Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides reminds me of a gilded mirror with intricate details swirled along the frame. The novel is a mixture of family history, coming of age, and gender identity. The…
If you listen to NPR, then interviews with Jonathan Franzen may have wormed their way into your consciousness as he hit every talkshow, selling his book, Freedom. If you don't listen to…
A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin is the fifth book in the Game of Thrones series. I won't go into a detailed review, because the book is…
With Lamb, Bonnie Nadzam, created a novel full of small wonders and quiet terror in the American West. There is a mythic tone that calls to the reader and I…
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami warps time. Words fill the pages and the reader's mind as characters wait for things to happen. To fill in this void, the characters cut vegetables,…
If you read my review of the excerpt, "Town of Cats", you'll remember I was not a fan of it. However, that didn't stop me from buying 1Q84 and giving…
In The Warsaw Anagrams, by Richard Zimler, the narrator, Erik Cohen, searches for the people who killed his nephew and two other children. He's a psychiatrist, who was once respected, but now…
Some books are read for pleasure. Other books are read to gain knowledge, to learn something factual or expand one's mind. Still, there are books that fit into neither categories.…
Anarchists, secessionists, and floundering academics! Oh my! Keith Scribner's novel, The Oregon Experiment, follows Scanlon Pratt and his wife, Naomi Greenburg, as they move from New York City to Douglas,…
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers is a novel about communication and belonging. It takes place in Georgia before the onset of World War II. Tensions between…