Listen and How to Listen so Kids Will Talk Adele Faber. I figured I would wait until Pearl was older/ more verbal to read it but when I saw a new edition titled How to Talk… Continue reading Book Review: How to Talk So Little Kids Will Listen by Joanna Faber & Julie King
A quick disclaimer to say that I know Deborah Willis but only a little bit. We were in the same program at university but she was a couple of years ahead of me and we briefly worked at the same coffee shop and then we worked at rival bookstores. I read her first short story… Continue reading Book Review: The Dark and Other Love Stories by Deborah Willis
I finished this book in about two days, which gives you a pretty good idea of how compelling a read it is. Yet now, days later, I find myself struggling over what to say about Eileen and even whether or not to say that I liked it. It's a compulsive read. While the action… Continue reading Book Review: Eileen – Otessa Moshfegh
I I'd previous read one novel by Helen Oyeyemi (Boy, Snow, Bird) so I had some idea of what to expect from her writing. Oyeyemi's stories exist in a slightly alternate universe of magic, discomfort, and romance. There is something delightfully disorienting about her world. It's almost like ours but some of the details are… Continue reading Book Review: What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours
