“The Fall of Lisa Bellow” by Susan Perabo

The Fall of Lisa Bellow: A Novel One day 13-year-old Meredith runs into her arch-rival at the deli–only instead of cutting each other dead, both girls find themselves lying next to each other on the floor as the deli is robbed at gunpoint. What follows is Meredith’s attempts to make sense of what happened, and […]

“Of Our Own Device” by M.K. South

Of Our Own Device Cold Warriors rejoice! A major fix for your addiction has arrived! Okay, I’m being tongue in cheek, but “Of Our Own Device” has pretty much everything readers longing for a hit of classic Cold War spy fiction could want. Plus a bunch more. It’s a big, sprawling book covering the Gorbachev […]

“Researching Christmas in the Jane Austen Era” by Carolynn Carey

Hi All! Today we’re doing something a little bit different. I have a guest post from Carolynn Carey on Christmas in the Jane Austen era, as part of the Romancing the Smokies event (links for the author and the event are at the bottom of the page). I am a HUGE Austenophile, so I jumped […]

“The Bone Witch” by Rin Chupeco

The Bone Witch “The Bone Witch” manages to be both standard YA fare and gorgeously different. Tea lives in a world where everyone has a magical heartsglass that expresses their abilities and their mood. The younger sister of two low-level witches, Tea expects to become one herself. But everything changes when her heartsglass turns silver […]

“Restless in L.A.” by Robin Finn

Alex is approaching forty and suddenly doesn’t know what she wants in life. She has three kids, a great husband, and a lovely house, and she’s drowning in all her good fortune, which isn’t actually that good. Her middle child has ADHD and is constantly getting into trouble at school, the other children resent […]

“Pachinko” by Min Jin Lee

Pachinko In “Pachinko,” Min Jin Lee weaves a multigenerational story of a Korean family in Japan from the pre-WWII Japanese occupation of Korea to the 1980s. Surviving–or not–war, partition, discrimination, and rejection, the Baek/Boku/Park family rises from desperate poverty to wealth through shrewd entrepreneurship, an unstoppable work ethic, and pachinko, a gambling business of dubious […]

“Lala Pettibone’s Act Two” by Heidi Mastrogiovanni

Lala Pettibone’s Act Two Lala Pettibone is a forty-something widow whose life is not on a good track right now. Forced to leave her beloved Manhattan and move back to Southern CA (oh, the horror!) when she loses her job following a cell-phone-related indiscretion, Lala and her menagerie of senior pets struggle with health problems, […]

“Suite Francaise” by Irene Nemirovsky

Suite Française “Suite Francaise” is an astounding book, but even more astounding is the story behind its composition. Born in 1903 to a well-to-do Jewish family in Kiev, then part of Russia, Irene Nemirovsky, the author, was forced to flee in 1917 first to Finland, and then finally to France, where, still in her 20s, […]

“I Am a Chechen!” by German Sadulaev

I Am a Chechen! In “I am a Chechen!” German Sadulaev pulls together a set of stories, based heavily on his own biographical experiences, about the Chechen conflicts. Fragmentary, lyrical, in turns desperate and magical, and often non-linear, this collection follows in the tradition of Russian writers such as Lermontov and Babel, taking bare biography […]

“Monumental Propaganda” by Vladimir Voinovich

Monumental Propaganda Aglaya (“The Shining One”) Revkina (“The Zealous One”) may have never had an orgasm, but she does know what love is. All the passion her skinny body is capable of has been dedicated her entire life to Comrade Stalin. It’s unfortunate that the rest of the world is incapable of matching her ardor. […]

E. P. Clark: Author, Book Reviewer, and All-Around Literary Handiwoman

Fiction