When I first started reading The Last Painting of Sara de Vos, by Dominic Smith, I was pretty sure I didn’t like it. The first chapter felt like it was about dissatisfied rich people and I was not in the mood for that nonsense. Happily, it is not about dissatisfied rich people, nor is it about the theft and forgery of a Dutch painting, which is what I thought it was about after I decided it wasn’t about rich people. Really though, it’s about three […]
It’s all about the girls
On the surface, The Girls, by Emma Cline, appears to be about a Manson-like figure in Northern California in the 1960s. The leader of a small, communal living group, Russell taught his small group of followers “to discover a path to truth, how to free their real selves from where it was coiled inside them.” The group consists mostly of women, and mostly of young women, who felt that being around Russell was “like a natural high… Like the sun or something. That big and […]
Great Expectations
In Free Food for Millionaires, by Min Jin Lee, Casey Han, a Korean American immigrant in New York City, struggles with being an Americanized daughter in a traditional Korean household. Unlike her younger sister, Tina, Casey fights against her parents’ expectations of her. For example, her parents, especially her mother, are devout Christians, but Casey enjoys casual sex and has even had an abortion. And although Casey graduated from Princeton because it was what her parents wanted/expected, she still hasn’t decided what she wants to […]
Great story, great words, all good.
Let me start this review by admitting that I love David Mitchell. I love everything he writes and I love that he interweaves his novels so there are always little references to previous works of his. The Bone Clocks is no different. I loved it and I loved the small references to previous novels. Now, you certainly don’t need to read The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet or Black Swan Green to appreciate The Bone Clocks, but you should read them anyway because they […]
Gus the Fisherman
The River Why, by David James Duncan, is one of those books that I love to re-read. I’ve read it probably ten times over the last 20 years, and it always makes me happy. Sure, I basically know the story by heart, but it does my heart good to re-read it. So, what’s it about? Well, it’s about a lot of things. And if you asked me the last time I read it what it was about, I’d probably say something different than I’m going […]
Pirriwee Public School holds a killer Trivia Night Fundraiser
Prior to reading Big Little Lies, I had never read a Liane Moriarty novel before. But, I have to say, it was pretty good. It was a quick, engaging read but not empty fluff like quick reads can often be. I will say though that after the first chapter, I was worried that it was going to be empty fluff. I mean, the name of the school is Pirriwee Public School and while I know elementary schools are often given twee names, that’s an awfully twee […]