Novels Now

Hillary Jordan has written a very good debut novel that speaks on war, racism, marriage, and living off the land. The story is told by various narrators throughout the book. Henry and Laura are a white married couple who move to the Mississippi delta to raise cotton. Henry loves the land, but […]

Popularity: 61% [?]

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Mudbound by Hillary Jordan
Pages: 324
First Published: March, 2008
Genre: southern fiction, historical fictionRating: 5/5
First sentence:
Henry and I dug the hole seven feet deep.
Comments: A story of 1940s Mississippi. A tale of two families; one black, the other white. Henry McAllen moves from the city with his wife, two young daughters and his cantankerous, racist father to […]

Popularity: 28% [?]

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Beautiful and Haunting Story of an Portuguese Immigrant Family
Manuel was sent off to fish for his Portuguese village, as all other men and boys do. But he wanted more for his life, and wanted to get away from this life forever. This is the story about him and his family’s immigrant experience in Canada.
This is […]

Popularity: 26% [?]

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Warning: Do not read this right before bed!
The year is 1837 and Liberty Lane, runs away from her overbearing aunt to meet up with her father in France. She receives an anonymous note telling her that her father was shot in a dual. She knows that this can’t be true, due to her father’s ethical […]

Popularity: 24% [?]

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Wonderful Southern Fiction
In 1939, at 31 years old, spinster, Laura meets Henry McAllen. After a bit of dating, they get married and start a family. Henry works for the Army Corps of Engineers, they’re in the city. This is great, because Laura is a city woman through and through.
One day Henry comes home with news, […]

Popularity: 27% [?]

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Deeply Moving and True to Life
Its 1975 Yellowknife where Harry arrives on the scene to temporarily manage the small town radio station, back where his radio career started. When he arrives, he is enchanted by an exotic and sensual female voice on the air, that of Dido. He falls instantly in love but finds out […]

Popularity: 24% [?]

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Olive Kitteridge
By Elizabeth Strout
Completed August 13, 2008
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout was a novel comprised of thirteen short stories about people living in rural Maine. Several of the stories were based on the title character, but many of the stories only showed us a glimpse of Olive. From any perspective, Strout provided her readers with […]

Popularity: 21% [?]

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Mudbound by Hillary Jordan
My son just said to me, “Didn’t you just start that book yesterday?” Always the sign of a good book, one that I just race through. I’ve been reading some good reviews of this one in the Southern Reading Challenge. It’s a classic southern novel, tackling racist life in Mississippi just after […]

Popularity: 23% [?]

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“The world is full of miracles, Mama. All we have to do is find the ones that belong to us.” [pg 27]
Tarnished Beauty by Cecelia Samartin
Atria Books, 2008 (ARE)
Fiction; 339 pgs
Jamilet is a naïve and imaginative young woman who carries a burden, an ugly birthmark that stretches from her shoulders, down her back, reaching […]

Popularity: 20% [?]

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The Girl in Saskatoon: A Meditation on Memory and Murder by Sharon Butala
Pages: 260
First Published: March, 2008
Genre: memoir, True Crime
Rating: DNF
First sentence:
One soft spring evening in 1962 a young nurse named Alexandra Wiwcharuk wasmurdered and an entire city came to a stop: Alexandra’s murder was all anyonecould talk about.
Comments: With that promising first sentence, I […]

Popularity: 19% [?]

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