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Irish poet Seán Hewitt debuts as a novelist with this slim, bittersweet ode to teenage sexual awakening and coming of age. James, recently divorced, attends an open house in the small country town of his childhood. Readers are then swept up in memories of his sixteenth year there, his experiences of coming out in a small rural community and how his life changes when a charismatic boy moves into the neighboring farm.  

The narrator of Lottie Hazell's debut novel, Piglet, is living a charmed life in London, with all her romantic, professional, and financial desires and aspirations rapidly being fulfilled.

Yorick, a struggling bookseller in Paris, receives a mysterious invitation to a Titanic Survivors Club, although he never even set sail on the ship. The motley assortment of members turns out to be those who dodged fate by not boarding the Titanic, the first meeting turns to talk of books and soon The Titanic Survivors Book Club (2024) is formed with Yorick at the helm.

I really enjoyed listening to Whale Fall (2024) by Elizabeth O’Connor, and at just 4 hours, you can finish it one afternoon or on a weekend road trip!

North Woods (2023) is the first work of fiction I’ve read by author Daniel Mason. It won’t be the last. Vivid, compelling, and historically resonant, this collection of interlinked stories, or this novel, if you prefer, revolves around a particular dwelling built in northwestern Massachusetts during the early years of the colonial era.

The Scarlet Letter is a difficult read for many audiences with its vague symbolism that takes a deep dive to understand.

I recently saw American Fiction. The film was well-reviewed, and I understand why. In fact, enough time has passed since my viewing, that I find myself wanting to re-watch it. Not only was the movie enjoyable and the acting terrific, the story really left me thinking.

“A Gentleman in Moscow '' by Amor Towles is set in 1922 Soviet Russia and follows Count Alexander Rostov as he has to adapt to the changing world while trapped in a hotel. After being convicted of treason, he gets sentenced to house arrest inside a luxury hotel.

Jessamine Chan's debut novel, The School for Good Mothers (2022), was recommended as one of the best novels of 2022, by many top reviewers and news outlets. It's a challenging and provocative read, as Chan herself acknowledges in author interviews. Her hope was that the book would leave readers thinking about the systematic pressures and demands imposed upon mothers, rooted in historical ideals, but ever-increasing due to the influences of technology and social media.

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros is a tremendous book that is an enjoyable read while having deep themes of racism, sexism, and pride.

When I read that Palace of the Drowned was set in Venice, Italy, off-season, and reminiscent of the novels of Patricia Highsmith, in that the prose is lush, the plot suspenseful in a kind of nagging, slow-burn way, I thought it sounded like my cup of proverbial tea.

The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a difficult yet intriguing novel. The opinions may differ on this read, but I found it interesting. The author includes many uses of literary devices, one major one being symbolism that kept me reading the book.