Before You Know Kindness by Chris Bohjalian
Bohjalian is a master of the internal psychological novel where most of the action takes place within rather than between characters. He tells his story from various perspectives lending layer upon layer of complexity and human drama. His focus seems to be on developing each character as the story unfolds. It takes patience to read [...]
Trouble by Kate Christensen
I grew weary of this book long before I finished it and dreaded resuming the read. I am not sure what the author was after with this book but I found it pedantic, tangential, and way too focused on the internal dialogue of the main character. Who cares what she eats for breakfast or that [...]
The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott
Kelly O’Connor McNees has written an engaging historical novel about the author of Little Women. While the book stands solidly on it’s own, the reader can only appreciate the underlying themes in the book if he or she is familiar with Little Women. McNees based this portrait of Alcott on whatever historical documents she could [...]