nomadreader

narrated by Lorelei King The backstory: Some Luck  was longlisted for the 2014 National Book Award . The basics: Some Luck, the first in a new trilogy from Jane Smiley, stretches from 1920 to 1953 and tells the story of the Langdon family, who farm in the fictional town of Denby, Iowa. My thoughts: I'm thirty-four years old. This book covers thirty-three years. This synchronicity fascinated me as each chapter brought a new year for the Langdon family. Covering thirty-three years in just over four hundred pages means that there are many moments and events not told. As the Langdon family grows, there are more people to catch up with each year, and as the children begin to leave the home, there are more places to go to catch up with them. While the novel begins as a quiet, farm tale, covering fascinating times of transition in the 1920's and 1930's, I was surprised by how much Smiley tackles. Some Luck  spends a surprising amount of time away from the farm. While ...

The basics: Ann Joslin Williams sets her debut novel (she has a collection of linked stories, The Woman in the Woods ) in the rugged mountains near fictional Leah, New Hampshire, a town created by her father, Thomas Williams. Down from Cascom Mountain  is mostly the story of Mary, who grew up on the mountain with a famous writer father, and has now returned. My thoughts: Although the story starts with Mary, once the novel falls into its own patterns, Mary shares the narration with Callie, a remarkable sixteen-year-old working on the mountain this summer; and Tobin, a gifted but troubled teenager who grew up on the mountain. It's a refreshingly real motley crew of characters, and I enjoyed getting to know all of those who spent the summer on Cascom Mountain. Williams captures the mountains of New Hampshire in a lyrical way that will resonate with readers familiar with New England as well as those who aren't. It's a lushly written novel full of description of the place a...

The backstory: Nicole Krauss is one of The New Yorker's 20 Under 40 and Great House is a fiction finalist for the National Book Award. (update: Great House has been longlisted  shortlisted for the 2011 Orange Prize too.) The basics: Great House  is the story of several people very loosely linked by a gigantic desk with many drawers. My thoughts: I adore the way Nicole Krauss writes. Typically when I read books in print, I opt to take notes and write down my favorite passages on paper. With this novel, I was so glad I had an ARC so I could dogear pages and underline passages. I most enjoy reading her prose slowly, and despite its complexity, it's immensely readable and has the essence of a conversation with a friend. It is conversational and aspirational. Nicole Krauss is a writer's writer:  "I chose the freedom of long unscheduled afternoons in which nothing happens but the slightest shift in mood as captured in a semicolon."  Great House  is broken into...

Evil at Heart  is the third book in Chelsea Cain's Gretchen Lowell series. I enjoyed the first two, and this one did not disappoint either. Gretchen Lowell is on the run, and Archie is staying in a psychiatric ward by choice. To many, many people, however, Gretchen has become a hero. There are fan sites, "Run, Gretchen!" t-shirts, and a Beauty Killer manicure (like a French one, but with blood red tips instead of white). There's even a fake fan site , and it's fantastic. The book gives us the perfect set-up: there are bodies with Gretchen's signature, but no one can tell if she's killing again, manipulating people to kill for her, or if it's purely the work of her fans trying to emulate her. "Portland seemed divided into two groups of people these days--people who wanted to get as far away from Gretchen's crime scenes as possible, and people who wanted to rub up against her corpses" (p. 122). Chelsea Cain infuses her characters with j...