A word of advice before you read Jennifer Egan’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, A Visit from the Goon Squad--- it’s not a novel. It is a series of engaging, but only very loosely connected, short stories about a group of musicians. In the Random House Reader’s Guide, Egan offers the following ... [Continue Reading]
New Novels from Robinson, Kellerman, Francis
In the new Inspector Banks novel by Peter Robinson, Sleeping in the Ground, a wedding goes bloody wrong, literally. Although the perpetrator is caught, Banks thinks there’s more to it. And of course, there is! If you aren’t familiar with Inspector Banks and his colleagues in Yorkshire, get thee to a ... [Continue Reading]
How Hard Can It Be?
How Hard Can It Be? by Allison Pearson One of my favorite novels of 2003 and maybe the entire decade was I Don’t Know How She Does It featuring working mom Kate Reddy who battles sexism and sleep deprivation while climbing the corporate ladder at a London hedge fund. Flash forward seven years, ... [Continue Reading]
The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry
I’ve been looking for a juicy fiction read and finally found it! Set in 1893, The Essex Serpent is a Dickens-esque story of recently widowed Cora Seaborne who leaves London for the wilds of Essex in search of fossils and freedom. What she finds is family, friendship, and a mythical beast. The ... [Continue Reading]
The Mitford Murders by Jessica Fellowes
The Mitford Murders by Jessica Fellowes With Mitford mania in perpetual bloom, it was only a matter of time before some enterprising author wrote a mystery series featuring the Mitford sisters. And not surprisingly that someone is Jessica Fellowes, author of five companion books to the Downton ... [Continue Reading]
The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey
The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey In 1920s Bombay, Perveen Mistry, the Oxford educated daughter of a respected Zoroastrian family, has just joined her father’s law firm, becoming one of the first female lawyers in India. Mistry Law is appointed to execute the will of Mr. Omar Farid, ... [Continue Reading]
NCN Book Club Reading List 2018
NCN Book Club Reading List 2018 Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman (F) The World’s Strongest Librarian by Josh Hanagarne (M) Red Notice by Bill Browder (NF) The Ninth House by Alice McDermott (F) The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry (F) Killers of the Flower Moon by ... [Continue Reading]
Kinsey and Jack
Y is for Yesterday Sue Grafton is running out of alphabet but not steam. The best-selling crime writer’s latest Kinsey Millhone, Y is for Yesterday, is as good as the previous twenty-three novels. The Midnight Line After a few lackluster books, Lee Child redeems himself in The Midnight Line which ... [Continue Reading]
Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf
Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf Our Souls at Night has been on the book club and must-read circuit for a few years and recently was made into a Netflix film staring, inexplicably to my mind, Robert Redford and Jane Fonda. (I have not seen the film, but viewers say that Redford and Fonda are ... [Continue Reading]
Mysteries: Bad, Better, Best
Why do I keep reading Linda Fairstein? I say this every time, yet every time a new Alexander Cooper crime novel is released, I get sucked in. Maybe it is the history buff in me that appreciates the NYC landmarks and historical trivia that Fairstein peppers throughout her stories. But this time, ... [Continue Reading]