by Laura DeNooyer | Nov 7, 2023 | Book Reviews
Some of my favorite middle school memories are bicycling to the baseball diamond and keeping score for my cousin’s team. It was a boy’s team, of course. It was the 1970s. No option for girls to play in my small Michigan town. But this was the closest I could get to...
by Laura DeNooyer | Oct 24, 2023 | Book Reviews
During the last few days of my mother’s life, she was in a hospice facility which proved to be the best possible place she could have been for receiving care, comfort, and compassion. My sister and I stayed with her—even overnight—for four days straight. We...
by Laura DeNooyer | Oct 18, 2023 | Book Reviews
I appreciate authors who tackle difficult topics. Amanda Wen is one of those. In The Songs That Could Have Been, she takes on three issues: bulimia, alcoholism, and a mixed race romance. Each occurs in separate timelines of a split-time novel. A few facts about...
by Laura DeNooyer | Sep 26, 2023 | Book Reviews
Writing a novel is challenging enough. But tackling issues that nobody likes to talk about can take that challenge to a whole new level. Especially when an author wants to give those topics a sensitive treatment, incurring empathy for the protagonist while conveying...
by Laura DeNooyer | Sep 12, 2023 | Book Reviews
Who doesn’t love a castle setting for a novel? Especially in the British countryside. Reading The Lost Manuscript by Mollie Rushmeyer gave me the opportunity for a little armchair travel to a spectacular castle in Northumberland in northeastern England. It’s...
