• Book Reviews

    Tomorrow Will Be Better by Betty Smith | Book Review

    TomorrowWillBeBetterBettySmith

    Tomorrow Will Be Better by Betty Smith Genres: American Literature, Fiction Original Publication Date: 1948 Source: I purchased this book Goodreads Find the Author: Website, Goodreads, Amazon Tomorrow Will Be Better tells the story of Margy Shannon, a shy but joyfully optimistic young woman just out of school who lives with her parents and witnesses how a lifetime of hard work, poverty, and pain has worn them down. Her mother’s resentment toward being a housewife and her father’s inability to express his emotions result in a tense home life where Margy has no voice. Unable to speak up against her overbearing mother, Margy takes refuge in her dreams of a better…

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    Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid | Book Review

    Daisy Jones & The Six Book Cover

    Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid Genres: American Literature, Fiction Original Publication Date: 2019 Source: I purchased this book Goodreads Find the Author: Website, Facebook, Goodreads, Amazon, Instagram Everyone knows DAISY JONES & THE SIX, but nobody knows the reason behind their split at the absolute height of their popularity . . . until now. Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it’s the rock ’n’ roll she loves most. By the time…

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    People We Meet On Vacation by Emily Henry | Book Review

    People We Meet On Vacation book cover

    People We Meet On Vacation by Emily Henry Genres: Fiction, American Literature Original Publication Date: 2021 Source: I borrowed this book from the library. Goodreads Find the Author: Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Instagram People We Meet On Vacation: Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love. Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car ride home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year, they live far apart—she’s…

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    I Never Promised You A Rose Garden by Joanne Greenberg | Book Review

    I Never Promised You A Rose Garden book cover

    I Never Promised You A Rose Garden by Joanne Greenberg Genres: American Literature, Fiction, Illness Original Publication Date: 1964 Goodreads Find the Author: Website, Goodreads, Amazon A modern classic, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden remains every bit as poignant, gripping, and relevant today as when it was first published. Enveloped in the dark inner kingdom of her schizophrenia, sixteen-year-old Deborah is haunted by private tormentors that isolate her from the outside world. With the reluctant and fearful consent of her parents, she enters a mental hospital where she will spend the next three years battling to regain her sanity with the help of a gifted psychiatrist. As Deborah…

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    Five-Finger Discount: A Crooked Family History by Helene Stapinski | Book Review

    five finger discount book cover

    Five-Finger Discount: A Crooked Family History by Helene Stapinski Genres: Crime, Memoir, Non-Fiction Original Publication Date: 2001 Source: I purchased this book Goodreads Find the Author: Website, Twitter, Goodreads, Amazon With deadpan humor and obvious affection, Five-Finger Discount recounts the story of an unforgettable New Jersey family of swindlers, bookies, embezzlers, and mobster-wannabes. In the memoir, Mary Karr calls “a page-turner,” Helene Stapinski ingeniously weaves the checkered history of her hometown of Jersey City—a place known for its political corruption and industrial blight—with the tales that have swirled around her relatives for decades. Navigating a childhood of toxic waste and tough love, Stapinski tells an extraordinary tale at once heartbreaking…