See Me by Nicholas Sparks

February 18, 2019 by Christina

Fiction — print. Grand Central Publishing, 2015. 486 pgs. Purchased. It’s been awhile since I found myself (internally) screaming at a character to stop being so stupid. Yet, that was all I could do with the characters Sparks created for this novel. After about 100 pages, the main female character, Maria, reveals that she was sent unsigned, menacing notes following the death of a domestic violence victim. At the time, Maria was working as a prosecutor, and the victim’s murderer […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Chunkster, Crime, Fiction, North America, United States • Tags: Nicholas Sparks

Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty

February 4, 2019 by Christina

Fiction – print. Flatiron Books, 2018. 453 pgs. Purchased. Nine strangers met at a health resort in Australia; each arrive at Tranquility House with their own goal for the 10-day, screen-free experience. Frances, a formerly bestselling romance writer, is hoping to reorient herself following the rejection of her latest novel by publishers and a stinging rebuke of her work – and of the whole genre – by a critic. Dragged to the resort by his wife, Ben isn’t sure if […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Chunkster, Fiction, Oceania • Tags: Liane Moriarty

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

January 24, 2019 by Christina

Fiction — audiobook. Read by Carrington MacDuffie. Blackstone Audiobooks, 2007. Originally published 1943. 16 hours, 17 minutes. Born in the Williamsburg area of Brooklyn in 1901, young Francie Nolan has fallen in love with reading. She’s determined to read every single book in the small, public library, and has already made her way through the As when Smith’s novel opens. Along with a love of reading, Francie also possess a keen ability for observation, noticing the plant in the bowl […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Audiobook, Book Club, Chunkster, Classics, Classics Club, Fiction, New York, North America, United States • Tags: Betty Smith, Carrington MacDuffie

The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt

January 22, 2019 by Christina

Nonfiction — Kindle edition. Pantheon, 530 pgs. Library copy. Subtitled “Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion”, Haidt’s book reviews a series of evolving theories on how and why people are motivated to believe the way they do. The rejection of these theories in history is blended with Haidt’s own evolution from student to social psychology professor, and he spends the bulk of the book documenting why these theories fail to hold up. It isn’t until chapter eight […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Chunkster, Nonfiction, North America, Religion, United States • Tags: Jonathan Haidt

Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari

January 15, 2019 by Christina

Nonfiction — Kindle edition. Translated from the Hebrew. Harper, 2017. Originally published 2015. 450 pgs. Library copy. Subtitled “A Brief History of Tomorrow”, Harari’s book draws on his knowledge as a historian, explaining how homo sapiens have come to dominate the world — physically and philosophically. In the physical realm, for example, homo sapiens have domesticated animals for consumption. Philosophically, such actions are justified through claims that God granted them dominion over animals or that animals are unable to construct meaning to […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Chunkster, Hebrew, Technology, Translated • Tags: Yuval Noah Harari

Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty

December 29, 2018 by Christina

Fiction — audiobook. Read by Caroline Lee. Macmillian Audio, 2016. 17 hours, 20 minutes. Library copy.  Clementine and Erika have been best friends since childhood. While their lives have taken different turns over the years — Clementine has two little girls, Erika has always said she doesn’t want kids — the two women always make an effort to get together now and then. When Erika mentions that her neighbors, Vid and Tiffany, want to host Clementine’s family and Erika’s at […]

Categories: 2018 Reads, Audiobook, Chunkster, Fiction, Oceania • Tags: Caroline Lee, Liane Moriarty

The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer

December 2, 2018 by Christina

Fiction – print. Riverhead Books, 2018. 454 pgs. Library Copy. College freshman Greer Kadestsky is set adrift. Disappointed with where she has ended up for college, Greer struggles to connect with her classmates and plans to structure her life around visits to her high school boyfriend, Cory, at Princeton. As time passes (but the pain of losing out on Yale fails to fade), Greer is dragged to parties and lectures by her dorm-mate, Zee. At a party, Greer has an […]

Categories: 2018 Reads, Book Club, Chunkster, Feminism, Fiction, New England, New York, North America, United States • Tags: Meg Wolitzer

Voyager by Diana Gabaldon

November 11, 2018 by Christina

Fiction — audiobook. Read by Davina Porter. Recorded Books, 2007. Originally published 1993. 43 hours, 46 minutes. Purchased. The third installment in Gabaldon’s Outlander series picks up with the aftermath of the events of Culloden, where Jamie planned to stand in battle with the Mackenzie and Fraser lcans, and Claire stepping back through the stones to her life in post-World War II. In the twenty years since that moment, Claire has reunited with her first husband, Frank Randall, and traveled to […]

Categories: 2018 Reads, Audiobook, Caribbean, Chunkster, Europe, Fantasy, Fiction, United Kingdom • Tags: Davina Porter, Diana Gabaldon

The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver

October 7, 2018 by Christina

Fiction — print. Harper, 2009. 508 pgs. Purchased. Young Harrison Shepherd is taken to Mexico by his mother in the late 1920s as she follows her heart — and her goal of marrying a more interesting and wealthier man than Harrison’s American father. There, Harrison falls in love with writing stories and keeping a diary of his experiences of his life in Mexico, of the Depression Era riots in Washington D.C., and of working for exiled Soviet leader Lev Trotsky. […]

Categories: 2018 Reads, Awards and Prizes, Chunkster, Fiction, Mexico, North America, United States, Women's Prize • Tags: Barbara Kingsolver

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

July 29, 2018 by Christina

Fiction — print. Riverhead Books, 2010. 512 pgs. Purchased. Longlisted for the 2010 Orange Prize (now known as the Women’s Prize for Fiction), Waters novel is set in the summer of 29147 when Dr. Faraday is called to attend to a patient at Hundreds Hall, a grand English estate he recollects with fond memories. His mother once worked there as a maid and, as a young boy, he was once allowed to step inside the home during a picnic for children from […]

Categories: 2018 Reads, Awards and Prizes, Chunkster, Europe, Fiction, United Kingdom, Women's Prize • Tags: Sarah Waters

Dark Money by Jane Mayer

July 17, 2018 by Christina

Nonfiction — Kindle edition. Anchor, 2016. 464 pgs. Library copy.  Subtitled “The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right”, Mayer expands on her 2010 article for The New Yorker on the Koch brothers’ “war against Obama” and follow how the Kochs and other billionaire families in the United States, including the family of the current Secretary of Education, have reshaped the political landscape of America through campaign financing. “Presidents might surround themselves with Secret Service agents […]

Categories: 2018 Reads, Chunkster, Economics, Nonfiction, North America, United States • Tags: Jane Mayer

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

July 5, 2018 by Christina

Fiction — print. Candlewick Press, 2009. Originally published 2008. 479 pgs. Purchased. Soon after arriving on the New World, all the settlers were infected with the Noise germ, allowing them to hear everything each other thinks. As the last remaining boy in a town full of men, Todd Hewitt isn’t allowed to converse with those who have become men, and he longs for the day he can become a man and join the ranks of those living in Prentisstown. “Everything on […]

Categories: 2018 Reads, Book Club, Chunkster, Dystopia, Science Fiction, Young Adult • Tags: Patrick Ness