July 2023

Believing by Anita Hill ****

Yellow Face by RF Kung *** 1/2

Human Blues by Elisa Alberts ****

I am Homeless if This is Not My Home by Lorrie Moore ****

The Guest by Emma Cline ****

What’s Our Problem? A Self-Help Book for Societies by Tim Urban ****

The Undertow: Scenes From a Slow Civil War by Jeff Shartlett *** 1/2

Covenant of Water by Abraham Varghese ****

Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World by Henry Grabar ****

Erasure by Percival Everett *** 1/2

August Blue by Deborah Levy ****

June 2023

Humanly Possible: Seven Hundred Years of Humanist Freethinking, Inquiry and Hope by Sarah Bakewell ****

Rampage: MacArthur, Yamshita, and the Battle of Manila by James S. Scott ****

Take What You Need by Idea Novey ****

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese ****

Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker ****

The Late Americans by Brendon Taylor ****

May 2023

Department of Speculation by Jenny Offil **** 1/2

On Kathy Acker by Chris Kraus ****

City of Quartz by Mike Davis ****

The New Earth by Jess Row ****

Old Babes in the Wood by Margaret Atwood *** 1/2

Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay *** 1/2

The East Indian by Brinda Charry ****

Drawing Blood by Molly Crabapple ****

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson *** 1/2

The Night Flowers by Sara Herchenroetter ****

It’s One of Us by J.T. Ellison *** 1/2

This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub ****

Your Driver is Waiting by Priya Guns *** 1/2

April 2023

Monstrilio by Gerardo Samano Cordova  ****

Days Without End by Sebastian Barry ****

Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton  ****

The Problem With Everything by Meghan Daum ****

A Dangerous Business by Jane Smiley ****

Lone Women by Victor Lavalle ****

Jesus’ Son by Denis Johnson ****

Walking Through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black: Collected Stories by Cookie Mueller ****

Mating by Norman Rush *** 1/2

Unspeakable by Meghan Daum ****

Woke Racism by John McWhorter **** 1/2

You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith *** 1/2

Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma by Claire Dederer ****

March 2023

The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell ****

Selected Works of Audre Lorde ****

The Searcher by Tana French ****

Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor ****

When We Were Sisters by Fatimah Asghar ****

Muscle Memory: Poems by Jenny Liou ****

The Cost of Living by Deborah Levy ****

Mean by Myriam Gurba  ****

The Escape Artist by Jonathan Freedland **** 1/2

Biography of X by Catherine Lacey **** 1/2

I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai ****

February 2023

We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman ****

Vintage Contemporaries by Dan Kois ****

Carnality by Lina Wolff *** 1/2

Big Swiss by Jen Beagin **** 1/2

Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds & the Stories that Make Us

by Rachel Aviv *** 1/2

My What If Year: A Memoir by Alisha Fernandez Miranda *** 1/2

The Violin Conspiracy by Brendon Slocumb ****

My Government Means to Kill Me by Rasheed Newsom ****

A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You by Amy Bloom ****

Brother Alive by Zain Khalid ****

January 2023

The New Life by Tom Crew ****

The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik *** 1/2

The Persuaders by Anand Giridharadas ****

The Shards by Brett Easton Ellis ****

Everybody Knows by Jordan Harper *** 1/2

A Twist of the Knife by Anthony Horowitz *** 1/2

Less is Lost by Andrew Sean Greer ****

December 2022

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatila *** 1/2

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones *** 1/2

No One Left to Come Looking for You by Sam Lipsyte *** 1/2

Now is Not the Time to Panic by Kevin Wilson - *** 1/2

Covered With Night: A Story of Murder and Indigenous Justice in Colonial America by Nicole Eustace (Pulitzer Prize Winner) ****

The Cloisters by Katy Hays *** 1/2

November 2022

Lost and Found - Kathryn Schulz *** 1/2

The Deconstructionists by Dana Milbank - ****

The Family by  *** 1/2

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho ****

The English Understand Wool by Helen DeWitt ****

If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery ****

Black Water Rising by Attica Locke ****

Foster by Claire Keegan **** 1/2

The Rabbit Hutch by Tess McGunty *** 1/2

Women Talking by Miriam Toews *** 1/2

October 2022

Women of Troy by Pat Barker *** 1/2

Lessons by Ian McEwan **** 1/2

Vanderbilt by Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howe ****

Paul by  Daisy LaFarge ****

Tell Me I’m An Artist by Chelsea Martin - *** 1/2

Girl in Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland *** 1/2

Trust by Hernan Diaz *** 1/

Learning to Talk by Hilary Mantel *** 1/2

Fellowship Point by Alice Elliott Dark *** 1/2

The Furrows by Namwali Serpell **** 1/2

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin - **** 1/2

September 2022

• All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr **** 1/2

• The Logos by Mark DeSilva ****  (1,100 words!)

• Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow ***** A masterpiece.

