Tuesday, July 28, 2020

Tour: WITH OR WITHOUT YOU by Caroline Leavitt

4 Stars


  1. Sometimes there are fictional characters whom I want to metaphorically shake, and shout "Wake up! CHANGE YOUR LIFE!" That's how I felt about Stella and Simon in WITH OR WITHOUT YOU. If they could just change their individual perspective, I thought.. and sure enough, Life intervened. Stella descended into a coma. Simon therefore had to change in response to the new circumstances. When Stella awoke from the coma, she was different. Only time would tell if all these changes proved for the best...


Tour: THE COMEBACK by Ella Berman

5 Stars


I think that perhaps the world will not ever reach  a point when it doesn't need revelations of abuse and women and children [and men] standing up for themselves and standing tall despite abuse. Sometimes, as protagonist/narrator Grace demonstrates, being true to ourselves, moment by moment and day by day, in each decision and choice, means the abuser(s) did not win, did not succeed in breaking us, did not "get over." Victims can become Survivors, and Succeed. Sometimes, in the immortal words of George. Herbert, "Living well is the best revenge."

Sunday, July 26, 2020

Tour: HIEROGLYPHICS by Jill McCorkle


4 Stars

Walking through the memories: it's common among the elderly,  sometimes unavoidable for younger persons,  especially when the memories are painful. 

Paging through the memories: sometimes studying history, sometimes expanding on genealogical findings, sometimes just yearning to know someone. 

HIEROGLYPHICS unfolds around a long-married couple,  both striving to recall, and a younger single mother,  struggling to cope and to do her best for her son without fatherly input. Interaction of the couple and the mom sends memories unraveling like a yarn ball batted around by a playful kitten. 

Sunday, July 12, 2020

Review: MAYHEM by Estelle Laure




4 Stars

Review: MAYHEM was a difficult novel to read, and will be for a reader with even minimal sensitivity.  For readers who are survivors of childhood or adult abuse and violence, MAYHEM,  like Emma Donoghue's powerful novel ROOM, will mean treading a difficult road of memory and emotional pain. Those readers will catch all the nuances, because the "excessive startle" reflex gifted as a consequence of Abuse works with figurative triggers, such as in Fiction,  not just in "real life."



Tuesday, July 7, 2020

Tour_IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF TRUE by Susan Kaplan Carlton


4 Stars

Historical Fiction

In the current sociopolitical uproar,  focus is primarily on the importance of Black Lives and the prevalence of attitudes and practices of White Supremacy. As demonstrated in IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF TRUE,  racism and bigotry doesn't only target People of Color.  For several millennia, those of Hebrew lineage have been,  and still remain, in the contempt of and often literally targeted by, individuals, groups, organizations,  considering themselves superior by reason of ethnicity and /or religious preference. 

In 1958, transplanting unexpectedly from New York City to Atlanta,  Ruth determines that concealing her ethnicity is key to popularity among the wealthy country club set. But Truth will out, and oftentimes violence is what propels revelation. 

I was particularly intrigued that this novel finds it setting in Atlanta, site of the murder of Mary Phagan in 1913, for which Leo Frank was convicted. At the commutation of his sentence  for dearth of evidence, in 1915, Mr. Frank was lynched in nearby Marietta. A month later, at Stone Mountain,  Georgia,  the Ku Klux Klan reconvened.  



Wednesday, July 1, 2020

Review: COPY BOY by Shelley Blanton-Stroud

4 Stars

Strongly feminist metaphysical historical fiction focusing on a young girl who travels from dusty Texas to San Francisco to develop her own strengths of purpose and to rise beyond the frailties of her family.

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