Writer. Contributing Editor at The Discarded Image. Digital Content Strategist. Here's where I publicly explore the books I'm reading, the projects I'm working on, and other current interests. Category Archives for Reviews
An Object of Beauty
Steve Martin’s An Object of Beauty might be the nicest literary surprise I’ve received so far this year. It turns out that Martin is a genuine intellectual who’s just been masquerading as a zany entertainer all these years. I know … Continue reading
An Unfinished Score
Elise Blackwell’s An Unfinished Score opens with Suzanne, a concert violist, fixing dinner for her family when a radio broadcast informs her of her lover’s death in a plane crash. Her affair with the celebrated conductor was a secret, and … Continue reading
Moon Over Manifest
I have mixed feelings about Moon Over Manifest, Clare Vanderpool’s debut novel and the most recent Newbery winner. On the one hand, I love the protagonist, twelve-year-old Abilene Tucker, whose strength of character and curiosity allow her to thrive in … Continue reading
The Line
Olga Grushin’s second novel, The Line, is a character study of a family and of a national spirit under duress; and a story in which everything important happens while nothing happens. Grushin opens with this epigraph: “For we are saved … Continue reading
Safe from the Sea
I’ll grant that a plot can entertain without attention to setting, but it seems to me that the best stories—the ones that strike the reader as true and real and lived, the ones that draw you inside and make you … Continue reading
