Reviewed by Donna Meredith The pages of Wanting Radiance, a luscious literary novel by Karen Salyer McElmurray, are haunted by characters yearning for love—or something else they can’t quite name. As Ruby Loving says, she is “hungry and what she wanted was a miracle to fill her up.” Her daughter Miracelle thinks the emptiness might […]
“The Good Luck Stone,” by Heather Bell Adams
December 29, 2020 by 1 Comment
To an outsider, ninety-year-old Audrey Thorpe’s life appears to resemble a fairytale nearing its end, the only conflict caused by her granddaughter Deanna, who thinks Audrey should no longer live alone. But the protagonist in Heather Bell Adams’s novel, The Good Luck Stone, (Haywire Books 2020) is burdened by a dark secret and crippling guilt […]
“Saving Tyler Hake,” by Meredith Sue Willis
December 17, 2020 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Donna Meredith Although the title might lead a potential reader to think this novella is mostly about one young man, it is not. Saving Tyler Hake, by Meredith Sue Willis, paints a vivid portrait of small town life: the complicated relationships of people who have known each other since childhood and newcomers trying […]
“Even As We Breathe,” by Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle
October 27, 2020 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Donna Meredith Infused with Cherokee myth and the history of North Carolina’s famous Grove Park Inn, Even As We Breathe is a stunningly beautiful coming-of-age novel. With its publication, Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle joins Louise Erdrich, Sherman Alexie, N. Scott Momaday, and Leslie Marmon Silko as a new and important voice in Native American […]
“The Other Morgans,” by Carter Taylor Seaton
October 15, 2020 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Donna Meredith When readers first encounter AJ Porter in Carter Taylor Seaton’s novel The Other Morgans, they would be forgiven for judging AJ with a critical eye. The college dropout lives in a rural region of southern West Virginia, can’t pay her taxes, and uses grammar certain to make every teacher flinch. At […]
“A Place So Deep Inside America It Can’t Be Seen,” by Kari Gunter-Seymour
October 6, 2020 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Donna Meredith One minute it soars. The next it dives. It drives tacks into your heart and then warms your feet like a cozy pair of socks. The language and imagery in Kari Gunter-Seymour’s poetry collection, A Place So Deep Inside America It Can’t Be Seen, is all that we expect from a […]
July Read of the Month: “The Archive of Alternative Endings,” by Lindsey Drager
July 1, 2020 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Donna Meredith How to describe it? Exquisite. Literary. Experimental. Perfect in its own unique way, The Archive of Alternative Endings is unlike any other novel I’ve ever read. It’s different. Really different. It doesn’t have a plot, not in the usual sense. The characters don’t invite you to crawl into their skin, walk […]