I really loved The Many Mothers of Dolores Moore (publication day September 16, 2025), Anika Fajardo’s debut novel! Though the theme of grief after losing one’s last living parent was difficult, I loved how Fajardo used magical realism with Dorrie’s ancestors a constant chorus in her head, the interludes about mapmaking, and chapters from theContinue reading “The Many Mothers of Dolores Moore”
Tag Archives: magical realism
The Hotel Nantucket
The Hotel Nantucket (2022) was Elin Hildebrand’s 28th book and the first one I’ve read that’s she’s written. A good summer choice by my library book group, Hildebrand centers the story on 19-year old chambermaid, Grace Hadley, who died in 1922 in a fire that gutted the hotel and has haunted it since, hoping forContinue reading “The Hotel Nantucket”
The Cemetery of Untold Stories
Julia Alvarez’s newest novel, The Cemetery of Untold Stories (2024) was a delight! I so loved her In the Time of the Butterflies and Afterlife that I knew I couldn’t miss this one. Alma, the celebrated writer known as Scheherazade, is in the twilight of her career, and has boxes and boxes of unfinished draftsContinue reading “The Cemetery of Untold Stories”
The Miracles of the Namiya General Store
The Miracles of the Namiya General Store by Keigo Higashino, translated by Sam Bett (2019. originally published in Japanese in 2012) is a sweet, poignant novel about how one person can make a difference in someone else’s life. Higashino is a popular novelist in Japan, comparable to US blockbuster author James Patterson–I thoroughly enjoyed hisContinue reading “The Miracles of the Namiya General Store”