Usually, when you stand in line at the ramen shop, you eventually open the door and you are greeted by the sounds and smells of the restaurant. You sit down at your table and you get your bowl of noodles. But sometimes – only sometimes – a patron opens the door of the ramen shop and instead finds themselves somewhere… Read more
Bunny is one of the best books I’ve read this year – and one of the strangest. I mean, I love strange books, but there were times when I had to set the book down and say “What the [heck] did I just read? Seriously, what did I just read?” Crazy stuff, but worth the effort. Samantha is an MFA… Read more
Oh, how happy I was to see this! I’m a big Christopher Moore fan in general and I have really enjoyed the adventures of his court jester, Pocket of Dog Snogging, in Fool and The Serpent of Venice. This one had to be even more fun because: Squirrels! But let’s start with the Afterword: I know what you’re thinking. You’re… Read more
This was a difficult book to read, but I’m going to be recommending it to everyone. My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell is a story of sexual abuse and what it does to the victim, even when the victim does not want to acknowledge it. Vanessa Wye attends the Browick School, a boarding school in Maine. She struggles, she’s… Read more
I am woefully behind on reading and reviews, but this is a great story to get me back on track. In Wilderness by Diane Thomas is a fascinating story told with a beautiful, poetic writing style. I was immediately drawn to the characters and the lyrical way the story is told made it a real pleasure to read. It’s 1966 and Katherine… Read more
It took me a while to get through The Winter Family by Clifford Jackman – not because of the story, but because my schedule has been insane the last few months. But it was worth it to carve out some time to finish this amazing story. The story really starts in Georgia, in 1864. In the lead-up to General Sherman’s march across… Read more
I’ve been making the drive back and forth to our Cincinnati office the last two weeks (about 3.5 hours in good traffic) and audiobooks are the perfect entertainment. I can catch up on my reading while I drive and some books are just better on audio. This week, I managed to pick up two books with similar themes, although told… Read more
“On a seemingly normal morning in London, a group of people wake to find something important to them missing, something dear but peculiar: the front of their house, their piano keys, their sense of direction, their place of work.” Can you imagine? You get up, shower, dress, have some coffee and head to the office. When you get there, the… Read more
I am becoming a Dennis Lehane groupie – that’s all I can say. I loved The Drop. I loved Live By Night. And I loved the final book in the Joe Coughlin trilogy, World Gone By. This was a story that really drew me in, the kind of book where you keep re-reading pages, going back to an earlier section… Read more
Of Things Gone Astray is a fascinating debut novel by Janina Matthewson. This is such an unusual story, an unusual method of telling it — days later, I am still thinking about it. This is a story about loss – about the things we lose, what they mean to us, and how we replace them. The characters – Delia, Cassie,… Read more