For years (and years) my favorite Barbara Kingsolver book was The Poisonwood Bible, followed by Prodigal Summer. And then I read Flight Behavior and I believe that I have a new favorite. I have enjoyed everything I’ve ever read by Kingsolver, but there is a timeliness to Flight Behavior that makes it extra special. The story features Dellarobia Turnbow, a slight-statured, red-haired farmwife in rural, western Tennessee. Dellarobia has no family outside the family she’s made with her gentle giant of a husband, Cub, and […]
Yes, we know strip mining is bad. Where did John Grisham go?
I keep waiting for the real Grisham—the author of “The Firm” and “A Time to Kill”—to return, but alas, it looks like I’ll have to keep waiting. Grey Mountain has a somewhat promising beginning, and although main protagonist Samantha is a bore from beginning to end, the plot has potential even if the most interesting character in the book gets killed off much too soon. And while I have total sympathy with Grisham’s theme in this book, the constant preaching and repetition put my teeth […]
That Time Lady Macbeth Went Hunting
Serena is described on the cover as a “retelling of Macbeth in Appalachia” and that is the most accurate five-word description that can be given to this book, except in this version, Lady Macbeth quickly outdistances her husband. George Pemberton is the owner of a timber business in 1929, and he and his new wife Serena seek to dominate and to expand this business by any means, often ruthless, necessary. When Serena discovers she cannot bear children, she turns this same ruthlessness towards Pemberton’s illegitimate […]