BookBrowse | Book Reviews and Recommendations

Reviews by Cathryn Conroy

Power Reviewer

If you'd like to be able to easily share your reviews with others, please join BookBrowse.

American Dirt: A Novel
by Jeanine Cummins

A Suspenseful and Terrifying Thriller That Doubles as Current Events (4/18/2023)

This is a quick-to-read, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants thriller by Jeanine Cummins that tracks in often gruesome detail the path of a mother and son as they migrate from Mexico to the United States to escape a brutal drug cartel that wants them both dead. While most …more thrillers are sheer fiction, this one is not. Oh sure, the characters are fictional, but this is no fantasy. It is all too real, and as a good novel will do, it powerfully depicts what is happening over and over and over again every day in Mexico and on the border of the United States. This is fiction doubling as current events.

Lydia and Sebastian lead a charmed and somewhat affluent life in beautiful Acapulco. He is a top journalist, she owns a successful bookstore, and together they have a precocious 8-year-old boy, Luca. But when Sebastian publishes an exposé on the kingpin of the local drug cartel, he and 15 members of his family are brutally executed in Lydia's mother's backyard during a quinceañera celebration. Lydia and Luca miraculously escape, and now they must flee because this cartel is still out for revenge—and will stop at nothing. This book is the story of their trek to the United States, and the suspense and action never let up. (Advice: Don't read this before you go to sleep. It will haunt your dreams—and not in a good way.)

While this is not great literature—it's a straight-up thriller and nothing more—it does waken the typical American reader to better understand the dangerous and terrifying plight of many Mexican migrants, and for this I applaud Jeanine Cummins.

About the bruhaha over "American Dirt": I have read a lot about the objections some Latinos have to a white woman writing this story—one who now lives in New York City and grew up in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C. Yes, not many authors—of any ethnic descent—will get the star publishing treatment Cummins has received. And I do appreciate that inequity. Still, Cummins did extensive, years' long research for this book to make her characters and plot as authentic as possible. Many (many!) novelists write outside their lifestyle, and that is perfectly acceptable provided the research is done. To say that only a Latino/Latina can write a book like this is just not reasonable or even advisable. That said, this controversy has made me want to read more books by Latino/Latina authors, especially Luis Alberto Urrea. (less)

The Guest Book
by Sarah Blake

This Is a Really, Really Good Story That You Won't Be Able to Stop Reading! (4/18/2023)

What a book! This engrossing and ingeniously plotted three-generation family saga will take you back to a time and place of incredible wealth, gracious manners, and deeply-guarded secrets.

It's 1936. While the rest of the country is in the depths of the Great Depression, …more

Shipping News: A Novel
by Annie Proulx

An Intelligent Novel with Exquisite Writing. This Is a Book to Be Savored and Treasured (4/18/2023)

Oh, the writing! This book by E. Annie Proulx takes place primarily in Newfoundland. Even in the summer it's cold. And windy. I don't know how she did it, but Proulx's exquisite writing mirrors the iciness of the barren land. If ice and snow had a writing style, this would …more

Washington Black
by Esi Edugyan

An Adventure Story Like No Other! (4/18/2023)

Magnificently written by Esi Edugyan, this is an adventure story, albeit a highly unlikely one. Just suspend your sense of reality, and go along for the magical ride. And what a ride it is!

George Washington Black (nicknamed Wash), age 10 or 11 (he doesn't really know), is …more

Little Gods
by Meng Jin

This Is a Strange Story with a Cumbersome Structure, But It's Also Beautiful and Compelling (4/18/2023)

Oh, this is a strange little book. It's also strangely beautiful and strangely compelling.

Who ARE you…really? Ask that question of anyone who is close to you, and you'll probably get different answers. That's because we are perceived differently by different people. And …more

Such a Fun Age
by Kiley Reid

An Important Message About Prejudice and Forgiveness Wrapped Up in a Fabulous, Intriguing Story (4/18/2023)

This book grabbed me on page one and never let go. It's a riveting page-turner not because it's a thriller or a whodunit but because it's a compelling story about people…people who are acting up, while trying to do the right thing for all the wrong reasons—and utterly …more failing.

Longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2020, this is billed on the cover as a social satire about privilege in America. It's the story of two women—one White, one Black. One is the employer; the other is the employee. Alix Chamberlin is a privileged, wealthy, slightly dishonest mother of two adorable girls, who is used to getting her own way and always coming out on top. Her husband, Peter, is a local TV news anchor. So Peter can get a better job, they move out of New York City to Alix's childhood hometown of Philadelphia, and Alix mourns the loss of the big city. They live in a huge home in a prestigious neighborhood. Alix has a book contract, so she hires Elmira Tucker as a part-time babysitter for the girls to give her time to write. Elmira is Black, and even though she is a Temple University college graduate she is 25 and hasn't figured out what she wants to do with her life. She has no money and is about to lose her health insurance when she turns 26 in a few months.

The novel opens when Elmira receives a frantic call from Alix very late one night to immediately come get Briar, the two-year-old, and take her to the nearby grocery store for about an hour. Why? Peter (we find out later) said something very stupid on air, and their house got egged, causing one of the windows to break. Peter and Alix are calling the police, and they don't want their little girl to witness this. Elmira is all dressed up and out having a grand time at a friend's birthday party, but drops what she's doing to go get Briar, a precocious child whom Elmira dearly loves. While they are in the grocery store, the security guard confronts Elmira, accusing her of kidnapping Briar. A crowd gathers, and a witness named Kelley Copeland, captures the scene on his phone. It is this video that guides the rest of the story in ways that are hilarious, profound, degrading, shocking, and (finally) liberating.

Ingeniously plotted with superb pacing, this is a fabulous story with an important message about prejudice and expectations, deception and forgiveness, but one that is wrapped up in an intriguing storyline, brilliant (and sometimes blistering) dialogue, and colorful characters. Read it! (less)

The Island of Sea Women
by Lisa See

This Is a Novel Masquerading as Nonfiction: A Gripping Story That Is Rich in Historical Detail (4/18/2023)

Some books we read for entertainment. Some books we read for information. And some books, such as this one by Lisa See, provide both. Actually, there is so much factual information in this book that it is almost a novel masquerading as nonfiction.

Spanning 70 years from 1938 …more

The Lake House
by Kate Morton

A Can't-Put-It-Down Novel That Is Totally Captivating (4/18/2023)

The best way to describe this can't-put-it-down novel by Kate Morton is: multilayered. No, wait. Multi-multi-multi-layered. There is SO much going on here! And every bit of it is a literary delight.

At its very core—deep, deep down—this is a mystery. But because it's so much …more

Varina
by Charles Frazier

Ingeniously Plotted, Lyrical Language…But the Storyline Is Confusing and Can Be Difficult to Follow (4/18/2023)

This is the elegiac story of people living in and somehow surviving the perilous crisis, conflict, and calamity in the days, weeks, and years following the end of the American Civil War. But what makes this particular tale unique is that it is told through the eyes of one …more

Women Talking
by Miriam Toews

Emotionally Charged and Haunting. Not an Easy Book to Read, But Vitally Important (4/18/2023)

This is a novel that will haunt you. It is not only deeply disturbing, but also an ominous warning about the powerful authority and absolute control some men exert over women — both their minds and their bodies.

Taking place in a tightly-knit and isolated Mennonite …more community, virtually the entire book is the minutes of several secret meetings a group of women is holding in a hayloft. They are discussing their future. All of them, along with almost every other woman and girl in the colony, were repeatedly raped over five years by eight men in the community, who stole into their bedrooms in the middle of the night, knocking them out with an animal anesthetic, and then having their way with them. The women and girls would awake in the morning groggy and confused and covered in blood, feces, and semen. Even a three-year-old girl was violated in the same way. The women were told that Satan had visited them to punish them for their sins.

