Monthly Archives: March 2019

This one is interesting. I read it for a reading group (All-Nonfiction) and found myself bored for along time. I had only the Kindle version because the narrator in the sample sounded so bad. I’m not crazy about Kindle only … Continue reading →

ncredible book –  I’m not sure what I expected but it’s a whole lot better.   Maude Julen today is a therapist in France specializing in traumatic disorders in children.  She has the personal background for the job and this … Continue reading →

Having enjoyed Next of Kin until way after my bedtime, I woke up the next morning and, after briefly considering Michelle Obama’s hot selling memoir,  decided to continue with Buddy Lock #2. I downloaded the second in this 2-part series. … Continue reading →

I’d waited for this book since it started getting such rave reviews in France. Then it won the Prix Goncourt (huge prize there) Then it got to the US but the Audible version was a bit late getting out of … Continue reading →

I put off reading this for some reason I don’t know now because I genuinely enjoyed her priors, The Flamethrowers and Telex from Cuba (my reviews on this site). And no surprise, this was also very, very good – I’d … Continue reading →

I likely would not have read this again had it not been for a reading group. Actually I might not have finished it if it had not been for that reading group – BookerPrize But second readings (1st review on … Continue reading →

Oh my,  I like this book.  Yes,  it’s long, actually, at over 600 pages in other editions, it’s too long.  And yes,  it’s twisty and convoluted involving intertwined sub-plots all the way to China.  Finally yes, what with Scott Brick reading … Continue reading →

Back in 1948, in post-WWII Jim Crow Atlanta, segregation was the name of the game and it’s a huge theme, and an integral part of the plot to this interesting crime novel in which racial tensions (to say nothing of … Continue reading →

At only 160 pages (or 1 hour 15minutes) this is a very brief 1st person narrative of fiction. The Korea based Kang wrote the Man Booker International winner of a few years ago, The Vegetarian. That was a fine, fine … Continue reading →

I couldn’t help but notice the similarity to Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying in which a poor white Mississippi family has to transport mom’s dead body quite a distance in order to bury her.  The tale is told by several … Continue reading →

The title of this one is also the cliched opening for a joke, so we expect a funny book? Right. But Grossman is rarely just funny. He’s a Jewish-Israeli author with a good-size following. I’ve only read one of his … Continue reading →

I got this one because I enjoyed The Sisters Brothers which I read several years ago. French Exit is definitely different although it’s somewhat wacky and kind of “absurd,” as the New Yorker said. They also said it’s billed as … Continue reading →

This is the third in the Border Trilogy (or Cartel trilogy) and it’s as excellent as the others which, in total took over 20 years of research and writing . These are big sprawling novels of families and crime over … Continue reading →

This is what real historical fiction looks like. It takes place in Manhattan circa 1799, only a few years after the Panic of 1792. There are banking scandals, serious race issues, labor troubles, and plenty of crime and corruption going … Continue reading →

Wow! I’m not reading so many “Trump” books these days and I try to be selective about the ones I do read. I don’t want a bunch of sensationalism – I want to learn something in some way – McCabe … Continue reading →