When Henry Franken’s father dies from a heart attack, it tears an emotional hole into his life. His widowed father had raised him. As a boy, Henry...
Novel
“The Find” Explores the Irony of the Iron Range
Debut novel explores an exciting discovery and the tumult that follows. Timothy Duff remembers it well. “November 2010, a couple days before...
Moving Heaven and Earth
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store weaves history, extraordinary language, gripping plot and characters that have depth and humanity into a book...
“The Museum of Failures” Explores Family Secrets
In Thrity Umrigrar’s new release, The Museum of Failures, advertising executive Remy Wadia travels to Mumbai, India, from the United States to adopt...
Author Pallavi Sharma Dixit Releases Debut Novel
Edison is an intricate love letter to childhood and heritage. Edison, New Jersey, is a borough 30 minutes outside of New York City. It’s famous for...
Forgiveness, Grace and Sacrifice in Novel “Absolution”
Decades ago, I met Alice McDermott after a talk that she gave about being an Irish American writer. She was delightful and pragmatic. That Night had...
Prizewinning and Thought Provoking
Last fall, one of my book clubs read Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver; it won one of two Pulitzer Prizes given for fiction in 2023. Damon...
Love is in the Air
It’s a wedding extravaganza, and you’re invited! This anthology for young adult readers is packed with romance across eight short stories of Desi...
Novelist Payal Doshi’s Passion for Writing Shines Bright
Discover the drive behind a rising star in the world of fiction. From debut novelist to 2022 Juvenile Fiction IPPY Gold Medal Award Winner a year...
Where You See Yourself
In Claire Forrest’s debut novel, Where You See Yourself, Euphemia “Effie” Galanos is in her senior year at Mill City High School in Minneapolis....
The Cherry Orchard
Returning from the American Library Association meeting in Chicago this past June, I sat in my aisle seat reading an advance review copy of Ann...
A Good Family
A Good Family, written by local author Matt Goldman, is paced so perfectly that it is very hard to put down. Set in the Country Club neighborhood of...
And This Is About Love
Sam Masur and Sadie Green meet in the game room of a Los Angeles hospital, where Sam is recovering from a bad car crash and Sadie’s sister is...
Now Is Not the Time to Panic
Four years ago, I attended Library Journal’s Day of Dialog and Book Expo in New York. For me, it was like attending the Academy Awards. I heard a...
Love Marriage Book Review
The novel Love Marriage by Booker Award–finalist Monica Ali opens in the London bedroom of 26-year-old Dr. Yasmin Ghorami. The delicious scents of...
Father-Daughter Cruise: ‘The Unsinkable Greta James’ Book Review
Jennifer E. Smith is a beloved teen author. If you haven’t read her, you may well know a young woman who has. Like Gabrielle Zevin and...
Supper at Six: ‘Lessons in Chemistry’ Book Review
In the early days of television, the period of time after lunch and before dinner was considered a vast desert for producers. These hours reflected...
Voices Carry: ‘The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World’ Book Review
The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World by Laura Imai Messina was translated from Italian by Lucy Rand and published in the U.S. in 2021. The novel...
Secrets in the Library: ‘The Personal Library’ Book Review
' In late 1905, a Princeton University librarian named Belle da Costa Greene was interviewed by banker and financier J. Pierpont Morgan. Morgan was...
Author Jayne Allen’s Debut Novel
It’s not easy to be a woman in your 30s. Potentially all at once, you’re climbing career ladders, dating and looking for a spouse, saving to buy a...
