Let me start off by saying I really enjoyed The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave. My last few books have been duds so I was nervous about continuing my “losing streak”, but this one hit the spot. On its face, the story is tried-and-true: girl meets boy, boy has secrets, girl seeks truth and surprises abound; but Dave infuses freshness into it by going in an unexpected … [Read more...]
‘Writers and Lovers’ a New Twist on a Familiar Refrain
Lily King is back with a new novel, Writers and Lovers. Her previous book, Euphoria, is one of my favorites to recommend, so I was a bit worried about Writers and Lovers living up to my expectations. Thankfully, it did not disappoint. Set in Boston in the late 1990’s, it tells the story of Casey, a woman trying to decide what her next chapter in life will look like. Torn … [Read more...]
‘A Good Neighborhood’ Tackles Race and Class in America
Several years ago, I read a book titled Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler. I described the reading experience as floating down a lazy river, for the story ebbed and flowed in a way that was, for lack of a better term, peaceful. When I learned that Fowler had a new book coming out, I was eager to pick it up and was expecting a similar writing style. I was … [Read more...]
‘The Leavers’: Immigration, Identity, and Family
In the fifth grade, Deming’s mother disappeared. An undocumented Chinese immigrant, she went to work one day and never came home. It’s easy for us, the readers, to speculate about what happened, but for Deming, the disappearance was as shocking as it was nonsensical. Soon, he was adopted by a white family in another city and taken away from the only home he knew. These events … [Read more...]
Family Secrets and the Search for ‘Sylvie Lee’
Sylvie Lee was 9 when she returned home from the Netherlands to her parents and sister in New York City. She, like many children of Chinese immigrants, spent the first third of her life abroad while her parents got their footing in a new country. The dichotomy between her two lives - the before and after - turned Sylvie into somewhat of a loner. Smart, beautiful, and popular, … [Read more...]