But that is not the story of this book.

The story is what happens after the women finally figure out what is going on. Because one woman attempted to kill one of the men with a scythe, the police were called to take the men to jail in the nearby city — for their own safety. And now the women are trying to discern what they will do to protect themselves in the future, including possibly leaving the community — a bold and intimidating step, since they have no idea where they are geographically. However unlikely it is, the narrator of the story is a man. The women trust him, and since they are illiterate, they want him to write what happens at the meetings.

There are many ways, some of which could have been quite salacious, that author Miriam Toews could have written this story, which is (shockingly) based on true events in a Mennonite community. What she did was to zero in on how women everywhere solve their problems: by talking about it. These hayloft discussions, filled with anger and deep-seated psychological pain, are heated with diverse opinions, sometimes unfocused, but always fruitful. Above all, the discussions are philosophical reflections on the meaning of their lives.

And at the root of it all is the question the women must eventually answer: Can they forgive the rapists, who are, after all, their husbands, brothers, uncles, and nephews, for the evil deeds they did? Is forgiveness even possible? And if not, how can the women remain in community with the men?

Because it is so emotionally charged, this is not an easy book to read. But it is an important one…a vitally important one. (less)

News from Heaven: The Bakerton Stories
by Jennifer Haigh

Big Stories About Small Town Life: Touching, Insightful, and Haunting (4/18/2023)

This touching, insightful, and haunting book of short stories by Jennifer Haigh continues the story of Bakerton, Pennsylvania, a fictional coal-mining town, that she introduced in "Baker Towers: A Novel" and continues after "News From Heaven" in "Heat and Light: A Novel."

…more

The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11
by Garrett M. Graff

To All the Unsung Heroes: This Is the Story of Ordinary People Who Did Extraordinary Deeds (4/18/2023)

This book will make you cry. A lot. As in, you had better have a tissue in hand when reading it.

While it is emotionally draining, this is such a vitally important book that I think everyone should read it. If you were alive on 9/11, you should read it. If you have children …more

This House is Haunted
by John Boyne

Goosebumps and Shivers! A Chilling Ghost Story for Literary Types (4/18/2023)

I think this book is brilliant! It is a chilling ghost story for literary types, complete with a cameo by Charles Dickens.

Written in the Dickensian style by the inimitable John Boyne, this gothic tale opens on a cold and rainy night in London in October 1867 when Eliza …more

All He Ever Wanted
by Anita Shreve

A Powerful Book! Deeply Disturbing Psychological Study About the Possessiveness of Marriage (4/18/2023)

Author Anita Shreve is such a surprise! While none of her books — other than the "Fortune's Rocks" series — can be said to be similar to the others, this one is a true outlier. And while it took me a good while to get into the story, once I did, I was mesmerized by it.

Quite …more

The Poisonwood Bible
by Barbara Kingsolver

An Imaginative Work of Genius: A Must-Read Book (4/18/2023)

Oh, this is a sneaky book. As in, it starts out just fine — OK, but not fabulous — and then bit by bit it sneaks its way into your heart and soul. And then when you're going about the business of life, you'll find yourself thinking, "When can I stop what I'm doing and read …more again?"

This masterpiece by Barbara Kingsolver takes us deep into the jungle of the Congo beginning in 1959 when Southern Baptist preacher Nathan Price embarks on a risky missionary post in small village located on a smelly, crocodile-infested river on the edge of a lush, snake-infested jungle. He brings with him his Bible, his arrogant, holier-than-thou approach to saving souls, and his reluctant family: his obedient, meek wife Orleanna and teenage daughters Rachel, Leah, and Adah along with five-year-old Ruth May. To say they are wholly unprepared for such a primitive lifestyle is an understatement. Assimilating—from learning to cook on a wood stove to having to haul water for a mile—is a Herculean adjustment. Great tragedy strikes, and the lives of all six of the Prices radically change forever.

