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Showing posts from May, 2023

Mothered by Zoje Stage

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  "Mothered" by Zoje Stage Submitted by Heather Groom, Branch Manager for Sullivan Gardens Public Library      I appreciate that smack in the middle of Spring, Zoje Stage has delivered the kind of novel that you only find on the shelves around Halloween. For all the Horror/Suspense genre lovers out there, this book is the equivalent to Christmas in July.     Mother/Daughter relationships are complicated, right? There's a plethora of books in any genre that attest to that fact. Stage makes a delicious concoction of blame, mistrust and paranoia. Then doles it out bite by bite through 300 pages. And listen, you really want to stick around when dessert is served. (A little Hannibal Lector reference for all you Harris fans out there.)     Grace's life has been complicated since the pandemic. She's a hair dresser and has lost her job a mere month after signing a mortgage for her new home. Grace reluctantly decides to let her mother, Jackie, move in to help each other th

Community Board by Tara Conklin

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  Community Board by Tara Conklin Submitted by Heather Groom, Branch Manager for Sullivan Gardens Public Library Tara Conklin brings us a sweet springtime story with her third novel, "Community Board". A year before her 30th birthday, Darcy's husband of 8 years (two months and nine days, to be exact) leaves her for his sky diving instructor. In a matter of moments the safe, predictable world she has lived in crumbles around her as her soon to be ex speeds out of their driveway in his new girlfriend's Prius. So begins Darcy's year of "self imposed isolation and canned food consumption". She flees to her childhood home in Massachusetts only to find that her parents have seemingly abandoned her for the dry heat of Arizona....and they've taken Fred the Fern with them. In response to this perceived abandonment, Darcy hunkers down with her computer and an imagined "Fred" and trolls the community board. In a world where the large majority of us ar