Novels Now

An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination
By Elizabeth McCracken
Completed November 5, 2008
I think there’s an old saying that you should never have to bury your child. Outliving my kids ranks number one in things “I don’t want to happen,” but sadly, there are parents who face this reality every day.
While some parents lose […]

Popularity: 55% [?]

Read full story »

The Believers
By Zoe Heller
Completed October 24, 2008
The Believers by Zoe Heller is the story of the Litvinoff family – led by Joel, a political activist and lawyer whose sudden collapse from a stroke put his family into chaos – compounded when a secret was revealed that rocked the family’s already fragile structure.Joel and his wife […]

Popularity: 28% [?]

Read full story »

The Road Home
By Rose Tremain
Completed September 27, 2008
The Road Home was the Orange Prize winning novel by Rose Tremain – a story of Lev, a Russian immigrant living in London. Lev immigrated to Britain after the mill in his village closed, leaving him without a means to support his mother and daughter. The decision to […]

Popularity: 22% [?]

Read full story »

So Long At The Fair
By Christina Schwartz
Completed September 9, 2008
Christina Schwartz’s latest book, So Long At The Fair, was a story about adultery and distrust in relationships. At the center, it’s the story of Jon and Ginny, high school sweethearts who have been married for many years, and Jon’s affair with his co-worker, Freddi. But […]

Popularity: 25% [?]

Read full story »

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% [?]

Read full story »

Resistance
By Owen Sheers
Completed June 27, 2008

I think poets make great novelists. Joyce Carol Oates, Margaret Atwood, even Shel Silverstein all embrace a stunningly descriptive way of writing that makes their stories and characters just flow through your mind. Like his poetic counterparts, Owen Sheers used this lyrical style in his debut novel Resistance.
Resistance is an […]

Popularity: 23% [?]

Read full story »

Janeology
By Karen Harrington
Completed June 15, 2008
Nature versus nurture – it’s an old question and still a widely debatable one. Do genes rule our own impulses? Does one’s environment shape who we become?
It’s this theme that formed Karen Harrington’s debut novel, Janeology. In this book, Jane Nelson decided that she was “done being a mother” and […]

Popularity: 19% [?]

Read full story »

America America
By Ethan Canin
Completed June 8, 2008
Corey Sifter was an average boy, living with his working-class parents in New York, when the wealthy, well-connected Metarey family employed him to work on their estate. Liam Metarey, the family’s patriarch, took a shining to Corey and gave him important jobs at the mansion as well as paid […]

Popularity: 18% [?]

Read full story »

Becky: The Life and Loves of Becky Thatcher
By Lenore Hart
Completed May 29, 2008
I must admit that I am a sucker for a good companion novel. Last year, I read Finn by Jon Clinch, which was a story about Huck Finn’s infamous father. My latest read was the feminine side of this group of friends – […]

Popularity: 19% [?]

Read full story »

Songs for the Missing
By Stewart O’Nan
Completed May 25, 2008

I cannot imagine one of my sons disappearing into thin air. The panic, the fear, the anger, the questions – it would be all too much to bear. In Songs for the Missing, Stewart O’Nan tackled this topic head on, and after finishing this page-turner (I finished […]

Popularity: 16% [?]

Read full story »