Briar Patch Books

Tag: literary fiction

  • 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…

  • A fitting sendoff

    If you missed this book when it was published in 2016, or over the years since, you may join Bob Moyer as he savors Richard Russo’s last, skillful look at his memorable literary creation, Donald “Sully” Sullivan of North Bath. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer EVERYBOODY’S FOOL. By Richard Russo. Alfred A. Knopf. 451 pages.$29.…

  • When the well runs dry…

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson WESTERN ALLIANCES. By Wilton Barnhardt. St. Martin’s Press. 400 pages. $29, hardcover. Wilton Barnhardt must have had a blast writing this latest novel. What fun, imagining (and researching?!) the travels of Roberto Costa, a spoiled, rich (inherited), overgrown kid-adult who’s never held a job and much prefers Europe to his…

  • A North Carolina novel you won’t want to miss

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson INDIGO FIELD. By Marjorie Hudson. Regal House Publishing. 410 pages. $22.95. Marjorie Hudson’s debut novel is so beautifully written, so powerful, so true and so haunting that it’s hard to come up with one adjective sufficient to describe it. Suffice it to say that if you’re making a list of…

  • Up to the challenge

    Reviewed by Paul T. O’Connor CLOUD CUCKOO LAND. By Anthony Doerr. Scribner. 622 pages. $30, hardcover. In his latest novel, Anthony Doerr has challenged himself with a monumental task: Establish three distinct storylines, set apart from each other by more than 700 years, two continents and millions of miles of outer space, and then draw…

  • Anchored in the dilemma

    Bob Moyer, an avid reader, often goes through books at a rapid pace. But those tend to be mysteries. This novel, he says, forced him to slow down. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer JACK. By Marilynne Robinson. Farrah Straus Giroux. 309 pages. $27. Marilynne Robinson has produced three novels centered on the fictional village of…

  • Sons and mothers and Jackie O.

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson THE EDITOR. By Steven Rowley. Penguin Audio. Read by Michael Lee. 10 ½ hours. 9 CDs. $40. Also available in print from G. P. Putnam’s Sons. What an original and wonderful idea for a book: James Smale is a struggling would-be writer in New York City in the early 1990s,…

  • The courage to love

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson WE MUST BE BRAVE. By Frances Liardet. Penguin Audio. Read by Jayne Entwistle and Juliet Mills. 16 hours; 13 CDs. $66. Also available in print from G. P. Putnam’s Sons. This beautiful, moving novel is the first to be published in America by Frances Liardet, a British writer and translator,…

  • Quiet and powerful

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson MY NAME IS LUCY BARTON. By Elizabeth Strout. Random House Audio. Read by Kimberly Farr. Four CDs; four hours. $30. Also available in print from Random House. Elizabeth Strout’s books are so different from anything else I read, indeed, from most of today’s fiction as far as I can tell,…

  • 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.…