Briar Patch Books

Category: Contemporary literary fiction

  • A mad and maddening world

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson THE GOLDEN HOUSE. By Salman Rushdie. Read by Vikas Adam. Random House Audio. 14 ½ hours. 12 CDs. 45. Salman Rushdie’s new novel captures this moment in time in America in a brilliant and disturbing way. Yes, The Golden House is frenetic, hyperbolic, often over the top and sometimes confusing…

  • A haunting novel

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson LINCOLN IN THE BARDO. By George Saunders. Read by Nick Offerman, David Sedaris and George Saunders, with a full cast of others. Random House Audio. 7 ½ hours, 6 CDs. $35. Also available in print from Random House. George Saunders has earned his literary laurels through writing short fiction, as…

  • While you were sleeping

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson THE SLEEPWALKER. By Chris Bohjalian. Read by Cady McClain and Grace Experience. Random House Audio. 9 ½ hours; 8 CDs. $47. A new novel from Chris Bohjalian is always cause for celebration. It’s not just that he is a fine writer. He also is brave and inquisitive enough to tackle…

  • A fresh perspective: The cursed Harry Potter

    Again this year, students in Paul T. O’Connor’s opinion-writing class in the School of Media and Journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have contributed book reviews to Briar Patch Books. We welcome these reviews, which offer some different fare as well as fresh perspectives. Thanks to these bright students! Reviewed by…

  • Playing a risky game

    Reviewed by Paul T. O’Connor SWEET TOOTH. By Ian McEwan. Anchor Books. 400 pages, Softcover. $15.95 Serena Frome has been playing out of her league all her life. The mostly overlooked daughter of an Anglican bishop, she attends Cambridge University, where she’s a middling student in “the maths” and the target of derision by more…

  • Beneath the surface

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson THE TRESPASSER. By Tana French. Penguin Audio. Read by Hilda Fay. 21 hours; 18 CDs. $55. Also available in hardcover from Viking. What a delight it is to discover Tana French, a wonderful Irish writer who pours her prodigious literary skills into richly layered detective fiction. I’m a latecomer to…

  • From dark times, brilliant fiction

    Two novels, both set in France during World War II, provide Paul O’Connor with a feast of outstanding fiction. Reviewed by Paul T. O’Connor THE NIGHTINGALE. By Kristin Hannah. St. Martin’s Press. 440 pages. $27.99. ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE. By Anthony Doerr. Scribner. 531 pages. $27. It’s early summer. We’re in the family…

  • Flavia, unbanished

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson THRICE THE BRINDED CAT HATH MEW’D. By Alan Bradley. Read by Jayne Entwistle. Random House Audio. 9 hours; 7 CDs. Hardback print edition form Delacorte Press. 331 pages. $26. It’s happy days for the many fans of Flavia DeLuce, the 12-year-old sleuth and chemist. After a brief “banishment” to a…

  • In a strange land

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson DODGERS. By Bill Beverly. Read by J.D. Jackson. Random House Audio. 10 ½ hours; 9 CDs. $40. Also available in print from Crown. I’m ashamed to admit that, after having received the review copy I had requested of Bill Beverly’s unforgettable new book, I dragged my heels about listening to…

  • A (very different) tale of Vietnam

    Long before he was a public school teacher and principal, my husband, Lloyd Brinson, was a Marine officer who served in Vietnam. Who would have thought he’d find so much of value in a children’s novel set in contemporary times in that country? Reviewed by Lloyd Brinson LISTEN, SLOWLY. By Thanhha Lai. HarperCollins. 272 pages. $16.99,…