Confession: I started Wave stuck in the ears, but didn't get very far because the narrator seems to have a lisp – which is not a judgment about the reader herself, but my little ears had too challenging a time comprehending each sentence. This is a...
"Moongates dotted the landscape of Old China," the second of artist Elizabeth Quan's two-part childhood memoir begins. "Stepping through one of these doorways was to enter a world of peace and happiness ...
If I had not stuck Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad thrillers in my ears, I might never have discovered Australian journalist-turned-bestselling novelist Michael Robotham – French's The Likeness (I think) ended with the 'if you liked x, then try y'-recommendation that led me to Night Ferry. Contrarian that I am, however,...
Internationally renowned for her two bestselling novels, The Time Traveler’s Wife and Her Fearful Symmetry, Audrey Niffenegger is also a splendiforous artist with double the graphic titles to her lauded name. Her fourth and latest is "a new fairy tale" with origins that begin with movement: "Awhile ago, Wayne...
Well, goodness ...
Poisoned and hallucinating, a Canadian doctor lies in a hospital in the remote town of Kilwa in Tanzania. A stranger happens to hear a few brief details of the man's outrageous story, and decides to introduce himself to this doctor with an Indian name – Kamal...
With Broken Harbor finished, my Tana French days are over ...
First things first: click here to catch up. You'll be well-rewarded for sure! This latest volume opens with an intriguing graphic of characters captured in a two-page spread of bubbles and dots, labelled "The Wandering Son Board Game": "Don't be so fresh. 1 space back," a...
"Every Sunday my two aunts and my uncle come to visit." This isn't exactly a joyous occasion for the three children who watch from the front window as the old Lincoln arrives in the driveway. They know only too well what to expect: "Oy," sighs...
Wow, I sort of wondered ...
* STARRED REVIEW After surviving the Korean War, Yohan spends another year in a prisoner-of-war camp south of the new border that splits the country in two. Rather than return north, where no one awaits him, Yohan begins life anew in a faraway coastal Brazilian village as...
* STARRED REVIEW As in Ru Freeman’s absorbing 2009 debut, A Disobedient Girl, the intricate lives of young children also take center stage in this latest work. In 1979, the titular Sal Mal Lane is a cul-de-sac on the outskirts of Sri Lanka’s largest city and former...
Welcome to Hollow Ridge High School ...
When you Google journalist Anna Badkhen, the one repeating line you’ll encounter is this: “Anna Badkhen writes about people in extremis.” To do so, she’s “spent [her] adult life in motion of one sort or another in the war-wrecked hinterlands of Central Asia, Arabia, Africa.” Badkhen...
Perhaps I just need to stay away from award-winning bestsellers. But sometimes, my curiosity over all those stickers, prizes, and multiplying sales just can't be contained ...
With his eyes and body still “bleary from post-windsurfing and traveling,” Don Lee nonetheless graciously agrees to be grilled yet again – we’re going on a decade-plus of various interviews through four books! He’s tired, he’s rambling, but he’s always entertaining … and once more...
Here's another tiny-world overlap that convinces me that some higher power is directing my reading choices: first-time author Christa Parravani is married to Gulf War veteran author Anthony Swofford (Jarhead) – 'Tony' in Her – who appeared in the 2008 Oscar-nominated documentary, Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience, which was directed by...
When Don Lee’s first book debuted in April 2001, he probably didn’t know that he was the forerunner of a colorful trend – literally. His collection, Yellow, had the shortest of subtitles, simply Stories. Three months later, in July, another yellow-tinted cover appeared: Yell-Oh Girls!: Emerging...
Jenny Wingfield seems to be a bit of serial first-hit wonder. That's actually not a judgment but an observation: her first film she wrote, The Man in the Moon, was glorified by the late Roger Ebert, gave Reese Witherspoon her screen debut, and was the last...
Tana French has a method to her mysteries: While all four of her titles are standalone thrillers, you'll get more out of each if you read them in chronological order because each book's protagonist is connected to the next. Rob opens the Dublin Murder Squad series with In the...
