A Distinguished Selection of the Finest Modern Literature

Category Book Reviews

On this page, you’ll find some of our book reviews, book recommendations, articles about famous books and notable authors, as well as lists of the best books to read.

Note: Some book reviews our critics write are only published in our newsletter.

“Walk the Blue Fields” by Claire Keegan Book Review

With the exploration of colorful characters living in rural Ireland, Claire Keegan's "Walk the Blue Fields" will become a favorite for generations to come.

Claire Keegan’s book explores the overarching theme of rural Ireland, dealing with characters that are either leaving it, escaping to it, or struggling to live their daily lives in it.

Read our editorial book review.

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10 Must-Read Memoirs and Autobiographies

Looking for a good true story to read? Here are ten of the best memoirs and autobiographies—some you may not know about. Add these to your personal collection and let us know what you think!

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Editorial Book Review of William Faulkner’s “Light in August”

“Memory believes before knowing remembers. Believes longer than recollects, longer than knowing even wonders.”

Can literary works that address struggles of race, identity, and terror, provide a lens that is comparable to the current reality of readers?

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“Into the Water” Editorial Book Review

The Drowning Pool is a part of Beckford. Everyone in the town knows of it and knows of the women who are dragged out of it. This year two women were found, one a teenager named Katie, and months later, a woman named Nel. Nel’s death leaves her daughter, Lena, alone and it also brings back Nel’s estranged sister, Jules. Read More

“Learning to Swear in America” Book Review

“The universe exploded with pain, a big bang that began in Yuri’s ganglia and expanded forever, launching galaxies of light behind his eyes.”

Yuri is a physics prodigy from Russia who has been recruited to help NASA in a seventeen-day mission to deflect and destroy an asteroid heading toward California. His unpublished work on antimatter is not only likely to win him a Nobel prize, but Yuri believes it’s the key to avoiding a global catastrophe. Unfortunately, the more experienced scientists disregard his claims, in part because of his age, and in part because he comes across as socially awkward and conceited.   Read More

“A Mountain of Crumbs” by Elena Gorokhova Book Review

“What comes out of my mouth is driven by anger: at my righteous mother who refuses to look out the window and see there is no bright dawn on the horizon; at my black-hearted country that inspired her, forged her into steel, and deceived her.”

Elena Gorokhova’s first memoir A Mountain of Crumbs provides readers with a fascinating look at what it was like to grow up in Soviet Russia during the 1960s. Her mother, a doctor, raises Elena and her sister, Marina, in a traditional, monochromatic Russian household. Gorokhova provides insight into the complexity of the government and the fear its citizens face under economic and social oppression. Read More

“Never Let Me Go” Book Review

 “And I saw a little girl, her eyes tightly closed, holding to her breast the old kind of world, one that she knew in her heart could not remain, and she was holding it and pleading, never to let her go.” 

In a genre-bending tale of innocence and the inevitable loss thereof, Booker Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro delivers a haunting and emotional account of a dystopian society that fans of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale will devour.

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Rediscovering Roy’s “The God of Small Things”: Literary Fiction Book Review

In light of the long-anticipated release of Arundhati Roy’s second novel, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, what better time to look back on her stunning debut, The God of Small Things? Winner of the 1997 Booker Prize,

Winner of the 1997 Booker Prize, The God of Small Things was an instant, immense, and international success. After its publication, Roy deliberately distanced herself from fiction writing, turning her attention instead to political activism, in reaction to rising social conflict in India.

Finally, after twenty long years and a book over ten years in the making, she has once again decided to grace the fiction world with her genius. To better understand her writing and her evolution as an artist, let’s rediscover the gem that is The God of Small Things.

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“The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind” Book Review

“If you want to make it, all you have to do is try.”

These words apply not only to physical inventions but to life in general. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind is an exalting tale of a William Kamkwamba who fought to overcome the many obstacles that faced him in his rural African community in the heart of Malawi. He and Bryan Mealer tell the tale of Kamkwamba’s imaginative childhood turned dark by famine and how he was determined to create a solution that he could make from nothing.

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“The Secret Life of Bees” Book Review

While blood is thicker than water, beeswax and honey keep people together.

Sue Monk Kidd’s auspicious debut novel revolves around young and petulant Lily Owens as she navigates life on her abusive father’s peach farm with the blurred memory of her mother’s accidental death. Set in South Carolina in a time of overt racial tension, her black housekeeper and nearest hope to motherly-love, Rosaleen, scandalizes the town by registering to vote. Lily springs Rosaleen from the hospital she’s kept at and the two go on a quest to uncover her mother’s past, which eventually leads them to three motherly sisters, The Boatwright’s, who own a honey farm. Lily and Rosaleen are introduced to their memorable world of bees, honey, female divinity, and womanhood.

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