About the Book: In Strasbourg, in the boiling hot summer of 1518, a plague strikes the women of the city. First it is just one - a lone figure, dancing in the town square - but she is joined by more and more and the city authorities declare an emergency. Musicians will be brought in. … Continue reading Book Review: The Dance Tree by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
Literary Fiction
Book Review: Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
About the Book: In 1912, eighteen-year-old Edwin St. Andrew crosses the Atlantic, exiled from English polite society. In British Columbia, he enters the forest, spellbound by the beauty of the Canadian wilderness, and for a split second all is darkness, the notes of a violin echoing unnaturally through the air. The experience shocks him to … Continue reading Book Review: Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
Book Review: The Rat Catcher by Kim Kelly
About the Book: In the sweltering summer of 1900, young wharf labourer Patrick O’Reilly is down on his luck in the slums of Sydney and homesick for Tralee. When a deadly outbreak of plague descends on the city, O’Reilly’s daydreaming mind is miles away – in the golden hair and kindly, confident air of a … Continue reading Book Review: The Rat Catcher by Kim Kelly
Book Review: Home and Other Hiding Places by Jack Ellis
About the Book: When eight-year-old Fin and his mum Lindy travel to spend Christmas with his Gran in Sydney, Fin assumes they’ll return to their isolated country property – the only home he’s ever known. But he soon discovers that this large and crumbling riverside house, surrounded by bush and unwelcoming neighbours, is his home … Continue reading Book Review: Home and Other Hiding Places by Jack Ellis
Book Review: French Braid by Anne Tyler
About the Book: The major new novel from the beloved prize-winning author -- a brilliantly perceptive, painfully true, and funny journey deep into one family's foibles, from the 1950s right up to the changed world of today. When the kids are grown and Mercy Garrett gradually moves herself out of the family home, everyone is … Continue reading Book Review: French Braid by Anne Tyler
Book Review: The Dictator’s Wife by Freya Berry
About the Book: A dictator's wife, overthrown and awaiting trial, pleads her case to a young female lawyer, while also drawing her into a tangled web of lies and dark, dangerous secrets. This dazzling and devastating debut is a Lead Launch for Headline Review for Spring 2021. WOMAN I learned early in life how to … Continue reading Book Review: The Dictator’s Wife by Freya Berry
Book Review: All’s Well by Mona Awad
About the Book: Miranda Fitch’s life is a waking nightmare. The accident that ended her burgeoning acting career left her with excruciating, chronic back pain, a failed marriage, and a deepening dependence on painkillers. And now she’s on the verge of losing her job as a college theater director. Determined to put on Shakespeare’s All’s … Continue reading Book Review: All’s Well by Mona Awad
Book Review: Violeta by Isabel Allende
About the Book: One extraordinary woman. One hundred years of history. One unforgettable story. Violeta comes into the world on a stormy day in 1920, the first daughter in a family of five boisterous sons. From the start, her life is marked by extraordinary events. The ripples of the Great War are still being felt, … Continue reading Book Review: Violeta by Isabel Allende
Book Review: Loveland by Robert Lukins
About the Book: Two women stand in the shallows, a man dead at their feet, while around them buildings burn. Amid the ruins of a fire-ravaged amusement park and destroyed waterfront dwellings, one boarded-up building still stands. May has come from Australia to Loveland, Nebraska, to claim the house on the poisoned lake as part … Continue reading Book Review: Loveland by Robert Lukins
Book Review: The Islands by Emily Brugman
About the Book: In the mid-1950s, a small group of Finnish migrants set up camp on Little Rat, a tiny island in an archipelago off the coast of Western Australia. The crayfishing industry is in its infancy, and the islands, haunted though they are by past shipwrecks, possess an indefinable allure. Drawn here by tragedy, … Continue reading Book Review: The Islands by Emily Brugman
Theresa Smith Writes 