All Time Favorites

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ 9/10

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

"Chona had never been one to play by the rules of American society. She did not experience the world as most people did. To her, the world was not a china closet where you admire this and don't touch that. Rather, she saw it as a place where every act of living was a chance for tikkum olum, to improve the world. The tiny woman with the bad foot was all soul. "

All Time Favorites, Book Club, Character Driven, Easy Reads, Exceptional, Family/Generational Saga, Literary Fiction, Love story, Sweet Stories, Thought Provoking, Way, way literary fiction... great writing
09/03/2023

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ 9.5/10

Tom Lake

"There is no explaining this simple truth about life: you will forget much of it. The painful things you were certain you'd never be able to let go? Now you're not entirely sure when they happened, while the thrilling parts, the heart-stopping joys, splintered and scattered and became something else. Memories are then replaced by different joys and sorrows, and unbelievably, those things get knocked aside as well, until one morning you're picking cherries with your three gown daughters and your husband goes by on the Gator and you are positive that this is all you've ever wanted in the world."

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ 9/10

Outlive

"The simplest explanation is likely that our metabolism, as it has evolved over millennia, is not equipped to cope with our ultramodern diet, which has appeared only within the last century or so."

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ 8.5/10

The Great Reclamation

"Decades later, the kampong would trace it all back to this very hour, waves draining the light from this slim, hungry moon. Decades later, they would wonder what could have been had the Lees simply turned back, had some sickness come upon the father manning the outboard motor, or some screaming fit befallen the youngest, forcing them to abandon the day's work and steer their small wooden craft home. Decades later, they would wonder if any difference could have been made at all."

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ 9.5/10

Generations

"The lightning fast pace of technological change has also produced the largest generation gaps in attitudes since the Boomers defied their Greatest generation parents in the 1960's. With older generations lamenting the younger's work ethic and skills, growing political divides, a distinct generational cast to cancel culture, younger generations criticizing older people's lack of tech savvy, and the derisive use of phrases such as, 'OK, Boomer,' generational conflict seems to be everywhere. Boomers and Gen X'ers have no reference point for growing up with the internet and social media, and Gen Z has no reference point for growing up without it, leaving Millennials to explain both viewpoints to their elders and juniors."