Casey's Reviews

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

Two Irish families, living side by side in suburban New York, are tied by the similarities of their path into the neighborhood and by a tragic event of a single night that reverberates across multiple generations for decades. Mary Beth Keane paints a subtle portrait of families dealing with mental health issues and long-held secrets, and the desire for connection across those divides. The result is a deeply felt and immersive novel, one that ties you not only to the characters but ultimately to their lessons for life. Perfect for fans of Ann Patchett and Celeste Ng and one of my favorite reads this year. - Casey

Seeing few examples in literature, Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love; The Signature of All Things) set out to write a book about promiscuous girls “whose lives are not destroyed by their sexual desires.” Meet Vivian Morris, a naïve 19-year-old, dropped into the middle of the New York City theater scene in the 1940s. The drama, energy, and spirit of the city weaves into the unfolding of her identity. You’ll never forget this cast of characters or the ways in which Vivian struggles to claim her life as her own. This will be one of the most talked-about, big-hearted, immersive novels of summer. - Casey

Don’t miss our event with Elizabeth Gilbert on June 12th at the Rio Theatre!

In a remote Mennonite community in the late 2000's, more than 100 girls and women were sexually assaulted as they were drugged at night, and then told that it was demons who visited them instead of the real culprits—the men of the colony. Miriam Toews takes real life events and creates a fictional world in which the women—uneducated and without decision-making power—come together over two nights to decide whether to fight or flee in order to save themselves and their daughters. In quiet desperation, these women discuss philosophy, faith, relationships and their needs, and ultimately reclaim their agency as individuals and their role in a community of women. This is a book you will never forget. - Casey

Early reviews dubbed Candice Carty-Williams' fierce debut as a "black Bridget Jones Diary" which speaks to the book's unparalleled humor, raw look at relationships and sex, and the chronicling of the ups and downs of single women today. However, this book is so much more. It is one of the most honest looks at race while dating, sexual norms of men vs. women and the navigation of relationships carrying the weight of abuse and societal norms that I've ever read. This is one you'll pass to all your friends and then stay up long into the night talking about how Queenie changed your thinking about life and love.  - Casey

Shapiro tells the story of her surprise ancestry test that revealed that her father is not her biological father and therefore her identity, especially being raised deeply connected to Judaism, may not be as defining as she had believed. This book moved me as it dove deep into belonging, identity, family secrets, parenting, and the ties that bind in our ever-connected world. - Casey

When I think of who we need to make sense of the challenges facing our democracy, the preeminent presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin is at the top of my list. Chronicling the leadership of her best-studied subjects—Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Lyndon Johnson—Goodwin masterfully details the commonalities that linked their leadership even with their widely differing upbringings and challenges. Ultimately, Goodwin showcases the moral purpose and resilience necessary to shepherd our nation forward. - Casey

Hosseini, beloved author of the The Kite Runner, has helped lead the movement to bring awareness about refugees around the world. Here he has penned a gorgeous and harrowing letter from a father to his child as they wait for a journey across the sea to flee persecution and war. Beautifully illustrated by Dan Williams, Sea Prayer gives poetic voice to a generation of refugees whose sole wish is for their children to find safe passage, able to remember the beauty of their homeland before all was lost. Let us all bear witness through this book. - Casey