Take My Hand, by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
You ever get that feeling you completely missed the point of a book? I feel this way about Take My Hand, which is something I entirely blame myself for. Perkins-Valdez wrote a beautiful novel about race and sexism and poverty in America. And Civil, her protagonist, is a wonderfully complex character with strength and power, […]
Goyhood, by Reuven Fenton
If you’ve ever suddenly lost so much in your life that you don’t know who you are anymore, you will absolutely relate to Goyhood, by Reuven Fenton. I wasn’t expecting to find myself in a novel about two possibly Jewish, definitely middle-aged men on a road trip to find their lost boyhood, but I was […]
Small Animals Caught in Traps, by C.B. Bernard
If you feel like spiraling down a dark hole of despair and depression, while watching nearly every major character die—even those that came before the story started and even those that aren’t even human—do I have the book for you! But perhaps I lead you astray by saying “depression.” Small Animals Caught in Traps is […]
Morning in this Broken World, by Katrina Kittle
Usually, when I get toward the end of a book I really like, I don’t want it to end. You know that feeling, as the pages in your right hand start to thin and you have the urge to slow down and savor every paragraph. Not so for Morning in this Broken World. I thoroughly […]
The World According to Garp by John Irving
What to Read When…you’re doing some hard hospital time. We all know that there are different kinds of “hospital time.” Time spent waiting in the emergency room with a colicky child, or waiting for a new member of the family to emerge, sipping bad coffee as a grandparent is rolled into a machine, or pacing […]
Unsinkable, by Jenni L. Walsh
What to read when…you haven’t tired of WW2 Historical Fiction (as I have) or if you can’t get enough Titanic stories (as I can’t!). Titanic will forever hold the heart of every story in our oceans of imagination—the hopeful beginning, the devastating plot twist, the heart-breaking, yet poignant conclusion. Unsinkable draws from this well of […]
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, by James McBride
You don’t often think that reading a book is like eating your vegetables, but in the case of James McBride’s Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, that’s exactly what it felt like. Reading it now, just after the holidays, and after having spent the last few weeks eating leftover lasagna, turkey, and a sundry of pies […]
Miss Benson’s Beetle, by Rachel Joyce
What to read when… …you need to feel there are still adventures to be had in this world. I promise you that Miss Benson’s Beetle will make you want to quit your job, sell all your belongings, and hop a freight for the other side of the world. The only issue there is that I […]
Lady Tan’s Circle of Women, by Lisa See
I hope I’m not alone in this. Women mostly don’t talk about it. I know I haven’t. But I believe that if you’ve had a miscarriage, or had trouble getting pregnant, or if you’ve given birth to a special needs child, then inevitably we all ask the same question. It’s the one we’re never supposed […]
Weyward, by Emilia Hart
I finished this book last night and this morning I saved an ant who had crawled up into my kitchen sink. Violet and her striped-leg spider, Goldie, are entirely to blame. Normally there would have been a swift death by drowning, but thanks to this book, I carefully led the ant onto a paper towel […]