The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store By James McBride

 

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

By James McBride

4 stars.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

Image
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara This is a beautifully written and thoughtful exploration of friendship, love, and loss, and how the trauma of youth never really leaves you. I'm unsure why the author has received so much backlash for the writing of this story, which I see myself reflected in so much. Never did I feel manipulated into feeling a particular way; isn't that what fiction writing is supposed to do anyway? There is also the matter of readers having such strong reactions to this book, some having cried and others revulsed by the graphic depictions of violence. In full disclosure, I only felt visceral reactions twice while reading A Little Life : the first with the scene of violence with Caleb, which I admit was difficult to get through; the second the end of the story where we find out what happened to Jude, but more than what happened to him, Harold's feelings about it, especially on the last two pages. I felt deeply in touch with this book, as if my own experie...
Read more

The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena

Image
The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena In a way I'm glad I read this book after A Stranger in the House , Lapena's second book. That book was not a highlight of my reading year thus far. Going into The Couple Next Door , my expectations were low, so I was pleasantly surprised to have been entirely engaged with the story. Though the writing was the same third person-present tense format, this time around the style worked far better for me. The Couple Next Door is about a young couple whose baby is kidnapped while they are next door at a dinner party. Both parents are to blame for leaving the baby unattended, even though they check on her every half hour throughout the night. As the crime is investigated, they are both under suspicion. The mother, Anne, has a condition she has kept hidden from her husband. Could she have killed the baby without remembering she had done it, and did her husband dispose of the body to cover for her? Did the husband, Marco, fake a kidnapping in order ...
Read more