I loved this book because Niall Williams transported me to Faha, a small Irish parish in western Ireland on the verge of having electricity installed, and I happily lived there with the characters at the crossroads into modernity and didn’t want my visit to end.
I worked on a documentary in Ireland in 1983, lived with Irish families, visited pubs, and listened to live music, and this book happily brought me back. Williams’s veneration for Irish humor, music and musicians is clear in his writing that captures the lyricism of the music and poetry. He describes poignant moments with such prosaic beauty that I reread passages to savor them.
The people of Faha were great storytellers and, when confronted with problems, avoided too much talk but found ways to express an abundance of love and feeling towards the humans among them and their foibles.
Shortlisted for Best Novel in the Irish Book Awards
Longlisted for the 2020 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction
From the acclaimed author of Man Booker-longlisted History of the Rain
'Lyrical, tender and sumptuously perceptive' Sunday Times
'A love letter to the sleepy, unhurried and delightfully odd Ireland that is all but gone' Irish Independent
After dropping out of the seminary, seventeen-year-old Noel Crowe finds himself back in Faha, a small Irish parish where nothing ever changes, including the ever-falling rain.
But one morning the rain stops and news reaches the parish - the electricity is finally arriving. With it…
I loved this book because Amor Towles creates a full life for Count Alexander Rostov within the walls of the Metropol, a gracious hotel in Moscow, where he is under house arrest condemned by Communists.
He experiences romantic love, paternal love, and a unique friendship with Nina, a nine-year-old who has the passkey to all the Metropol rooms where they explore and spy. Like the hotel, the plot has many twists and turns and secret rooms.
I loved that the entire novel has one setting, this grand hotel which is full of Russian history and culture. The country is at a political crossroad, and Rostov, with old world grace and style, straddles the two worlds by adapting to his environment and new roles.
The mega-bestseller with more than 2 million readers, soon to be a major television series
From the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Lincoln Highway and Rules of Civility, a beautifully transporting novel about a man who is ordered to spend the rest of his life inside a luxury hotel
In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, and is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and…
I loved this book by Nancy Crochiere because I read it at a time this past year when I needed a lift. It has a light-hearted, humorous tone but also has depth.
It centers around the fraught relationship between a zany grandmother, a ready-to-please mother, and an off-beat daughter. Their road trip from Boston to Memphis is filled with hilarity and poignant moments as secrets are revealed, causing them to bond in new ways.
"Graceland is a sparkling, warm-hearted, witty debut. I so enjoyed joining these three generations of women on their action-packed road trip to Memphis!" -Liane Moriarty, #1 New York Times bestselling author
Hope Robinson can't seem to please anyone lately, especially not her mother, the flamboyant soap star Olivia Grant. Olivia loves Elvis more than Jesus and, convinced she's dying, insists on a final visit to Graceland. Unfortunately, that's the one place Hope can't take her. Hope fled Memphis years ago with a shameful secret and a vow never to return.
Olivia, though, doesn't understand the word no. Instead, she wrangles…
My booktakes youon a journey to Oaxaca, Mexico with three characters whose lives are riddled with secrets and dilemmas.
Frankie, a New York City professional dancer, needs space from her past and strong-willed mother to grapple with the decision of having a family or continuing in the spotlight. A family secret revealed throws Professor Mac into an identity crisis and sends him on a search to Mexico. Enrique, a mechanic and DJ from Santa Ana, struggles with the challenge of coming out as a gay man to a hostile father.
This trio crosses paths in the cobblestone streets of Oaxaca, where they weave complex relationships in a colorful tapestry of adventure, deceit, discovery, love, and pain, thus changing the course of their lives.