The book is divided into seven sections. Except for the last section, the first part of each is written by Orleanna looking back on their time in the Congo. Each of the other chapters is written in the first person by one of the four daughters. One of the things that makes this book such an imaginative work of genius is the distinct voice Kingsolver gives each of the girls. Once you get into the book, you will know just by reading the first paragraph of a chapter who has written it without even looking at the chapter heading. And each of girls' perspectives of the same life they are living is absolutely riveting—sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes hilarious, and always poignant.

This is an intelligent, multilayered novel with vividly drawn characters that are so real they pop off the page. The detailed descriptions of the Congo are so remarkably realistic that I felt as if I were transported there along with the Price family. And the plot is riveting—not a page-turner as such, but I was fully engaged in it—as it zeroes in on the complex moral question that is the backbone of the book: Do white people — no matter how well meaning — have any right at all to invade a culture and attempt to change it? And what are the long-term ramifications of such audacity? (less)

Cutting For Stone
by Abraham Verghese

Reading This Book Is the Literary Equivalent of Being Swept Off My Feet! (4/18/2023)

Oh, this book! Reading it was the literary equivalent of being swept off my feet!

Masterfully written by Abraham Verghese, this is the story of identical, conjoined twins Marion and Shiva, born in Ethiopia of a disgraced Roman Catholic nun from India and a talented, but …more

Love and Ruin: A Novel
by Paula McLain

Slow-Moving Story That at Times Is Brilliant and Convincing, Except When It's Forced and Artificial (4/18/2023)

This is a novel that feels like a biography…that is, if biographies were written in the first person. This is a novel that also feels like a history book…that is, if history books were written in the first person.

Written by Paula McClain, this is a novel about Martha …more

Into the Water: A Novel
by Paula Hawkins

A Scary and Intriguing Literary Thriller! And Quite the Mind-Challenge to Figure Out the Mystery (4/18/2023)

Written by "The Girl on the Train" author Paula Hawkins, this is part psychological thriller and part who-done-it, and it's one of those books you won't be able to put down once you start reading it.

Taking place in Beckford, a small river town in England, the story focuses …more

The Underground Railroad: A Novel
by Colson Whitehead

Gripping and Intense: It Is Impossible to Read This Book and Not Be Profoundly Moved (4/18/2023)

The best way to describe this remarkable book by Colson Whitehead is: gripping and intense. The plot is so gripping that it will keep you turning the pages long past your bedtime, and it's so intense that if you do dare read it before sleeping, the vivid descriptions of …more

Beloved
by Toni Morrison

The Plot Will Break Your Heart, But the Writing Will Make Your Soul Sing (4/18/2023)

The plot of this book will break your heart, but the writing will make your soul sing.

Masterfully written by Toni Morrison, this is a book that is destined to be a classic and still avidly read generations from now. While it is the story of a runaway slave named Sethe, it …more

BookBrowse Book Club

The Cover Girl
by Amy Rossi

Find them early enough, and they will always be her girls.

About Discuss
Death at the Sign of the Rook
by Kate Atkinson

Jackson Brodie returns in a gripping new mystery! Welcome to Rook Hall. By night’s end, a murderer will be revealed.

About Discuss

Members Recommend

A Club of One's Own
by BookBrowse

Dreaming of starting or reviving a book club? A Club of One’s Own is the essential guide to doing it right.

Read the Reviews
This Here Is Love
by Princess Joy L. Perry

Three people—two enslaved, one indentured—struggle to overcome the limits and labels of their painful shared pasts.

Read the Reviews
Too Old for This
by Samantha Downing

A retired killer's secret is at risk when a visitor arrives—her only option? Another murder.

Read the Reviews
The Magician of Tiger Castle
by Louis Sachar

The author of Holes returns with a magical adult debut about forbidden love and a kingdom on the brink of collapse.

Read the Reviews