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 | 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 | Jul 5, 2023 | Book Reviews
Whenever I visit new places, I often buy a piece of artwork by a local artist, usually a painting or drawing. In Maine, the lighthouses intrigued me the most. Of course I couldn’t decide among them, so I ended up with two framed prints. One of them is the Pemaquic...
by Laura DeNooyer | Apr 11, 2023 | Book Reviews
When I read Devil in the White City years ago, I was fascinated by the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Not just the World’s Fair and all its creativity, but the juxtaposition of evil running rampant at the same time. Four years later came the Tennessee...
by Laura DeNooyer | Mar 21, 2023 | Book Reviews
We all have memories associated with a place we call home, particularly ones we grew up in. Some memories are happy and pleasant, some might be sorrowful. But a house is much more than a place where we spend time growing up. At best, it’s a place of laughter,...
