Literary Fiction

Environmental Thriller Asks Tough Questions About Morality

“Coal itself was at the heart of the next calamitous turn of events, as it was for the whole planet. Fighting coal had its own set of consequences. The powers that be wouldn't give it up easily.” In Lake Superior City, Wisconsin, coal is destroying the environment around Blue Lake.…

Megan BeauregardJanuary 17, 2025

Fiction Recommended

Awaiting Loss, a Family’s Final Reunion Uncovers Cracks in the Foundation

There’s a point early on in James Gilbert’s Reunion by the Lake when Grace, entering the twilight of her life as she and her husband Richard confront his terminal illness, loses her grip of a glass in the kitchen, and it breaks in the sink into long sharp slivers. The…

Jim AlkonJanuary 13, 2025

Fiction Listicles

Celebrate the New Year with These 8 Novels About New Beginnings

You probably hear it every year: “New year, new me!” For some, it’s an annoying jingle. For others, it’s a promise. And why shouldn’t it be? Our lives are full of new beginnings, sometimes planned, sometimes unexpected. We are creatures of habit, and sometimes it takes outside forces to shake…

Katie BloomerJanuary 2, 2025

Fiction

Quiet Secrets and Hidden Lives Shine in a Story of Redemption and Connection

Shy Creatures is one of those rarities in literary fiction, a quiet celebration of the complex human interactions that form lasting genuine friendships and heartfelt relationships that are retained in golden memories. Award-winning British novelist Clare Chambers has written nine novels including Learning to Swim which won the 1999 Romantic…

Linda HitchcockDecember 18, 2024

Fiction Listicles

5 Moving Literary Stories of Grief, Redemption and Community

There’s nothing better than being lost in a book and letting a story overtake you. Some fiction is life-changing and permanently alters your worldview. Other books bring you to tears and consume your thoughts for the subsequent days or weeks. If you’re a reader who seeks out the kinds of…

Megan BeauregardDecember 10, 2024

Fiction Recommended

Lives and Truths Laid Bare in Short Story Collection

“People are people. They love, they hate, they soar, they pine, they elate, they grieve — and on occasion, they kill.” Award-winning author Bill VanPatten tends to capture all those acts and emotions in his characters, drawing heavily on gay themes and Latino heritage in and around the small, fictitious…

Jim AlkonDecember 3, 2024

Fiction Podcasts

Books & Looks Podcast: The Remarkable 18th-Century Tale of Clara the Celebrity Rhino

Books & Looks: Real Books for Real Readers was started as a literary podcast to supplement Blaine Desantis’ website, ViewsOnBooks.com, and expand into audio and video interviews with authors. With Books & Looks, Blaine’s goal is to focus on real books that real people will read. At least half of the books he…

Blaine DesantisNovember 27, 2024

Fiction Listicles

9 Novels About Finding Oneself Away from Home

Not all who wander are lost. — J.R.R. Tolkien It’s a sentiment as old as storytelling itself. Sometimes, a person needs to go on a grand journey to discover who they really are. There’s something about leaving home — leaving what’s known and comfortable — that makes a person reflective…

Katie BloomerNovember 21, 2024

Fiction Podcasts

Books & Looks Podcast: Madeline Martin on Wartime Resilience, Motherhood and the Power of Books

Books & Looks: Real Books for Real Readers was started as a literary podcast to supplement Blaine Desantis’ website, ViewsOnBooks.com, and expand into audio and video interviews with authors. With Books & Looks, Blaine’s goal is to focus on real books that real people will read. At least half of the books he…

Blaine DesantisOctober 16, 2024

Fiction Listicles

7 Books That Are So Confusing (In the Best Way)

When was the last time you were fully immersed in a book? When you looked up from the page and took a moment to remember where you were, when the last time you drank water was, and wondered, since when had the sun gone down? For a lot of us,…

Cameron KimballNovember 4, 2024

Fiction Recommended

Expert Tapestry of Jewish History and Gripping Mystery

In 2005, American journalist and single father Judah Loeb returns to Israel to investigate the decades-old death of an academic mentor and Holocaust survivor, only to discover that the past is indeed a foreign land in Philip Graubart’s entrancing Here There Is No Why. Ten years after the suicide of…

Peggy KurkowskiOctober 22, 2024

Fiction Miscellany

Maggie Thrash’s Adult Debut is Murder Mystery and Fugitive Love Story Set Amidst Satanic Panic

“Conformity can rapidly become dangerous. It can become violent. I wanted to explore that, and New Hampshire, with its motto ‘Live Free or Die,’ was the perfect setting for that theme.” Rainbow Black (Harper Perennial), Maggie Thrash’s adult debut, begins in idyllic New Hampshire, on the cusp of impending danger,…

Megan BeauregardMarch 19, 2024

Fiction Recommended

Forgiveness, Tragedy and the Search for “Something Better” in Diane Parrish’s Poignant Novel

Diane Parrish’s rich, thought-provoking novel Something Better (Meridian Editions) is a testament to the tenacity of the human spirit and the enduring quest for, well, something better in life. When Jack and Lydia Brady tragically die in a car accident during a fierce winter storm, their daughter Annabeth, a college…

LK GriffieOctober 8, 2024

Fiction Recommended

A Literary Exploration of Love, Life and Coming-of-Age

Everything is changing, evolving, and devolving no matter how hard we try to add meaning or substance. Truth is fleeting. Such a Nice Girl is a profound, literary exploration of life, love, and a number of themes, in the setting of a rural New England town. In the tradition of…

Michael FerryOctober 4, 2024

Fiction Listicles

Craving More Sally Rooney? You’ll Love These 6 Rooney-Esque Books

I, like so many others, have constantly chased the high I feel when reading books by bestselling author Sally Rooney. She has a way of making the most mundane subject matter fill you with such emotion as each book portrays the spectrum of human connection and interpersonal relationships. The same…

Kelsey HallSeptember 24, 2024

Fiction Listicles

Korelitz’s Latest Thriller, “The Sequel,” Prompts Debate of 14 Best Books About Books

Maybe I’m prejudiced. But isn’t that the right of anyone evaluating books? It’s about what you like. Or don’t. In the case of author Jean Hanff Korelitz, I’m indeed prejudiced. That’s because The Plot, her ingenious thriller in which a bestselling book becomes a matter of life or death, is…

Jim AlkonSeptember 24, 2024

Environmental Thriller Asks Tough Questions About Morality

Awaiting Loss, a Family’s Final Reunion Uncovers Cracks in the Foundation

Celebrate the New Year with These 8 Novels About New Beginnings

5 Moving Literary Stories of Grief, Redemption and Community

Lives and Truths Laid Bare in Short Story Collection

Books & Looks Podcast: The Remarkable 18th-Century Tale of Clara the Celebrity Rhino

9 Novels About Finding Oneself Away from Home

Books & Looks Podcast: Madeline Martin on Wartime Resilience, Motherhood and the Power of Books

7 Books That Are So Confusing (In the Best Way)

Expert Tapestry of Jewish History and Gripping Mystery

Maggie Thrash’s Adult Debut is Murder Mystery and Fugitive Love Story Set Amidst Satanic Panic

Forgiveness, Tragedy and the Search for “Something Better” in Diane Parrish’s Poignant Novel

A Literary Exploration of Love, Life and Coming-of-Age

Craving More Sally Rooney? You’ll Love These 6 Rooney-Esque Books

Korelitz’s Latest Thriller, “The Sequel,” Prompts Debate of 14 Best Books About Books

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