The House on Tradd Street
This is the second novel by Karen White that I’ve read, and I’m already voting her to the top of a short list of authors who have a lyrical command of language, sentence structure, and pacing. The House on Tradd Street, was different from Folly Beach in the sense of the paranormal component, but her ability […]
Georgia’s Kitchen
The title to Georgia’s Kitchen, by Jenny Nelson, is also a big clue to the heart of this charming and delicious story about a top-notch NYC chef whose life gets tossed through a food processor. The three phases to this story (I call them Manhattan,Tuscany, Manhattan) play out a bit like three course meal and every […]
Folly Beach
Karen White’s novel, Folly Beach, lovingly weaves multiple stories together with mystical tenderness of loss, bravery, and the unanswerable question of when has grief worked its course. Two different time periods (1940s and 2009) and two significant plots run concurrent in this novel set in a sweet little beach town near Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina. […]
Ten Beach Road
“You don’t really know what your made of until things fall apart.” Madeline Singer This quote from one of the three main characters in this beautifully written novel, Ten Beach Road, sums the whole plot into one sentence. Three women, total strangers to each other, wake up to find their lives–which were already on the […]
Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky
I’m not sure where I bought this book, it had been sitting in my TBR pile for the whole summer, but the title intrigued me as I had no idea that two people would be friends–or as the back cover provides, lovers. This was a novel written by a screenwriter after the movie had already […]
Next to Love
“War . . .next to love has most captured the world’s imagination.” Eric Partridge, British lexicographer, 1914. It’s from this seminal quotation that Ellen Feldman crafted one of the most superb novels about war, love, grief, resolution, and pain that I’ve ever read. Set in a town devastated by the loss of soldiers in the […]
The Gap Year
Sarah Bird’s, The Gap Year, enjoyed nice press in the Dallas Morning News a few weeks ago. Because I was a big fan of her essays in Texas Monthly magazine and owned a few other books of hers, I rushed out to buy this ode to a daughter’s last year in high school. Being in […]
Wherever Grace is Needed
Best book of the summer of the summer–so far. I just had to get that out there in case you didn’t read another single thing I wrote. Zipping through Sam’s yesterday gathering up party food for 17 and 18 year olds, I did my usual jaunt through the book section–to see what the Sam’s book […]
Tassy Morgan’s Bluff
I bought Jim Stinson’s Tassy Morgan’s Bluff because it was on a summer reads display at Barron’s. If Barron’s recommends it, particularly if its artfully surrounded by beach bags and flip flops, I usually give the titles a fair shake and walk out with two or three. This choice didn’t disappoint. The story was cute, […]
The Mulberry Tree
I’ve done the sort of thing that makes me nervous–very nervous. I bought a book, got half way through, BEFORE I realized I’ve read it before. What does that say? I’m not old enough for dementia. I don’t think. Anyway, I’m happy to report that even on a second reading that I though was a […]
