Reviews by Cathryn Conroy

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Unsheltered: A Novel
by Barbara Kingsolver
When the World as You Know It Inexorably Changes, What Would You Do? (4/19/2023)
What happens when the world view you have always known inexorably shifts? Do you embrace the change as forward-thinking or fight it for all you're worth? If you simply deny that the change is real, will those words be enough to bring back the good old days? That is themore
My Life as a Rat
by Joyce Carol Oates
A Deeply Affecting Book About Forgiveness (4/19/2023)
This is a deeply affecting and heart-wrenching book about forgiveness. And it's about the most difficult form of forgiveness: Forgiving oneself.

Violet Rue is the youngest of seven children in the Irish Catholic, blue collar Kerrigan family of South Niagara, New York. Whilemore
The Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids
by Alexandra Robbins
This Book Is Deeply Disturbing…and That Is Exactly Why You Should Read It (4/19/2023)
This book is deeply disturbing. And that is exactly why you should read it.

Written by Alexandra Robbins, the book follows four juniors, three seniors and one graduate of Walt Whitman High School in tony Bethesda, Maryland for a little more than a year during 2004-2005. Asmore
The Orchid House: A Novel
by Lucinda Riley
What a Huge Disappointment! Weak and Boring…Nothing More Than a Mediocre Soap Opera (4/19/2023)
Oh, what a huge disappointment! The publisher's plot summary is spectacular, and based on that this could have been a wonderful, compelling ChickLit book. But it wasn't. Why? The writing is stilted, the dialogue is strained and unrealistic, and the characters' actions aremore
Courting Mr. Lincoln
by Louis Bayard
Not a (4/19/2023)
What this book is: A fascinating, extraordinarily well-written historical novel on a young Abraham Lincoln, whose future wife, Mary Todd, was making eyes at him across the well-to-do parlors of Springfield, Illinois in the early 1840s, while at the same time the futuremore
The Art of the Wasted Day
by Patricia Hampl
Thought-Provoking and Scholarly, But NOT an Instruction Manual for How to Be a Lazy Bum (4/19/2023)
I admit it! I bought this book for the title. For me, wasting a single hour, much less an entire day, is an anathema, so I was fascinated about an entire book on the topic.

As it turns out, the book is not exactly an instruction manual for being a lazy bum.

Instead, it's amore
The Great Believers
by Rebecca Makkai
This Is the Rarest of Books: A Heartbreaking and Devastating Story, But I Couldn't Stop Reading (4/19/2023)
This is the rarest of books. It is a story of loss and separation—the kind that is foisted upon us by death and the kind that is inflicted upon us by estrangement—but it is also a story about the abiding power of love and friendship. It is a riveting, can't-put-it-downmore
The Other Americans
by Laila Lalami
There Is Always Another Side of the Story (4/19/2023)
There is always another side of the story.

Author Laila Lalami has taken this adage to heart in this searing and ingenious tale about the death of Driss Guerraoui, a Moroccan immigrant living in the small town of Mojave, California with this wife, Maryam. The couple have twomore
Hazards of Time Travel
by Joyce Carol Oates
A Dystopian Novel and Also a Coming-of-Age Love Story…But Not One of Joyce Carol Oates's Best Books (4/19/2023)
Many us have wondered in recent years if our democracy is under a very real threat. If you are one of these people, this dystopian novel by Joyce Carol Oates may give you nightmares because what should be a horrific fantasy limited to the pages of a book may feel more likemore
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 1938more
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 muchmore
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 onemore
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 Mennonitemore
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 childrenmore
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 Elizamore
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.

Quitemore
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 readmore
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, butmore
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 Marthamore

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