Category: Book Reviews

In The Secret History by Donna Tartt, a debut literary thriller novel, we follow Richard, who transfers to Hampden college from another college in California, where he’s from. He becomes interested in a small group of students compromised of Henry, Francis, Charles, Camilla and Bunny, who are Greek majors like Richard himself. Their small group is headed by Julian, the professor, whom Richard convinces to be part of the Greek program.

As with all of Tartt’s books, we are taken on a journey and fully immersed into the world that the book is set in. The book is slow paced and detailed, which I don’t mind because it is so well written and the language flows so well that you don’t realize how much you’ve read until you come up for air.

Another one of Tartt’s strong suits is characters. She creates characters I love to hate as well as believable ones and ones we can relate to. Richard is one of the main characters but I don’t believe he is that important to most of the events that take place in the book. I feel that he is just there as a unreliable narrator. Even though he was accepted into their exclusive Greek program, he is still treated like an outside looking in. We learn of important developments after the fact and through one of the five other main characters, Henry, Francis, Charles, Camilla or Bunny. Except, of course, when they kill Bunny (not a spoiler, it’s in the first line of the book), which Richard has a hand in. 

Overall, I enjoyed reading about this world and these characters. I’ve read the other two books by Donna Tartt, The Little Friend and The Goldfinch and I was not disappointed in this one. If you like slow paced novels with a rich world and characters, you should definitely read this one.

Thanks for reading,
Nora

This week I read Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam. It is a very slow burn novel about a family, Clay, Amanda, Archie and Rose, and the events of their family vacation. They have rented a beautiful Airbnb house and they soon meet the owners when they come to the house and ask to stay. The owners of the house bring with them ominous news that something’s wrong. Slowly, unusual things happen that sets both families on edge.

I thought this book was effortlessly well written and easy to read, kept the page turning. I appreciated that it is a short book but not in the least unimpactful. The writing is efficient and moves the story along. Most likely this book was written in 2019 but it reflected so much of what is happening now in 2020, in the midst of a pandemic, social and political unrest globally. An impending doom that no one can really say what that entails. The characters in the novel know that something is not quite right but can’t seem to figure out exactly what is going on, which is even more frightening.

I didn’t know what to expect when I started to read this book. The summary I read didn’t suggest what really unfolded in the book. If I knew, I probably would’ve been hesitant as it hits to close to home at the moment. But in the end, I’m glad I read it. The only thing that I didn’t enjoy was one of the characters seemed to have a script and would only say the same things but in different ways, especially if something unexpected happened. That annoyed me.

Nonetheless, it is a book I would recommend to anything one that likes slow burn psychological thriller novels. Thank you for reading!

-Nora

She’s a foodie. He’s a journalist. She’s 7 months pregnant. He cheats on her. A book about a somewhat typical married couple, splitting their time between New York and Washington D.C. Hilariously written and with simple recipes sporadically thrown in, Heartburn is a well thought out and well-written first novel by Nora Ephron. Yes, we share a name. Yes, one of the reasons I chose to read this book is for the fact that we share a name. Another reason is that it’s Nora Ephron, who wrote the screenplay to Sleepless in Seattle (have yet to watch it), You’ve Got Mail (I probably should get around to watching this), When Harry Met Sally…, and Julie & Julia.

Rachel, the main character, was someone I instantly could relate to by just her love of food and cooking. Even though she makes some questionable decisions, one can’t help but root for her and hope that things will work out for her in the end. Mark was instantly unlikable for the sheer fact that he would cheat on Rachel while she was 7 months pregnant and his actions there after.

“Sometimes I believe that love is essential, and sometimes I believe that the only reason love is essential is that otherwise you spend all your time looking for it.” – Nora Ephron, Heartburn

The only con in this book for me was the pacing. There are flashbacks and segues interjected throughout the narrative, which I don’t particularly like in books. I feel like I have to keep track of a bunch of things. This is most likely why it took me some time to get through. I didn’t want to pick it up that much and ultimately just forced myself to go through because I did want to know what would happen in the end.

You definitely need to pay attention to read the cleverly written Heartburn by Nora Ephron. Even though it took me some time to get through it, I do recommend it to anyone who doesn’t mind the flashbacks and segues.

The Lottery is a fiction novel written by D. K. Wall, about Nathan Thomas and the small town drama that upends his otherwise humdrum life.

To be honest, I didn’t like reading this book, mostly for the fact that it was so plot heavy. I like reading books with fleshed out characters that I can relate to or at the very least care for. This was not the case for this book. From the first chapter, there are no less than 10 characters that are introduced. I actually listed all the characters in a notebook to keep track of who’s who. I don’t think any of the characters grew or changed throughout the course of the book in any way, especially Nathan, the main character.

Meanwhile, the plot was predictable, packed with long descriptions of Millerton. I felt like it dragged on and I found myself scanning through to the dialogue. The pacing was not successful as it kept going up and down. There would be a little bit of action then all of a sudden it slams into a description about an area of Millerton.

I believe this book would’ve benefitted from being a short story. I felt like at some point it might’ve been a short story but then filled with description to make it long enough for a book, hence the choppiness of the pacing. 

Books are very subjective in my opinion. The same is true in any creative endeavor. So I don’t like giving a star rating or any rating. I am not an author, though I aspire to be one some day and writing book reviews helps me with my writing skills. I truly admire anyone who is disciplined enough to write a book and have it published.

Thank you,
Nora