BLUE SKIES rating: 5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐. In BLUE SKIES, out today, May 16, 2023 (Liverlight/W.W. Norton), T.C. Boyle gives us the blackest satire of social media influencer culture you can imagine, set in a near-future climate dystopia. As you can tell from the cover, California is on fire. Florida has the opposite problem: it’s drowning. […]
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CLASS by Stephanie Land rating: 4 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐. To read CLASS (Atria/Simon & Schuster, November 7, 2023), and Stephanie Land‘s prior book MAID, is to re-live the second-worst period of my life, from 2001 to 2009. The worst period was my first marriage, 1990 to 2001, but poverty and the family court system have a
THE ST. AMBROSE SCHOOL FOR GIRLS rating: 3 stars ⭐⭐⭐. (To be released by Gallery/Simon & Schuster, July 11, 2023). This could have been any one of three great, or at any rate very good, novels: 1. a psychological thriller, which gets progressively creepier and creepier, which is how the publisher is pitching it right
IN THE LIVES OF PUPPETS rating: 5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐. We’re awash in cynicism. We’re drowning in snark. You know what is missing? Goodness. Pure, unadulterated goodness. When I think of literary goodness, I think of Bishop Myriel, even though I never got all the way through LES MISERABLES, being defeated at Waterloo. And I think
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STARLING HOUSE rating: 5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐. Like Alix E. Harrow‘s other heroines, orphan Opal is a savvy, strong-willed girl. She’s a Kentuckian, so she’s also willing to bend (or break) rules or face down any danger in order to fight for her kin. STARLING HOUSE (Tor/Macmillan, October 3, 2023) is a flipped fairy tale like
LUCKY RED rating: 5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐. If you ask about my favorite genre, Western will likely be the last thing on the list, but some westerns I revere. LONESOME DOVE (1985). THE SISTERS BROTHERS (2011). But, feminist westerns. Hello. As with the circus, the frontier is a place where fictional women can explore identities and
THE ROAD TO ROSWELL rating: 4 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐. Willis’s last book was CROSSTALK, (2016), and Willis turns 78 in December, so am I ever happy about THE ROAD TO ROSWELL (Penguin Random House, June 27, 2023). She’s back, baby! Thanks to Edelweiss Plus/Above the Treeline and Penguin Random House for sending me a copy of
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S.A. Cosby, I mean. ALL THE SINNERS BLEED rating: 4 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐. While I think RAZORBLADE TEARS is a superior novel, I enjoyed ALL THE SINNERS BLEED (Macmillan, June 2023) more. I could easily see it becoming adapted into an Oscar-contender film or popular TV miniseries. Phenomenal pacing is Cosby’s forte, and he settles into
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THE ENCHANTED HACIENDA rating: 3 stars ⭐⭐⭐. THE ENCHANTED HACIENDA will be released May 16, 2023 by HarperCollins. It’s described as Hispanic and Latino fiction, but it’s also fantasy, and obviously women’s fiction. Recommended for fans of Hispanic and Latino fantasy and magical realism fiction and for those who like THE ENCHANTED APRIL by Elizabeth
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Three very good books were released yesterday, March 7, 2023. My rating for all three is 4 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐ . Disclaimer: Thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan for sending me a copy of Weyward; Edelweiss Plus and Macmillan for sending me a copy of Birnam Wood; and Netgalley and Hachette for sending me a copy of
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