• Didn’t Nobody Give a Sh*t What Happened to Carlotta by James Hannal *** 1/2

• Foregone by Russell Banks *** 1/2

• Companion Piece by Ali Smith - *** 1/2

• The Silence of the Girls *** 3/4 by Pat Barker

• The Lioness by Chris Bohjahlian *** 1/2

• Gilead by Marilynne Robinson **** 1/2

August 2022

• The Candy House by Jennifer Egan (2022) *** 1/2

• Nevada by Imogen Binnie *** 1/2

• The People We Keep by Alison Larkin *** 1/2

• Reward System: Stories by Jem Calder *****

• Hot, Cold, Heavy, Light by Peter Schjeldahl ****

• Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt *** 1/2

• The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid *** 1/2

• The Kingdoms of Savannah by George Dawes Green ****

• All this Could be Different by Sarah Thanks Mathews *** 1/2

• The Cutting Season by Attica Locke *** 1/2

• The Novelist by Jordan Castro (2022) ***

• The History of Bones: A Memoir by John Lurie (2022) ****

• Notes on an Execution by Danya Kakafi *** 1/2

• In Love by Alfred Hayes *** 1/2

• Gods of Want: Stories by K-Ming Chang *** 1/2

July 2022

• Wolf in White Van by John Darnielle (2014) ***

• Also a Poet by Ada Calhoun (2022) ****

• Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart (2022) ****

• Lapvona by Otessa Mosheghi (2022) ****

• The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles (2021) ****

• Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel (2022) *** 1/2

• I Should Be Extremely Happy in Your Company: A Novel of Lewis & Clark by Brian Hall (2003) *** 1/2

• The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne (2017) ****

• Rough Draft by Katy Tur (2022) *** 1/2

• Avalon by Nell Zink (2022) ***

• Hurricane Girl by Marcy Dermansky (2022) ** 1/2

• Crazy by Pete Early (2022) *** 1/2

June 2022

Let’s Not Do That Again by Grant Ginder (2022) ***

How to be Eaten by Maria Adelman (2022) ***

Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James (2019) ***

Enemies, A Love Story by Isaac Bashevis Singer (1966) **** Nobel Prize winning author

You Made a Fool of Love With Your Beauty by Awaeke Emezi (2022) ***

The Netanyahus by Joshua Cohen **** 1/2 (2022) Pulitzer Prize

Straight Man by Richard Russo (1997) *****

The Latecomer by Jean Hanff Korelitz (2022) *** 1/2

Afterlife by Julia Alvarez (2022) *** 1/2

The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt (1973) ****

Ghosts by Dolly Alderton (2020) ****

Horse by Geraldine Brooks (2022) ****

May 2022

The Sentence by Louise Erdrich (2022) ****

Mouth to Mouth by Antoine Wilson (2022) *** 1/2

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus  (2022) ****

Troubled: The Failed Promise of America’s Behavioral Treatment Programs by Kenneth R. Rosen

(2021) ***

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (1969) *** 1/2

A Beginner’s Guide to America by Roya Hakakian (2021) ****

Heat and Light by Jennifer Haigh  (2016) **** 1/2

Grey Bees by Andrey Kurkov translated by Boris Drayluk (2018) ****

Bomb Shelter: Love, Time, and Other Explosives by Mary Laura Philpott (2022) *** 1/2

Tell Me Everything by Erika Krouse (2022) *****

Mecca by Susan Straight (2022) *** 1/2

A Thousand Steps by T. Jefferson Parker (2021) *** 1/2

Insomnia by Sarah Pinborough (2022) ***

The Enlightenment: The Pursuit of Happiness 1680-1790 by Ritchie Robertson (2022)**** 1/2

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (2005) *****

April 2022

• Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzales (2022) ****

• Black Cloud Rising by David Wright Falade (2022) ***

• The Devil’s Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea (2008) ***

• Paradise by Abdulrazak Gurnah (1994) **** Nobel Prize winning author

• The Love of My Life by Rosie Walsh (2022) ** 1/2

• The People We Hate at the Wedding by Grant Ginder (2017) ***

• Other People’s Clothes by Colleen Hankel (2022) ** 1/2

• Hot Season by Susan DeFrietas (2016) *** 1/2

• The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (2007) *** 1/2

• The Devil House by John Darnielle (2022) *****

• Vladimir by Julia May Jonas (2022) ****

• Groundskeeping by Lee Cole (2022) ****

• I Love You, But I’ve Chosen Darkness by Claire Vaye Watkins (2021) ***

• The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo (2021) *** 1/2

March 2022

• The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters (2009) ****

• All the Frequent Troubles of our Days: The True Story of the American Woman at the Heart of the German Resistance to Hitler by Rebecca Doni (2021) National Book Critics Circle Award ****

• Your House Will Pay by Steph Cha (2019) ****

• Argonauts by Maggie Nelson (2015) ****

• The Widow of the South by Robert Hicks (2005) ***

• Booth by Karen Joy Fowler (2022) *** 1/2

• Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All by Allan Gurganess (1989) ***

• How Should A Person Be? Sheila Heti (2013) ***

• Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner (2021) *** 1/2

• Bewilderment by Richard Power (2021) *** 1/2

• Hell of a Book by Jason Mott (2021) (National Book Award Winner) ****

• Verity by Colleen Hoover (2021) **

• The Family Chao by Lan Samanth Chang (2022) ****

• Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller (2021) ***** highest rating

February 2022: 

• Beautiful Little Fools by Jillian Cantor (2022) ***

• Homeland Elegies by Ayad Akhtar (2020) ****

• The Known World by Edward P. Jones (2009) *** 1/2 (Pulitzer) (2009)

• Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather (1927) ***

• The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk Nobel Prize, English translation 2022 ****

• Happy Hour by Marlowe Granados (2021) ***

• Still Life by Sarah Wincombe (2021) ****

• The Vixen by Francine Prose (2021) ***

• Maid by Stephanie Land (2019) *** 1/2

• Bibliolepsy by Gina Apatol (2022) ** 1/2

• A Line to Kill by Anthony Horowitz (2021) ***

• Joe Ide’s IQ series, Books 1, 2, and 3 (2016 - 2018) ****