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 >
Trigger warnings: Northern Ireland, 1996. After twenty-five years of conflict, the IRA and the British have agreed an uneasy ceasefire, as a first step towards lasting peace. But if decades of savage violence are leading only to smiles and handshakes, those on the ground in the border country will start ... 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 >
Also read and reviewed: Playing Hurt, Bed of Flowers, Heartsick, The Fourth Summer, The Dream Hunter Midnight Crossroad by Charlaine Harris I haven’t read any of Charlaine Harris’ books except for the Sookie Stackhouse series, which I was devoted to. I’m not sure if it’s been a matter of fearing ... more >
I was a cranky reader on social media this year, so I was surprised to discover that like Jayne’s, my top ten list runneth over. In hindsight, I think some my crankiness was due to the difficulty I had finding satisfying reads in historical romance, traditionally my favorite genre. Please ... more >
Dear Mr. Hamid, Your acclaimed novel begins this way: IN A CITY SWOLLEN BY REFUGEES but still mostly at peace, or at least not yet openly at war, a young man met a young woman in a classroom and did not speak to her. For many days. His name was ... more >