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book nation by jen

Fiction

“His Favorites” Exposes Guilt and Vulnerability

With sparse, lyrical language, author of His Favorites (Scribner), Kate Walbert, shines a light on women’s rights as she tells us about Jo’s tragic and unsettling experiences.  After being in a deadly accident at 15 years old with her best friends, Jo, a wild and now emotionally broken high school student is…
Jennifer Blankfein
August 14, 2018
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

Feel Like an Outsider? You’re Not Alone

I haven’t read a lot of short stories and when the publisher asked me to take a look at We Love Anderson Cooper (Celadon Books) I was happy to do so…the title made me smile and when the book arrived I was increasingly motivated by the great looking cover! A teenage…
Jennifer Blankfein
June 12, 2019
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
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