Reviewed by Donna Meredith If you like larger-than-life, irascible, narcissistic, rich, foul-mouthed muckspouts—think Tony Soprano—you will like the narrator of L. C. Fiore’s Coyote Loop. Granted, the setting is totally different. The trading floor of a Chicago Board Options Exchange. The beginning of the 2008 recession. But John Andrew Ganzi, also known as JAG, rules […]
May Read of the Month: “The Tender Grave,” by Sheri Reynolds
May 6, 2021 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Donna Meredith The Tender Grave, by Sheri Reynolds, not only offers interesting characters and strong imagery, but it also builds an unusual level of tension and suspense for a literary novel. Witness this early passage: She hadn’t been to bed, not all night, and though she’d brushed her teeth before she left, her […]
February Read of the Month: “Goshen Road,” by Bonnie Proudfoot
February 10, 2021 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Donna Meredith Bonnie Proudfoot’s Goshen Road dives deep into West Virginia rural life with a tale that sweeps across multiple generations. The novel has been selected for the Women’s National Book Association’s Great Group Reads program and is longlisted for the 2021 PEN/Hemingway Award for Best Debut Novel. The novel provides multiple viewpoints, […]
“Wanting Radiance,” by Karen Salyer McElmurray
January 27, 2021 by 1 Comment
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 […]