Rating: 3.5 of 5 Synopsis: “Three eccentric, secluded nuns live on a remote island, forgotten by time and the Church – until a priest unwittingly happens upon them. He is as surprised to see the nuns as they are to see a flesh-and-blood man, and what follows is the strange, moving, and often hilarious story […]
magical realism
The Antelope Wife by Louise Erdrich
Rating: 4 of 5 A multi-generational story that blends Native beliefs (myths, legends, folklore) with the everyday reality of issues like domestic abuse, alcoholism, and suicide, to name only a few. The whole dynamic of clashing cultures, especially the internal struggles of urban Natives, fascinated me; it’s something I hadn’t yet been exposed to in […]
Girl & Flame by Melissa Reddish
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Synopsis: “Told in a series of innovative flash vignettes, Melissa Reddish’s Girl & Flame is an inventive and thoughtful meditation on the intersection of grief, longing, and the natural world.” (source) My thoughts: Not at all what I expected, and in this case, that’s a good thing. I was surprised to […]
Hour of the Bees by Lindsay Eagar
Rating: 3.5 of 5 “Things are only impossible if you stop to think about them.“ Synopsis: “While her friends are spending their summers having pool parties and sleepovers, twelve-year-old Carolina — Carol — is spending hers in the middle of the New Mexico desert, helping her parents move the grandfather she’s never met into a […]
My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry by Fredrik Backman
Rating: 4.5 of 5 “Every seven-year-old deserves a superhero. That’s just how it is.“ A touching story about the power of second chances and the special relationship between grandparents and their grandchildren. Elsa is an obstinate, precocious almost-eight-year-old whose only friend is her seventy-seven-year-old Granny. I loved them both immediately! Every human being deserves to […]
All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders
Rating: 4.5 of 5 All the Birds in the Sky was the first 2016 release I absolutely did not want to put down until I was finished. It was so weird, in that brilliant way I always hope to find in a new-to-me author’s work. The seamless blending of magic and science, the absolutely believable […]
The Memory Garden by Mary Rickert
Rating: 4 of 5 “What frightens Nan is the way the past sneaks up on the present, consuming all in its path.” Give me a story featuring a young adult, who doesn’t quite know the person she is yet or what she wants to do with her life, living with an old woman, who has […]