Briar Patch Books

Category: Contemporary literary fiction

  • Sunshine and shadows

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson Memory is such a complicated thing. It’s always fascinating to compare memories with a sibling or other person with whom you shared a long-ago experience. Sometimes details will be radically different; sometimes one person may have no recollection at all of something that made a vivid, lasting impression on another.…

  • Danger is in the eye of the beholder

    Paula Hawkins’ debut thriller is getting a lot of attention, and for good reason. Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN. By Paula Hawkins. Read by Clare Corbett, Louise Brealey and India Fisher. Penguin Audio. 9 CDs. $40. Also available in hardcover from Riverhead Books. When the blurb on the box calls…

  • Appearances and disappearances

    Take an ambitious, needy girl, throw in a few naive young men, add a plot for an improbable heist plus adventures on two continents, and you’ve got an impressive first novel. Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson UNBECOMING. By Rebecca Scherm. Read by Catherine Taber. Penguin Audio. 13 ½ hours; 11 CDs. $45. Also available in…

  • Love, marriage and so much more

    Bob Moyer takes a look at a novel that’s small in size but big in scope. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer DEPT. OF SPECULATION. By Jenny Offill. Alfred A. Knopf. 177 pages. $22.95. This concise, evocative novel (readable in one sitting) takes the reader on a roller coaster ride through that treacherous theme park known…

  • When they were young

    Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury bohemians are a well-known part of our literary heritage. Even those of us who haven’t really studied them have heard a lot about them. But Virginia, her sister Vanessa and their friends and family come alive in a new way in this highly entertaining and intelligent novel. The audio version…

  • Flavia crosses the pond

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson AS CHIMNEY SWEEPERS COME TO DUST. By Alan Bradley. Read by Jayne Entwistle. Random House Audio. 11 hours; 9 CDs. $41. Also available in print from Delacorte Press. 392 pages. $25. What a relief! Or, as Flavia would shout, “Yaroo!” When I reached the end last year of The Dead…

  • Small packages – when less is more

    So many of the audio books I “read” go on and on. That can be good if you want to get hooked into a book that will be with you for a while, say on a long road trip. But it’s refreshing to encounter a couple of novels that are more understated. Each of these…

  • The dreariness of conformity

    Charles Davenport Jr. of Greensboro, a new contributor, takes a look at a 1993 book that’s much in the news because of a movie adaptation. Reviewed by Charles Davenport Jr. THE GIVER. By Lois Lowry. Houghton Mifflin. 225 pages. $9.99. In the movie theater about a month ago, I saw an interesting preview for a…

  • Disaster, public and private

    If you haven’t discovered the books of Chris Bohjalian, you need to. I first encountered his work in Secrets of Eden (December, 2009), which impressed me a great deal. Since then, I’ve been equally impressed by The Sandcastle Girls and The Light in the Ruins  (both of which are reviewed here). The man has written…

  • Travels with Tooly

    Some books are just made to be read aloud. This one is a great story, and I’m sure it’s enjoyable when read in print. But in its audio form, it’s utterly captivating. I quickly felt that the reader, Penelope Rawlins, was a dear friend, telling me a fascinating story – one that I didn’t want…