Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
I felt an immediate connection to Transcendent Kingdom when I read the epigraph, taken from one of my favorite poems, …
Category Archives: Contemporary fiction
Young Adults
The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante A Castle in the Clouds by Kerstin Gier Thanks to the algorithms …
The Boy in the Field by Margot Livesey
Were teenagers in 1999 more composed, kind, contemplative, and devoted to family? That is, before computers, phones, and social media …
Sisters by Daisy Johnson
I read Sisters in the span of a few hours. I’m not sure that was the best way to have …
Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout
The best book I’ve read in 2019 (so far, anyway). Strout’s stories are about individuals who are old, sick, damaged, …
Arcadia by Iain Pears
I loved Arcadia; it’s my favorite book of 2016 (so far, anyway). It encompasses time travel, history/alt-history, romance, clever literary …
Fallen Fret by Ray Richard
I’m as guilty as the next reader of drifting into ruts, defaulting too often to the same genres, settings, and …
Someone by Alice McDermott
Young Marie’s Brooklyn neighbor Pegeen has been having problems keeping her balance as she heads back and forth to work …
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
The Luminaries is set in the gold rush region of New Zealand’s west coast, circa 1866. At its core, it’s …
Longbourn by Jo Baker
Longbourn opens with a detailed description of a housemaid’s early morning labors, fetching the water from the well for laundry …
