Others: Mostly positive In bright, musical prose that reflects the energy of New York City, Angie Cruz's Dominicana is a vital portrait of the immigrant experience and the timeless coming-of-age story of a young woman finding her voice in the world.
Genres: historical fiction, literary fiction
Lists: …
Marjan Kamali
2019 · 320 pages · 6 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positive"A novel set in 1953 Tehran, against the backdrop of the Iranian Coup, about a young couple in love who are separated on the eve of their marriage, and who are reunited sixty years later, after having moved on to live independent lives in America, to discover the truth about what happened on that fateful day in the town square"-- 1953, Tehran. Amidst the political upheaval of the time, Roya finds an oasis in kindly Mr. Fakhri's book and stationery shop. When he introduces Roya to his other favorite customer-- handsome Bahman, who has a burning passion for justice and a love for Rumi's poetry-- she loses her heart at once. On the eve of their marriage, violence erupts. In the chaos of the coup d'etat, Bahman never shows, and Roya moves on to a life in the U.S. More than sixty years later, an accident of fate leads her back to Bahman and offers her a chance to ask him the questions that have haunted her for more than half a century: Why did he leave? Where did he go? How was he able to forget her? -- adapted from jacket
What made the match, strongest first
Eve Babitz
1982 · 160 pages · 1 review
Others: Positive"[T]he story of Sophie, a twenty-something blonde Jim Morrison groupie gliding through a golden existence in L.A. and Lola, a German immigrant who settles in Hollywood in the twenties to drive Pierce Arrows recklessly down Sunset Boulevard and who knows that Maybelline mascara cakes and Rudolph Valentino are the essence of life. Sophie and Lola, like the many other women who move in and out of this electric saga, know that while L.A. is constantly changing it is essentially eternal; through their eyes we see the mixture of high culture and low, the promises of youth and the fulfillment of nostalgia, the pink sunsets and the palm trees that are L.A. And through this fantastic tale, Babitz shares what it is to be a woman in what she convinces us is the capital of civilization"--Back cover.
What made the match, strongest first
Taylor Jenkins Reid
2019 · 384 pages · 41 reviews
Others: Mostly positiveA gripping novel about the whirlwind rise of an iconic 1970s rock group and their beautiful lead singer, revealing the mystery behind their infamous break up. Everyone knows Daisy Jones & The Six, but nobody knows the real reason why they split at the absolute height of their popularity…until now. Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go-Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it’s the rock and roll she loves most. By the time she’s twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things. Another band getting noticed is The Six, led by the brooding Billy Dunne. On the eve of their first tour, his girlfriend Camila finds out she’s pregnant, and with the pressure of impending fatherhood and fame, Billy goes a little wild on the road. Daisy and Billy cross paths when a producer realizes the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend.
What made the match, strongest first
Claire Keegan
1900 · 109 pages · 5 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positiveA small girl is sent to live with foster parents on a farm in rural Ireland, without knowing when she will return home. In the strangers' house she finds affection she has not known before, and slowly she begins to blossom in their care. But when a secret is suddenly revealed, she realizes how fragile her idyll is.
What made the match, strongest first
Yaa Gyasi
2016 · 320 pages · 16 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positiveHomegoing is the debut historical fiction novel by Ghanaian-American author Yaa Gyasi, published in 2016. Each chapter in the novel follows a different descendant of an Asante woman named Maame, starting with her two daughters, who are half-sisters, separated by circumstance: Effia marries James Collins, the British governor in charge of Cape Coast Castle, while her half-sister Esi is held captive in the dungeons below. Subsequent chapters follow their children and following generations. The novel was selected in 2016 for the National Book Foundation's "5 under 35" award, the National Book Critics Circle's John Leonard Award for best first book, and was longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize in 2017. It received the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for 2017, an American Book Award, and the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Literature.
What made the match, strongest first
Candice Carty-Williams
2019 · 396 pages · 7 reviews
Others: Mostly positiveQueenie Jenkins is a 25-year-old Jamaican British woman living in London, straddling two cultures and slotting neatly into neither. She works at a national newspaper, where she's constantly forced to compare herself to her white middle class peers. After a messy break up from her long-term white boyfriend, Queenie seeks comfort in all the wrong places . . . including several hazardous men who do a good job of occupying brain space and a bad job of affirming self-worth. As Queenie careens from one questionable decision to another, she finds herself wondering, 'What are you doing? Why are you doing it? Who do you want to be?' -- all of the questions today's woman must face in a world trying to answer them for her.
What made the match, strongest first
Loved itI loved Ang Cruz's other book Dominicana I loved her writing style it's powerful but funny and I think that humorous moments and that kind of aeric wit actually adds to the tragic moments because you feel yourself getting whiplashed from all the different emotions you're feeling
MixedI feel pretty ambivalent towards this one I got about four thirds way through when I decided to DNF it ... I also felt that the writing style was just the writing style that there's absolutely nothing special about his writing style.
Loved itBut I will say that this is one of those books that was so engrossing. The writing and here just completely sucks you in.
