One of my book groups chose The Midnight Library (2020) by Matt Haig to read in November, and I’m so glad that they did, despite an inauspicious first line: “Nineteen years before she decided to die, Nora Seed . . .” I was afraid it would be depressing, and was also apprehensive because books writtenContinue reading “The Midnight Library”
Category Archives: Weight-Neutral
The Mighty Miss Malone
Twelve-year-old Deza Malone deals with upheaval during the Great Depression with grit and humor.
Bears in the Streets: Three Journeys Across a Changing Russia
A fascinating travelogue about the author’s three trips across the expanse of Russia in 1995, 2005, and 2015.
The Bookshop of Yesterdays
I enjoyed this weight-neutral family drama full of literary references, set in a Los Angeles independent bookstore.
Lightning Men
Lightning Men (2017) by Thomas Mullen, is the second in a series of historical mystery/ police procedural novels that begins with Darktown (2015), which I reviewed here. They are set in Jim Crow Atlanta, and are centered around the first black police officers, who patrol the black part of town, known as Darktown. Lightning MenContinue reading “Lightning Men”
Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead
Do you have a friend who tries her best but struggles all the time? Or maybe that’s you? Either way, you will enjoy the story of Gilda, a twentysomething lesbian atheist who ends up working as a receptionist in a Catholic church. It’s coming in July 2021.
This is How It Always Is
This Is How It Always Is (2017) by Laurie Frankel is contemporary fiction that tells the story of the family created by Rosie, an ER doctor, and Penn, a writer, and the five children they have: Roo (Roosevelt), Ben, the twins Rigel and Orion, and baby Claude. At first it seems that all five areContinue reading “This is How It Always Is”
Tell The Wolves I’m Home
Tell The Wolves I’m Home (2012) by Carol Rifka Brunt was a achingly beautiful novel about grief, families, growing up, and being different, set in 1986-1987 in New York. The teenage narrator, June, and her sister, Greta, visit their Uncle Finn every weekend in the City so that he can paint their portrait. Finn isContinue reading “Tell The Wolves I’m Home”
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson (2019) tells the story of Cussy Mary, a Pack Horse Librarian in Kentucky during the Great Depression in the 1930s. Cussy Mary, known as Bluet to her friends, is one of the rare “Blue People” of the mountains, whose skin is blue. We don’t knowContinue reading “The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek”
The Cutting Season
The Cutting Season, by Attica Locke (2012) is an adept, completely absorbing crime/ mystery novel that grapples with race and history. Set in 2009, five years after Hurricane Katrina decimated New Orleans, Caren Gray, law school dropout and mother to 9-year-old Morgan, is managing the historical plantation Belle Vie south of Baton Rouge. Belle VieContinue reading “The Cutting Season”
Reading While Fat 