Book Reviews

I read House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. Why? Well, it kept popping up on “best of” lists for horror novels, it featured an unorthodox text format that intrigued me, and most importantly, it was on the Buy Two, …

In the fall of 2011, an eighth-grade student of mine wrote a beautiful letter to Ruta Sepetys, the author of Between Shades of Gray, detailing what she’d gleaned from Sepetys’ first novel  – the power of perseverance, integrity, and love. Since then, …

In April, my book club read Station Eleven. I dove into with my usual lack-of-research bravado – all I knew about the book was that it was some sort of post-apocalyptic novel. This genre really isn’t my cup of tea …

I can’t remember exactly where I first saw this book, but the most likely place is our local bookstore, Magers and Quinn. A fairly new book, Portage was published in October 2015 by University of Minnesota Press, a publisher of …

Furiously Happy is, in my humble opinion, something that should be read by anyone who struggles with any kind of depression, anxiety, or other mental illness, as well as those close to someone who does. Lawson uses absurd and hilarious …

Kim Barker details the behind-the-bylines reality of war-zone reporting in her memoir, The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan.  The book was released to little fanfare in 2011, but reached the bestseller list this year as Tina Fey …

This is not your average book review. This is also not your average survival guide. This is a written plan for how to “defend yourself when the lawn warriors strike (and they will)” by Chuck Sambuchino. Fear not. Now that you know …

I suppose it’s not really that much of a surprise that a lover of thrillers, horror, and mystery, such as myself, would absolutely adore Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects. I sped through the novel at a record pace (she sure knows …

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that …

Why: The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller caught my eye while browsing the bargain table at Barnes and Noble. I had certainly heard of the title, but had no idea what the novel was about. Knowing it was …