by Joshua Senter ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 14, 2022
A candid tale that triumphantly understands the Midwestern psyche, delivering moments of beauty and tragedy.
Awards & Accolades
Our Verdict
GET IT
Kirkus Reviews'
Best Books Of 2021
A young Missouri man on a failing dairy farm contemplates what he feels will be the last day of his life in this novel.
At the age of 32, Calem Honeycutt is already a homeowner, but he didn’t move far from his parents. They are a mile away at their dairy farm in the Ozarks where Calem still works. He didn’t feel like going to college or getting what some call a real job, as he is too tied to the life and landscape of his upbringing. (“There are two cricks that run through our land, three ponds, and a waterfall that will leave a hell of an impression if you’re ever lucky enough to see it.”) His parents are reliable and supportive, if somewhat stoic, though his sister, Caitlyn, whom he genuinely likes, is now an urban progressive liberal who is outraged by her family’s conservative opinions. Calem hunts, fishes, and sees friends, but he is single and deals with despair. He has convinced himself this will be the last day he will ever live. He plows through the day, racked by memories of old times and fascinated by new views of familiar landscapes. Some fun is on the horizon, since he is going fishing with his friend Miles that evening. Even so, bad news comes in about the dairy farm, pushing Calem and his family toward new, possibly insurmountable anxieties. Senter’s impressive novel is a truthful, honestly told story that puts a human face on a region that’s steeped in tradition, brimming with the allure of nature, and grappling with the constant threat of being swallowed up by the latest corporate entity. Calem’s world is intricately described as a land of four-wheelers, black walnuts, hog suckers, and Holsteins, and it’s a place that offers seemingly endless freedom but brutal government and marketplace restrictions. The author’s careful plotting, over the course of one remarkably intense day, defies expectations as it moves toward its haunting conclusion.
A candid tale that triumphantly understands the Midwestern psyche, delivering moments of beauty and tragedy.Pub Date: Jan. 14, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-7375856-0-2
Page Count: 188
Publisher: Roubidoux Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 10, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Share your opinion of this book
More About This Book
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 6, 2024
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
Awards & Accolades
Likes
290
Our Verdict
GET IT
New York Times Bestseller
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
Share your opinion of this book
More by Kristin Hannah
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
More About This Book
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
by Alison Espach ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 30, 2024
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
Share your opinion of this book
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Trouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Trouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.