Tag Archives: fiction
The Overstory
A simple description of The Overstory by Richard Powers is that it’s a novel about nine people and their relationships with trees. Sounds weird, right? Well, The Overstory is definitely an unusual novel. But it’s much more, and much stranger … Continue reading
Whereabouts
Whereabouts is Jhunpa Lahiri’s first novel in ten years. I don’t know what to make of it. I’ve read a couple of Lahiri’s earlier books: Interpreter of Maladies, her debut collection of short stories for which she won a Pulitzer … Continue reading
A Burning
A Burning By Megha Majumdar Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2020 Faced with a difficult moral choice, would you do the right thing? What if doing the right thing might cost you your job or the chance of a promotion? … Continue reading
Where the Crawdads Sing
Where the Crawdads Sing By Delia Owens G.P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, 2018 I don’t read much fiction these days, but it’s summertime and the last book I read was about the history of calculus, so I figured I’d try … Continue reading
The Palace of Illusions
Reading The Palace of Illusions felt like seeing the ocean for the first time. It’s beautiful and vast and awe-inspiring. It’s unexpected and unforgettable. And it beckons with the promise of undiscovered worlds beneath the surface and over the horizon. … Continue reading
The Narrow Road to the Deep North
The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan is brilliantly written and utterly harrowing. During World War II, an estimated 200,000 Asian civilian laborers and 60,000 Allied prisoners of war were used as forced labor by the Japanese … Continue reading
Blackfish City
Blackfish City By Sam J. Miller HarperCollins, New York, 2018 A warrior woman comes to the city of Qannaq in a small skiff accompanied by an orca and a polar bear. Who is she? Why has she come? What’s her … Continue reading
All the Light We Cannot See
All the Light We Cannot See By Anthony Doerr Scribner, New York, 2014 I’m not quite sure what to make of this book. It’s beautifully constructed, like an intricate puzzle box. All the pieces fit together with precision and artistry. … Continue reading
The Left Hand of Darkness
The Left Hand of Darkness By Ursula K. LeGuin Walker and Company, New York, 1969 I read The Left Hand of Darkness a long time ago, back in my university days I think. It popped back up to the top … Continue reading
Exit West
Wow! What a marvelous magical book to close out this tumultuous year! Nadia and Saeed live in an unnamed city in an unnamed country, perhaps in the Middle East, or maybe Afghanistan or Pakistan, or possibly anywhere, that is being … Continue reading
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