Last month, I took a break from contemporary, literary fiction for a dose of dystopian horror in form of vintage Stephen King. Yes, this book snob read a Stephen King book…and loved every page of it. The Long Walk was not the first of Stephen King’s novels to be published, but it was the first […]
Category Archives: Holiday Reads
January
09
All Fours by Miranda July
posted by Ms A
Hold the HRT for this wild and wonderful window into the menopausal mind. In All Fours, a 45-year-old artist, wife and mother is planning a solo road trip from LA to NY for work. With a determination to prove to herself that she’s a steady and reliable person (and not the loose cannon she is […]
June
10
The Wager by David Grann
posted by Ms A
Steady yourself for this true story of ships, storms, starvation and survival. Written by American journalist and author David Grann (who also wrote Killers of the Flower Moon), and with a biggest bibliography I ever did see, The Wager is a stunning re-telling of a doomed British naval voyage that took place in 1741. The […]
February
20
Calypso by David Sedaris
posted by Ms A
How I wish I was related to David Sedaris. In my imagination, he would inch up to me at family dinners just to hear my latest story and pick me for conspiratorial bitch sessions under the table. In this book (written in 2018) David Sedaris walks the oh so precious path between laugh out loud […]
August
03
Yellowface by Rebecca F. Kuang
posted by Ms A
Yellowface opens with two friends who are both young writers. Charismatic Asian American, Athena Liu has hit the ground running with a multi-book deal, offer from Netflix and doting agent whereas jealous June Hayward has published her first flop. Their friendship is fraught from the start. When Athena suddenly chokes and dies on a pandan […]
July
18
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
posted by Ms A
First, I need to thank my friend Kate who handed me this read on holidays. That small gesture would have lightened her luggage considerably (this is not a slender book) broke my book drought and instantly put my data worries to an end. Who needs to ride reels by the pool when you’ve got Demon […]
December
12
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
posted by Ms A
If you do nothing else this Christmas…. Read and/or gift this little book about an Irish Catholic coal merchant in the days leading up to Christmas in 1985. At only 114 pages, you won’t find a single word or sentiment wasted in this story of the most precious kind. Bill Furlong “had come from […]
March
05
The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller
posted by Ms A
No one else is awake when Elle goes for a swim in the pond below her family’s holiday cabin in Cape Cod. As she swims, she reflects on the night before, when she had hot sex with her childhood crush against the back wall, while her husband, mother and children chatted away inside. A pretty […]
August
12
Redhead By The Side of The Road by Anne Tyler
posted by Ms K
Sometimes size does matter Readheads. This gem of a book is only 178 pages but it packs a punch. Anne Tyler is the master of minutiae and writes about the most mundane, repetitive aspects of our lives and drizzles them in honey and sunshine. Redhead By the Side of The Road doesn’t disappoint. It delivers […]
August
11
Nothing But Blue Sky by Kathleen MacMahon
posted by Ms K
I try to resist new books wallpapered with glowing reviews written by people I’ve never heard of. I’ve been burnt badly by this promotional hi-jinx so I judge these review-laden titles with skeptical side-eyes and immediately get a whiff of impending disappointment and regret. Not this time. I am happy (and damn relieved) to report […]
Readhead 