Book Reviews

This novel can be described with the following list of very interesting adjectives: quirky, ironic, karmic, squirrelly, political, joyful, maddening, hilarious, emotional, awkward, and even Pynchonesque at times. Is your interest piqued? It should be! I had a good time reading …

Why: This reference book was actually a gift from Literary Quicksand founder, Joli. I was just starting to get back into knitting seriously after teaching myself in high school (with little success), and Joli surprised me with this in a …

Why: While browsing the bargain table at Barnes and Noble, the cover of this novel caught my eye. Then, as a knitter myself, the simple, straightforward title drew me in. Finally, the synopsis on the back seemed as if it …

Friends, this was a difficult one for me to get through. The Aviator’s Wife is a work of historical fiction about Ann Morrow Lindbergh, Charles Lindbergh’s wife. Narrated by Ann, the novel follows her from her college years in 1927 until …

“Do you know where you are?” So begins Beth Dooley’s newest book, In Winter’s Kitchen, and her attempt to answer this question after she leaves New Jersey and makes a new home in Minnesota. Dooley explores this question by using …

Wow. What a whirlwind this tiny little book is! This is the first I’ve read of Gillian Flynn’s works. Yes, I know, everyone who’s anyone talks about how good they are. But creepy is just not my thing! So I …

Why: The reason I chose this book was simple and uninteresting: it was on my Amazon reading list. I had actually tried to read this last summer, but ended up returning it – gasp – unread to the library. The …

124 was spiteful. Full of a baby’s venom. And thus starts one of the best, yet most devastating, novels I have picked up in a long while. Every time I returned to where I left off, picking the book up …

Bel Canto is a story about love, mostly. Love, music, language, terrorism, friendship – the book definitely doesn’t fail to deliver on those themes. Set in South America, the story (based on a true story) begins when a large roomful of mostly affluent …

Why: This is the second book that I requested from my library after Joli posted her books from the 1990s article. I was just going to read one of these beloved Dear America books, but then two caught my eye, and …