Haunting and heartwarming, airy but earnest, Sarah Addison Allen’s Other Birds felt like a delicious hug of a book. If you’re familiar with magical realism, you’ll understand that you have to give yourself over to the quirks, and you’ll be surprisingly satisfied, though not everything will be explained.
In Hester, Laurie Lico Albanese creates a hypnotic world where we’re invited to consider contrasting themes of past and present, desire and pain, hope, disappointment, freedom, and constraint. It’s also a story of creator and muse, as Albanese imagines what might have been the inspiration behind Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter and its heroine Hester Prynne.
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True Biz is tender and eye-opening. Sara Nović expertly manages to educate her readers on Deaf culture and communication with a light enough touch that we’re still carried away in the fictional lives of these characters and their school, too.
My review of Alix E. Harrow’s book A Spindle Splintered can be summed up in three words: read this book. But maybe I should elaborate…
A River Enchanted, by Rebecca Ross, is a careful, steady book full of atmosphere and surprising depth. “Earnest” is a word I might use to describe the characters, tone, and romance – but not at all dry or dull.
BOOK:30 