Book Reviews

Why: This is the “epilogue” to The Bridges of Madison County, and I am a complete-ist (or at least I would be if such a thing existed). It is my definition for someone who has to complete series and has …

My fellow LQ contributor, Kathleen, included The Girl on the Train in her list of captivating audiobooks to listen to, and I am happy to say that I wholeheartedly agree with her: This novel is a roller coaster ride of …

True confession: I’m a recovering book snob.  The situation peaked during undergrad, when half the people in my English classes wore gauzy scarves and prattled insufferably about reading Dante in their leisure time.  I played along with Jane Austen movie adaptations, post-modernism, and poetry collections …

Coming-of-age stories that are deeply rooted in their physical surroundings have always fascinated me. When I was 10, I read My Side of the Mountain, which is a story about a boy who lives in the hollow of a tree …

Listen up, bookish friends: This is one to add to your TBR list. This coming-of-age story is captivating, haunting, and just so real. Cline is a genius at delving into the mind of a young teen in search of recognition and …

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 …