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 […]
“The Orphan of Pitigliano,” by Marina Brown
June 18, 2020 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Donna Meredith Marina Brown’s The Orphan of Pitigliano is a feast of Old World mystery and magic, betrayal and heartbreak, sin and redemption. Readers who enjoyed Helen Wecker’s best-selling novel, The Golem and the Jinni, will like Brown’s tale, which also blends Jewish myth into the historical novel. Brown paints her stunning story […]
Donna Meredith Interviews Marina Brown, Author of “The Orphan of Pitigliano”
June 16, 2020 by Leave a Comment
DM: I have a theory that every great novel begins with one strong emotional scene or character or idea that ignites the author’s passion. What spark initiated your desire to write The Orphan of Pitigliano? MB: Honestly, I think it was a series of experiences I had had in Pitigliano over the years that coalesced […]