I was tempted to make a list of my favorites among the 2019-published books I read this year. In the end I decided to focus on my favorite 2019 reads (first time reads; I didn’t include books I had read / reviewed in prior years) without regard to their year ... more >
The true story of the fierce band of women who battled Washington—and Hanoi—to bring their husbands home from the jungles of Vietnam. On February 12, 1973, one hundred and sixteen men who, just six years earlier, had been high flying Navy and Air Force pilots, shuffled, limped, or were carried ... more >
At Edmund Brooke’s insistence, his ten-year-old daughter, Vitorina, leaves the closed world of her old and strait-laced great-aunts and their Portuguese mansion—complete with chapel—and journeys to a boarding school in England. Edmund readily accepts the offer of a golfing acquaintance to act as chaperone for Tory. Once on the train, ... more >
Dear Ms. Burns, Your novel, Milkman, recently won the Man Booker Prize. That and a rave review from Sunita convinced me to read it. Milkman has been called “experimental fiction” because it’s written in stream-of-consciousness narration conveyed through long sentences and paragraphs, because the narrative goes on long tangents, and ... more >
Lindley Harding was a singer nearing the end of his career; Laurence Morven was a new star-and rival-coming up over the horizon. And Lindley’s daughter Natalie, who loved them both, found herself torn two ways as the bitterness grew between the two men. Was the situation going to ruin her ... more >
This is the personal story of a diplomat’s wife which spans a thirty-five year period from the start of her husband’s career as the most junior member of an embassy’s staff ending many years later as an Ambassador. This is told from the wife’s point of view, writing with insight ... more >