Of Women and Salt

This has such an intriguing and poetic title! Plus, I'm always interested in small/short novels like this - it seems like there is not enough space to make an impact and yet often these are some of the most intense and insightful reads. (I'm thinking of Convenience Store Woman as another that, for all its…

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The Arsonists’ City

At long last, my final Aspen Words 2022 longlist read is done. I'm feeling very accomplished and enjoying that satisfied feeling of crossing the last thing off a "to-read" list. Go me! Plus, I ended on a high note, since this was also one of the five shortlist picks. And goodness I can see why.…

The Five Wounds

This is the next book in my goal of reading through the 2022 Aspen Words Literary prize longlist. Or, in this case, listen through, as I went with the audiobook for this one. It's my fourth, of the sixteen, so I still have a ways to go, but as I mentioned, I'm making this year a…

The Old Drift

This particular backlist title has been on my radar since it's publication a few years ago, but sort of as a backburner situation. Interestingly, I have no idea why I chose now to read it, as it's not like my TBR is suddenly shorter or anything. But someone checked it out at the library the…

The Mountains Sing

As soon as I heard about this one, I added it to my TBR: an intergenerational saga of a family living through the incredibly turbulent recent history of Vietnam, told by an author inspired by her own family’s stories. Plus, that cover is just straight up gorgeous. The library waitlist was long (which is great…

The House of the Spirits

I have read a number of things by Isabel Allende over the years, starting with Zorro, when I was really probably to young to appreciate Allende’s prose, because my brothers and I were obsessed with the movie The Mask of Zorro, starring Anthony Hopkins, Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones. I cannot tell you how many…

Girl, Woman, Other

I had never heard of Bernardine Evaristo before this novel won the Booker Prize this past year (and yes, I am going to choose to believe that she won it singularly, for many reasons…agree or disagree, that’s my stance). In any case, I knew that I wanted to support Evaristo, so I went ahead and…

A Woman Is No Man

This debut novel received quite a bit of press when it was published last year. I saw many, many reviews from readers who both loved it and found it heart-breaking. And I knew that I wanted to read it, that one day I would read it. But the thing is, knowing how intense of a…

The Island of Sea Women

Wow, was it hard to get my hands on this book! This was the book chosen as the April read for my remote (Google Hangout) book club. And even though we’ve read some new releases in the past, this is the first time I was afraid I wouldn't actually get the book in time (and,…

There There

In trying to expand my reading horizons, I realized that I had read very little from Native American authors. I have, of course, read a few by Louise Erdrich (most recently Future Home of the Living God), who is well established as respected as a female writer of Native American descent. But that’s pretty much…