“Solemn.” That is the word I would use to describe the way I felt reading “Benediction” (2013), Kent Haruf’s newest novel. “Respectful,” I would call myself, of the close look he allows into the private lives of ordinary people. In his fifth novel, the acclaimed author once again displays the unique writing style readers...
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When Julian Barnes’ elegantly crafted novel, “The Sense of an Ending,” won England’s 2011 Man Booker Prize, I vowed to read it immediately. Yet that little book with its puzzling title by an author I’d not yet read simply remained on my list. I now see I’ve been missing something special. The narration of...
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Hundreds of thousands of people have already read Gillian Flynn’s breakout suspense novel “Gone Girl” (2012), the story of a husband who becomes suspect when his beautiful, brilliant but high-strung wife disappears. Though I normally don’t go for thrillers, I picked it up, being intrigued by the success of a book that shares both...
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The achingly beautiful debut novel of Australian-born M. L. (Margot) Stedman deserves all the attention it is getting from critics and readers. The idea for the story, Stedman tells interviewers, began with a picture she had in her mind of a lighthouse in the ocean off the coast of her homeland with a man...
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National Book Award winner Julia Glass’s fourth novel, “The Widower’s Tale” (2010), is a perfect choice for readers looking for a good, old-fashioned, plot-driven novel. Don’t get me wrong, though. There is nothing out-of-date about the dynamic, messy world Glass pulls readers into. She has said in an NPR interview, “I see life as...
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I am in awe of what Debra Dean has accomplished in her stunning first novel, “The Madonnas of Leningrad” (2006). The narrative pulled me in immediately as it wove around the issues of war, starvation, art, beauty, memory loss and hope in the life of one woman. Dean blends two separate times in Russian-born...
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Cheryl Strayed’s 2012 memoir, “Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail,” received the coveted blessing of Oprah’s new Book Club 2.0 and, with it, a guarantee of a huge readership. Oprah’s faithful fans will appreciate this story of a young woman’s journey to find meaning and growth. On the other hand, long-distance...
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If England’s Man Booker Prize were picked like our American Idol, I would beg you to text, go online or call in your vote for the flawless first novel of Rachel Joyce, “The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry.” I found this book on the longlist of contenders for this year’s coveted prize. It is...
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Irish writer Sebastian Barry dug into his own family history to bring readers a wise and kind-hearted protagonist in the novel “On Canaan’s Side” (2011). Lilly, the 89-year-old narrator is based on his great-aunt and is the sister of two characters who have appeared in his earlier works. As the story opens, Lilly has...
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In 1964 when Bob Dylan released, “The Times They Are a-Changin’,” he’d been touring the country and wrote about the grassroots movement he perceived. At the time, Gail Collins, now the witty New York Times columnist, was in college and would have had no idea how thunderous the changes in the American culture would...
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