Adult Readers | When Loose Ends Meet

I Never Told You by Bernie Brown

27 Oct 2019 by Jeanne E. Fredriksen

SHOUT OUT! Bernie Brown’s debut novel, I Never Told You, is an emotional mother-daughter story that moves geographically from a small town in Iowa to a competitive art school in Chicago to the glitz and glam of Hollywood in 1965. Anna and her daughter Katya love each other, but there are important parts of their lives they can’t share with each other, moving them apart emotionally as well. The chasm between them deepens, and only tragedy can bring them together. […]

Categories: Adult Readers, Book Reviews, Brief Book Shout-Out • Tags: 1965, coming of age, mother-daughter

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The Poison Garden by A. J. Banner

26 Oct 2019 by Jeanne E. Fredriksen

SHOUT OUT! Damn! I couldn’t put this book down, and it’s A. J. Banner’s fault! Like her previous three domestic psychological thrillers, this newly-published novel is tight and compact. Set on one of the islands of the Pacific Northwest, it has more twists and turns than a mountain road. In under 200 pages, she manages to draw in the reader with a grip that never releases until the last page. If you’re looking for a read that has creepy and […]

Categories: Adult Readers, ARC provided via NetGalley.com, Book Reviews, Brief Book Shout-Out • Tags: domestic thriller, Pacific Northwest, psychological thriller

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Unmarriageable: Pride and Prejudice in Pakistan by Soniah Kamal

11 Jun 2019 by Jeanne E. Fredriksen

SHOUT OUT! I admit it: I’m a sucker for Pride and Prejudice (Austen’s original and all filmed versions, even if a scene or two is thrown in for, um, effect), and my wildest dreams included a novel like Unmarriageable: Pride and Prejudice in Pakistan by Sonial Kamal. I’ve been around South Asian communities for two decades, I’ve written for an Indian magazine for nearly as long, and I love the spectacle and unabashedly larger-than-life qualities of Hindi films. So, when […]

Categories: Adult Readers, Book Reviews, Brief Book Shout-Out • Tags: Jane Austen, life choices, Pakistan, sisterhood

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The Nearest Exit May Be Behind You by Amulya Malladi

10 Jun 2019 by Jeanne E. Fredriksen

SHOUT OUT! Not all of us are in high-profile, cutthroat work environments that fling a person all over the world, leading to an intimacy with worldwide airports, fine hotels, and finer restaurants. However, Asmi Verma is that corporate woman in Amulya Malladi’s eigthth novel, The Nearest Exit May Be Behind You (publishing July 1, 2019). The novel doubles as a working woman’s workbook/pep rally and love story to the strength of women everywhere. Asmi, single and nearly 40 (much to […]

Categories: Adult Readers, Book Reviews • Tags: corporate, leadership, work-life

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Shout Out Review! The Promise Between Us by Barbara Claypole White

9 Jul 2018 by Jeanne E. Fredriksen

A quick review of an wonderfully-exhausting book. During a recent week at the beach, I allowed myself to fall deeply into a world created by five-book-old local author Barbara Claypole White, the self-proclaimed “Mad Brit.” Barbara, a petite and bubbly, gin-loving, red-wine-loving woman who lives a few towns over from me, makes me laugh with her Facebook posts, gives wonderful author visits, conducted one of the best writing workshops I’ve ever taken, and writes beautiful, all-consuming novels that not only […]

Categories: Adult Readers, Brief Book Shout-Out

Hope Nation: YA Authors Share Personal Moments of Inspiration. Brock, Rose (editor).

Hope Nation: YA Authors Share Personal Moments of Inspiration. Rose Brock (editor).

12 Apr 2018 by Jeanne E. Fredriksen

Gr. 9-12 ***Starred Review*** Hope is something many people struggle to understand, much less achieve, and teens are no exception. In this anthology of 21 essays, 1 short story, and 1 conversation, 24 YA authors pour their deepest emotions into a variety of interpretations of hope. Many write about survival in the current political climate. Others address marginalization or speak to being overwhelmed by a variety of internal and external influences. [Read More]

Categories: Adult Readers, Appeared in Booklist/ALA, Book Reviews, Young Adult Readers

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The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey

20 Feb 2018 by Jeanne E. Fredriksen

Mistry Mystery: Solved in New Series • The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey. Soho Crime/Soho Press, Inc.: New York. 400 pages. Hardcover. Also available as a digital book. Sujata Massey, the award-winning author of the Rei Shimura mystery series, The Sleeping Dictionary (IC, Sept. 2014), and India Gray: Historical Fiction (IC, Feb. 2016), debuted a new legal mystery series in January that is certain to please a wide range of readers. Set in 1920s Bombay, the series launched […]

Categories: Adult Readers, Appeared in India Currents Magazine, Book Reviews

A Life of Adventure and Delight by Akhil Sharma

16 Dec 2017 by Jeanne E. Fredriksen

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness • From the award-winning author of An Obedient Father (2001 Hemingway Foundation PEN Award) and Family Life (2014 New York Times Best Books of the Year; 2015 Folio Prize; and 2016 International DUBLIN Literary Award), comes a collection of short stories that entertains and spares no one. In Akhil Sharma’s A Life of Adventure and Delight, eight stories explore the quest for perceptible love, the life and liberty of relationships, and the perpetual […]

Categories: Adult Readers, Appeared in India Currents Magazine, Book Reviews

Murder Between the Lines by Radha Vatsal

11 Sep 2017 by Jeanne E. Fredriksen

Murder Mystery Goes Back 100 Years • It’s 1915, before the United States entered what we now call World War I and became a superpower. Women were cared for by their fathers or husbands, and those who wanted to work were allowed to choose from a handful of socially-acceptable jobs. Women could neither vote nor sit on juries as peers, yet women were speaking out and marching for their rights. It was an exciting time for America as the country […]

Categories: Adult Readers, Appeared in India Currents Magazine, Book Reviews

When Loose Ends Meet

Connecting the frayed ends of reading, writing, and living

Category Archives: Adult Readers

I Never Told You by Bernie Brown

The Poison Garden by A. J. Banner

Unmarriageable: Pride and Prejudice in Pakistan by Soniah Kamal

The Nearest Exit May Be Behind You by Amulya Malladi

Shout Out Review! The Promise Between Us by Barbara Claypole White

Hope Nation: YA Authors Share Personal Moments of Inspiration. Rose Brock (editor).

The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey

A Life of Adventure and Delight by Akhil Sharma

Murder Between the Lines by Radha Vatsal