Casey's Reviews

In her first adult novel in over a decade, Julia Alvarez (In the Time of the Butterflies, How the García Girls Lost Their Accents) tells the story of an immigrant writer and recent widow whose life is suddenly filled with uncertainty. Afterlife is a quiet reflection on a lifetime of the things that bring us together and pull us apart from the ones we love. A lovely addition to Alvarez’s work.

Danny and Maeve grow up in a mansion bought by their father for their mother, who finds nothing but emptiness within its walls. When their mother flees and their father remarries, the house becomes a battleground for inheritance and belonging. Once again, Ann Patchett shows us that she is a master in creating multilayered family novels that speak volumes about our need for connection and understanding. This book will sit proudly on my bookshelf amongst my other Ann Patchett novels, each shining new light on her marvelous storytelling skills. - Casey

Jacqueline Woodson is a national treasure. Her books make an impact, not only through her characters but because the act of reading her work is transformative. Her latest adult novel, Red at the Bone, is no exception. Woodson charts the history of one Brooklyn family as they grapple with an unplanned teen pregnancy and the decisions made that impact generations to come. Their family story—how much they are there for each other and for themselves—is a universal story about how we give and receive love. It is beautiful and honest, heartbreaking and poetic, and one of my favorite books of the year. - Casey

The Sweetest Fruits, Monique Truong is a brilliantly fictional retelling of the life of the Greek-Irish writer Lafcadio Hearn told through the stories of the three women, across multiple continents, who changed the direction of his life. This book is the best type of storytelling- one that connects to all senses, through journeys in time and place, and where the decisions and reflections of these women speak to the push and pull of women’s needs throughout time. A creative and beautiful tale. - Casey

Sarah Broom’s memoir of her family in New Orleans—and the house that defined them while it was standing and as it was torn apart during Hurricane Katrina—is a searing portrait of identity, politics, race, and class. The urban history of New Orleans seeps both literally and figuratively through their family’s home and their tale of survival is a powerful story of displacement and connection throughout generations. This book is a must-read biography of our time. - Casey

We are long overdue to have the perspective of women who lived through and impacted important moments in history. Varina, by brilliant Cold Mountain novelist Charles Frazier, aims to give voice to Varina Howell, the wife of Confederate leader Jefferson Davis, during the last days of the Civil War. As we watch her flee both her failing marriage and the bounty on her head, we witness her struggles with complicity and prejudices in the darkest moments in our nation’s history. A great addition to historical fiction.                                          —Casey

On just about every best-of-the-year list in 2018, The Mars Room still never quite got the attention it deserves. Romy—a woman who is serving a life sentence for murder in an all-women’s jail in the Central Valley—tells with total honesty, surprising humor and gritty reality, the fate of women who have never gotten a fair shake in life. Incarceration, abuse, and justice are just a small sample of the important issues addressed in this novel, but it is Romy’s voice and her tenderness that leave you breathless as you witness her plight.                            —Casey

Julia Phillips is an author to watch. She beautifully transports us to a region of the world, the Kamchatka Peninsula in Northern Russia, that I had never heard of and now can’t stop thinking about. The stories of the women there—their family dynamics, their hopes and fears, the economic and cultural divide of various communities—are not only about this place but ultimately about the universal struggle women have in determining how to live with the expectations placed on them as women. A remarkable debut. - Casey