The Lincoln Highway
The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles Amor Towles’ newest novel, The Lincoln Highway, is an engaging combination of Boys’ Own magazine and Homeric epic, and decidedly different from either of […]
The Library Book
The Library Book by Susan Orlean No surprise–I loved The Library by Susan Orlean. But it is not a typical narrative non-fiction like Orlean’s earlier books. The book’s chapters are […]
The Jane Austen Society
The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner In 1945, the tiny village of Chawton is coping with the after effects of WWII. Its most famous resident, Jane Austen, who lived […]
The Improbability of Love
The Improbability of Love by Hannah Rothschild In The New York Times review of her novel The Improbability of Love, author Hannah Rothschild (yes, those Rothschilds) said, “I don’t know […]
The Imperfectionists
The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman The newspaper was a loser, even before the internet. The decision by an otherwise savvy Atlanta businessman to publish an international English-language newspaper in Rome […]
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride I am turning into my mother, and when I recently caught myself deep in a Southern Windup (SWU) I knew the […]
The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club
The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson Like many young women in post WWI England, Constance Haverhill is unemployed. Having taken a job as an estate manager […]
The Guncle
The Guncle by Steven Rowley Patrick O’Hara, a once-famous gay sitcom star, quite enjoys his niece and nephew’s brief visits to his stylish home in Palm Springs. But when their […]
The Good Lord Bird
The Good Lord Bird by James McBride As you know, my book club is a serious group. But every year we try to select a light hearted book with no […]
The Fifth Season
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin The Fifth Season takes place on a planet called the Stillness. Not our earth exactly, but a place with recognizable features like oceans and […]
Friends of the Museum
Friends of the Museum by Heather McGowan Recently when buying a book at my local bookstore, the clerk said, as she cheerfully took my credit card, “It [ my purchase] […]
The Elegance of the Hedgehog
The Elegance of The Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery If you wondered why you studied Liberal Arts in college rather than something more practical like engineering or ceramics, the French novel […]
The Diary of a Bookseller
The Diary of a Bookseller and Confessions of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell In 2001, Shaun Bythell bought a second-hand bookshop in Wigtown, a tiny town located on a peninsula […]
The Curse of Pietro Houdini
The Curse of Pietro Houdini by Derek B. Miller In the early days of the Allied invasion of Italy in WWII, 14-year-old orphan Massimo takes refuge in the Benedictine abbey […]
The Cookbook Collector
The Cookbook Collector by Allegra Goodman Inspired by Jane Austen’s Sense & Sensibility, The Cookbook Collector is the story of the Bach (Dashwood) sisters who work and reside in pre […]