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...
by Laura DeNooyer | Aug 29, 2023 | Book Reviews
How has your life been touched by mental illness? Do you know someone who struggles from depression, anxiety, OCD, ODD, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, PTSD, or eating disorders? Maybe that person is in your own family. But if not, you don’t have to look far. ...
by Laura DeNooyer | Aug 15, 2023 | Book Reviews
Decades ago, on my first trip to Southern Appalachia during college, I visited the Biltmore House in Asheville, North Carolina. That’s when I fell in love with the Smoky Mountains, the surrounding area, and its people—as an outsider and a Northerner. But author Pepper...
by Laura DeNooyer | Aug 1, 2023 | Book Reviews
For years I read snippets about author Sigmund Brouwer and his books in my Calvin College alumni magazine, The Spark. I kept thinking I ought to read something of his. After all, we had things in common. We overlapped at Calvin (though we never met), we’re both...
