Book Reviews Archive

I finished this last week but wanted to have some time to think about it before posting a review. By now, you’ve probably read people’s opinions all around the internet. Is there room for one more?

Just as Trap Queen by Fetty Wap is taking over the airwaves, The Vacationers has positioned itself as one of THE books of the summer. It’s on all of the best beach reads lists, including my own from last month, and it has all the components of beach read dreams: it’s fast, light, and breezy. The

This little book has made quite the mark in the self-help/home organization genre. Written by Japanese cleaning consultant, Marie Kondo, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up is infinitely better than the usual drivel that comes out of this section: How to organize your closet with fancy shoe racks!

Cruising through my best books list of 2014 (I’ve done 3/5 so far…not bad), this novel has become quite popular in recent months. I’ve read a number of books this year set during the World War II era – Fatelessness, Sarah’s Key, and The Book Thief, to name a few

Everything I Never Told You not only appeared on all the best books lists of 2014, but it was often cited as the best book of the year. If folks couldn’t decide on a single best book then they cited it in the top five.

This book isn’t exactly new, but I see it pop up frequently – at used bookstores, in airport lounges, on a friend’s reading list. It’s been on my own bookshelf for years, staring me down, and beckoning a read. I took the plunge and thought it was worth a review.

In The Empathy Exams there’s not much that Leslie Jamison doesn’t cover on the spectrum of human suffering: disease, grief, violence, illness, wounds, pain, loss, regret. The book is not an exposition on gloom and doom, however.

True Story: In 1819, the 238-ton whaleship Essex was attacked and sunk by a sperm whale in an isolated area of the South Pacific. The 20-man crew set out in three small boats to try to reach the coast of South America (the place they deemed safest).

Cheryl Strayed is my new girl crush. I’ve been telling everyone I know about her because she. is. awesome. First, she wrote Wild, which was made into a movie with Reese Witherspoon and is everywhere lately.

Kids, there’s no magic here. A swift departure from those little, obscure books, The Parry Hotter series, The Casual Vacancy is very much a novel for grown-ups. While describing the book to my family, I used the word ‘adult’ so many times that they thought I was reading erotica. But that’s simply the