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Jennifer Blankfein

Jennifer Blankfein

Jennifer Gans Blankfein is a freelance marketing consultant and book reviewer. She graduated from Lehigh University with a Psychology degree and has a background in advertising. Her experience includes event coordination and fundraising along with editing a weekly, local, small business newsletter. Jennifer loves to talk about books, is an avid reader, and currently writes a book blog, Book Nation by Jen.

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Jennifer Blankfein

Fiction

Forging New Relationships and Redefining Home

This is Home (Atria Books) is the emotional story of Libby, a motherless teenage girl trying to create and define her home along with Quinn, a military wife who feels abandoned and is searching for belonging. The characters are searching for connection and the family they really want is not…
Jennifer Blankfein
June 11, 2019
Fiction

Sally Rooney Depicts the Highs and Pitfalls of Two Teens in Love

sSally Rooney’newest novel, Normal People (Hogarth) is an engaging page-turner focusing on the shifting relationship between two teenagers from Ireland. This propulsive novel from the author of Conversations with Friends was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, with little wonder. Connell is a smart, popular athlete with a working class single mother,…
Jennifer Blankfein
May 22, 2019
Fiction

Memories of the Past and a Vision of the Future

In Another Time (Harper) by Jillian Cantor is a wonderful historical fiction novel with deep characters who love books, music and each other. In 1930s Berlin, Max, a German bookshop owner sees Hanna playing what she loves most, the violin.  He is enchanted and in an attempt to get her…
Jennifer Blankfein
March 29, 2019
Thrillers

In This Thriller, Revenge is a Dish Best Served Pretty

With women and secrets, lies and deceit, friendships and forgiveness, Pretty Revenge (Gallery Books) delivers a suspenseful dose of crazy in this fifth novel, an emotional thriller, from Emily Liebert, slated for release this July. Ah, revenge! Eighteen years ago, Kerrie’s life was turned upside down. Hurt by the betrayal and…
Jennifer Blankfein
March 25, 2019
NonfictionSave the World

Kindness Spurs Kindness in Growing Kids

The world can often be harsh, and lucky for us, authors Dale Atkins Ph.D. and Amanda Salzhauer, MSW are giving all families a leg up with tips and ideas for how to be kind in their new book, The Kindness Advantage, Cultivating Compassionate and Connected Children.  Based on research, this guide provides ways…
Jennifer Blankfein
March 20, 2019
Fiction

Novel Highlights Real Danger of Hitler’s Food Tasters

Sharing a meal is typically viewed as a binding activity, creating closer relationships with all present. However, you may want to toss your assumptions of intimate connections over food straight in the garbage after reading Rosella Postorino’s latest novel! Based on truth, At the Wolf’s Table (Flatiron Books) is a historical…
Jennifer Blankfein
March 1, 2019
Nonfiction

Cardiologist Explains Heart Health and His Own Experiences

Heart health is essential to us, yet we know very little about this vital organ. Dissecting the heart's structure and the different treatment options available, along with balancing the clinical and sometimes cynical issues with thoroughly enjoyable anecdotes, it's hard not to immerse yourself in Heart: A History. According to…
Jennifer Blankfein
February 18, 2019
Fiction

Madame Tussaud: The Woman Behind The Wax

Little (Riverhead) is the unusual story of a determined young girl who shapes a better life for herself through masterful wax figures. We recognize Madame Tussaud as the famed wax sculptor, but Edward Carey adds a compelling story that will stay with you as much as her own art. After her father…
Jennifer Blankfein
December 13, 2018
Fiction

“Washington Black” Paints a Fresh Slave Narrative

With history, science and creativity, Esi Edugyan’s Washington Black (Knopf) tells the story of an 11-year-old slave in Barbados and his adventurous escape to freedom.  Washington Black, or Wash, brought up in the sugar cane fields, experienced more than his share of oppression, suffering and abuse. When the slave master's brother,…
Jennifer Blankfein
November 12, 2018
Fiction

“Still Life With Monkey” Ponders Carrying On

In Katharine Weber’s Still Life With Monkey (Paul Dry Books), Duncan Wheeler, a talented architect and owner of his own firm in New Haven, CT. On the way back from visiting his Thimble Islands site, he gets into a horrific car accident.  His assistant is killed and he survives, but suffers…
Jennifer Blankfein
October 8, 2018
Fiction

Orphan Plight in “The Home for Unwanted Girls”

Joanna Goodman's The Home for Unwanted Girls (Harper) is the compelling story of Maggie (based on the author’s mother) and her family set in 1950s Canada.  At that time orphanages were being converted to hospitals for financial benefit.  The Quebec government saved money changing the educational facilities to mental institutions, and…
Jennifer Blankfein
September 25, 2018