Imagine how you would react if you were suddenly jolted out of your normal, ordinary life by being informed by the police that your loved and trusted husband, for more than fifty years, and the father of your children, is a monster, a rapist, and possibly even a murderer. That’s what happened to Gisèle Pelicot when the police in the south of France called her…
It took seventeen years for Kathryn Stockett, author of The Help (and the movie of the same name), to publish her second novel, The Calamity Club, and it was worth the wait. I’ve been able to do little else but read the last few days until I finally finished. Written in the voices of an 11-year-old girl and a 20-something spinster, it is smart, at…
Over the years, I have read all of Elizabeth Strout’s New York Times’ best-selling books, beginning with Olive Kitteridge, and she has never disappoints. Her latest, The Things We Never Say, is a slim, satisfying little novel full of surprises, and a prime example of Strout’s distinctive writing. Her stories are usually set in a small town in rural Maine, featuring settings, characters, and plotlines that…
Reading is a highly subjective pastime. I might hate a book you absolutely love, and you might dislike a book I perceived as the second coming. Several decades ago, I realized that I do not have to finish a book once I started reading it if it doesn’t grip me by the first couple of dozen pages. I toss it aside and move on to…
With so much death, war, corruption, and disaster in the world these days, it’s a relief to come upon a book that provides a respite from all that. Theo of Golden by Allen Levi is an easy, contemplative story about a sophisticated 86-year-old Portuguese man with a secret past who arrives in a little town called Golden, Georgia in pursuit of quiet pleasures during his final…
There may not be a better form of reading escapism than a good, old, rootin’, tootin’ story of historical fiction set in the Klondike during the gold rush days in the late 1800s. The Rush by Beth Lewis is a bit different, however, because it’s written from a feminist perspective. Throughout history, there have been strong women whose accomplishments have often exceeded those of men,…
