by Tamar Ossowski ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2013
Ossowski, a mother of three (including a child with special needs), touchingly examines the elements that bind families...
Massachusetts-based author Ossowski’s debut about a family’s fragmentation, forgiveness and love.
Single parent Therese Wolley works hard to support her two daughters financially and emotionally. Older daughter Matilda sometimes suffers from nightmares, and young Franny interprets her world from an autistic perspective, enveloping herself in letters. But an item in the newspaper and an obligation to fulfill a promise abruptly alter the family dynamics. Therese packs the girls in her car and drives to her friend Leah’s home, which Franny thinks “smells like art.” The next day, Leah takes Franny on an outing, and Franny returns to discover her world is totally unbalanced. Therese and Matilda are gone, although her sister leaves behind a journal and a promise to return for her. Franny doesn’t understand her abandonment, but in many ways, she copes with the changes in her life in healthier ways than her sibling, her mother and guardian. Leah buries her demons until Franny innocently uncovers them while asking about pieces of artwork she finds under a mattress. Meanwhile, Matilda and her mother settle into an apartment in another town, and Matilda acts out her resentment toward her mother by allying herself with a neighborhood bad boy, skipping school, sneaking out of the house and drinking. Therese stubbornly refuses to supply satisfactory answers to Matilda’s questions, and she spends more time away from home as she worries that the past will come back to haunt her and her daughter. Although it does not have the strongest plot or ending, Ossowski’s narrative is more about the characters and their individual journeys: The author artfully portrays each in meticulous detail and employs superlative imagery to paint every thought and action.
Ossowski, a mother of three (including a child with special needs), touchingly examines the elements that bind families together.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-62636-037-2
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2013
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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 6, 2018
A tour de force.
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New York Times Bestseller
In 1974, a troubled Vietnam vet inherits a house from a fallen comrade and moves his family to Alaska.
After years as a prisoner of war, Ernt Allbright returned home to his wife, Cora, and daughter, Leni, a violent, difficult, restless man. The family moved so frequently that 13-year-old Leni went to five schools in four years. But when they move to Alaska, still very wild and sparsely populated, Ernt finds a landscape as raw as he is. As Leni soon realizes, “Everyone up here had two stories: the life before and the life now. If you wanted to pray to a weirdo god or live in a school bus or marry a goose, no one in Alaska was going to say crap to you.” There are many great things about this book—one of them is its constant stream of memorably formulated insights about Alaska. Another key example is delivered by Large Marge, a former prosecutor in Washington, D.C., who now runs the general store for the community of around 30 brave souls who live in Kaneq year-round. As she cautions the Allbrights, “Alaska herself can be Sleeping Beauty one minute and a bitch with a sawed-off shotgun the next. There’s a saying: Up here you can make one mistake. The second one will kill you.” Hannah’s (The Nightingale, 2015, etc.) follow-up to her series of blockbuster bestsellers will thrill her fans with its combination of Greek tragedy, Romeo and Juliet–like coming-of-age story, and domestic potboiler. She re-creates in magical detail the lives of Alaska's homesteaders in both of the state's seasons (they really only have two) and is just as specific and authentic in her depiction of the spiritual wounds of post-Vietnam America.
A tour de force.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-312-57723-0
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Oct. 30, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2017
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by Christina Lauren ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 10, 2018
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.
Eleven years ago, he broke her heart. But he doesn’t know why she never forgave him.
Toggling between past and present, two love stories unfold simultaneously. In the first, Macy Sorensen meets and falls in love with the boy next door, Elliot Petropoulos, in the closet of her dad’s vacation home, where they hide out to discuss their favorite books. In the second, Macy is working as a doctor and engaged to a single father, and she hasn’t spoken to Elliot since their breakup. But a chance encounter forces her to confront the truth: what happened to make Macy stop speaking to Elliot? Ultimately, they’re separated not by time or physical remoteness but by emotional distance—Elliot and Macy always kept their relationship casual because they went to different schools. And as a teen, Macy has more to worry about than which girl Elliot is taking to the prom. After losing her mother at a young age, Macy is navigating her teenage years without a female role model, relying on the time-stamped notes her mother left in her father’s care for guidance. In the present day, Macy’s father is dead as well. She throws herself into her work and rarely comes up for air, not even to plan her upcoming wedding. Since Macy is still living with her fiance while grappling with her feelings for Elliot, the flashbacks offer steamy moments, tender revelations, and sweetly awkward confessions while Macy makes peace with her past and decides her future.
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-2801-1
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
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