In Joshua Ferris’s latest novel, To Rise Again at a Decent Hour (recently long-listed for the Man Booker Award), a dentist protagonist asks the big questions we all sometimes ponder: what is the meaning of life, and what is the meaning…
Fiction
387 Articles
387
We read some books because of the buzz, right? The Boys in the Boat or Unbroken. Gone Girl or The Goldfinch. If you’re on the fence about the latest somewhat buzzy book, Edan Lepucki’s California – maybe wait for the movie. Alternatively,…
University School of Nashville math teacher and all-round great guy Joel Bezaire recommended some summer reading for me a while back: The Housekeeper and the Professor, by Yoko Ogawa. I’ve since learned that Ogawa’s novel is also the Harpeth Hall…
A free range reader takes chances on new authors, new genres, old classics, and books with great covers. Sometimes these choices lead to brilliant discoveries! But the free range reader sometimes buys a book in haste or confusion, leading to distressing…
Summer comes to a screeching halt for many of the kids in Nashville tomorrow, but it doesn’t have to come to an end for you! It’s still in the 90’s, for heavens sake. Turn up the AC and turn off your phone…
That novel is the story of your life – from childhood’s awakenings, miseries, and joys, through the muddle in the middle, to the moment you breathe your last. Every life has the deepest, truest, most fundamental requirement of a story:…
If our family is a hive, I like to think of myself as the Queen Bee. As if I’m not disabused of that notion on a daily basis by my teenage daughters, I’ve recently been reminded by a terrific new…
A novel that features Rag and Bone, Skull and Bones, global conspiracy and a falcon named Sting is worthy of its own category – and claims it! The Union Club: A Subversive Thriller is exactly that: a thriller that makes its…
When you’ve finished The Goldfinch, by all means take a breather. You’ve just knocked back about three regular-length books. You need a palate cleanser! Read a magazine, catch up on your favorite TV show, maybe see Maleficent or Godzilla. If you’re…