You know those books that have such great characters that they crawl into your heart and settle there? The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline is one of them. Spanning years and distance and set against the backdrop of British colonization, it tells the stories of three women on the receiving end of that brutality.Evangeline, Hazel, and Mathinna are memorable for their stories, but they tug on your heartstrings even more so because they are based on real people. There’s Evangeline, a governess sentenced to prison after her pregnancy is discovered; Hazel, a young midwife also sentenced for a minor infraction; and Mathinna, an orphan ripped from her home as an experiment in “taming the natives” by the wife of the new … Keep Reading
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Recent Reviews
‘Midnight Library’ and the Power of Regrets
Do you ever think about where you’d be if you did that ONE thing differently? If you, say, changed your major to match your passions, rather than your expectations? Or if you’d taken that leap of faith and moved to that far off city where you knew no one? The possibilities for how your life could have unfolded are endless, and it's hard not to think about them, sometimes. That's the premise of The Midnight Library by Matt Haig and it's a good … Keep Reading
‘The First Day of Spring’ is a Powerful Debut Novel
When Chrissie was 8, she killed a little boy. Twenty years later, she’s a mom trying to do what’s best for her daughter. But how do you forgive yourself for something so awful? Or are some acts so terrible that there’s no coming back? Do the standards for redemption change if you killed someone as a child, rather than adult?Equal parts disturbing and heartbreaking, The First Day of Spring by Nancy Tucker is told through alternating points … Keep Reading
‘The Last Thing He Told Me’ Infuses Freshness Into the Familiar
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 direction. Her approach strikes a balance between the familiar and the … Keep Reading
From the Archives
CTC Book Tour: Living Again by L.L. Collins
Confession: I've read a lot of Nora Roberts books in my lifetime. Despite her predictable story lines, she usually manages to bring me into the fold of the story to the point that I am just as invested as if it were the first time. So when I first read the summary for Living Again by L.L. Collins I thought I was going to be getting another pleasantly and predictable storyline.Wrong. This self-published and brand-spaking new book is so much … Keep Reading
The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma
Every once in awhile, I come across a book that I have a love/hate relationship with. The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma is one such book. The premise is intriguing and the book started out really great, but by around the halfway mark I started to lose steam. It wasn't that I disliked the book, but rather I wasn't compelled to pick it up. And so it would languish on my shelf for a few days until I picked it up again. Then, I would read a … Keep Reading
Gaiman’s “Ocean” Blends Childlike Wonder With Human Fragility (Book Review)
This was my first Neil Gaiman book and it was not at all what I expected. For whatever reason, I thought Gaiman wrote brooding social commentaries along the lines of Philip Roth that were rooted in the real world. This may be the case for his other books, but not so much with The Ocean At the End of the Lane (although social commentaries do exist). That said, I still really enjoyed this book. I read it in one sitting and was left pondering the … Keep Reading