Briar Patch Books

Category: Contemporary literary fiction

  • Jane Austen, with a mysterious twist

    Did you ever have the pleasure of reading Jane Austen’s novels? Although I was an English major in college, journalism courses accounted for many of my English hours. Otherwise, I took the usual Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, etc., and then studied as much American literature as I could. It was a few years later, when I…

  • Being human in a tempestuous world

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson THE MARRIAGE BED. By Tommy Hays. Blair/Carolina Wren Press. 300 pages. $27.95. On what starts out seeming like a typical Tuesday evening, Asa Flowers drives home from his job teaching poetry at a small college in Asheville, N.C. The car radio tells him storm clouds will be heading that way…

  • A road trip into an insightful novel

    Bob Moyer reviews a new novel that he believes is an “instant classic.” Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer THE REST OF OUR LIVES. By Ben Markovits. Simon & Schuster. 240 pages. $28. John Steinbeck, Robert Pirsig, Jack Kerouac—and Ben Markovits, all authors of classic road trip books. The first three authors are well-known, of course,…

  • A cat, books, a story … need we say more?

    Need a change of pace? Bob Moyer reviews a novel that is probably unlike anything you’ve read in a long time. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer THE CAT WHO SAVED BOOKS. By Sosuke Natsukawa. Translated by Louise Heal Kawai. Harpervia. 208 pages.  $15.19, paperback. A cat. Books. What more do you want you want? Well,…

  • The personal, and the political

    Bob Moyer says this accomplished new novel by Bernhard Schlink tells us a lot about modern-day Germany and the new-Nazi movement. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer THE GRANDDAUGHTER. By Bernhard Schlink. HarperVia. 336 pages. $28.99 Bernhard Schlink gave us one of the most accomplished novels of the 20th century, capturing the zeitgeist of post-war Germany.…

  • The dancing woman speaks to us all

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson DANCING WOMAN. By Elaine Neill Orr. Blair/Carolina Wren Press. 291 pages. $28.95, hardcover. Elaine Neill Orr is a gifted writer whose works are inspired and enriched by her creative temperament and her unusual perspective on the world. In her third novel, Dancing Woman, she is perhaps at the height of…

  • War is hell, and it has lessons for us

    Paul O’Connor takes a look at what he considers an  outstanding novel,  set during  the war that turned Yugoslavia into a hell on earth in 1992. Reviewed by Paul T. O’Connor. BLACK BUTTERFLIES. By Priscilla Morris. Alfred A. Knopf. 278 pages, $28, hardcover. For those old enough to remember the 1984 Winter Olympics, the thought…

  • Meanwhile, don’t miss this uplifting novel

    Bob Moyer reviews a new novel that sounds like the book we need to read these days. It is a joy to read, he says. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer HOW TO READ A BOOK. By Monica Wood. Mariner Books. 273 pages. $28.00 Coincidence. When it happens in our lives, it is remarkable. The phone…

  • A cautionary tale for our time

    Paul O’Connor, veteran journalist, reviews a dystopian novel with a timely message about “the madness of the autocratic right.” Reviewed by Paul T. O’Connor PROPHET SONG. By  Paul Lynch. Atlantic Monthly Press. 309 pages.  $26, hardcover. An old man in my neighborhood has a contingency plan in case the world’s current madness gets any closer…

  • A look through different eyes

    Every now and then, my husband, Lloyd, reads a book that impresses him so much that he volunteers to write a review for my blog. This is one of those rare finds. Reviewed by Lloyd Brinson JAMES: A Novel. By Percival Everett. Doubleday. 303 pages. $28, Often, after reading a really good book – fiction…