Karen Ackland, Book Reviewer

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Book Review

Fling!

by Karen Ackland

A spirited mother-daughter road trip to Mexico takes a turn for the humorous when long-dead relatives start showing up. "Fling!", Lily Iona Mackenzie’s debut novel, is a romp from Canada to Mexico that includes long-lost relatives,... Read More

Book Review

Marvel and a Wonder

by Karen Ackland

Meno has written a book that honors the values of old men and exposes their prejudices, where the young transcend their apathy to claim a fractured future. "Marvel and a Wonder", the compelling new novel by Joe Meno, is a... Read More

Book Review

Drought

by Karen Ackland

Through the narrator’s oral history, this novel examines the forces that cause a young sharecropper to take his own life. "Drought", a novel by Ronald Fraser, revolves around the suicide of a young sharecropper living in rural Spain... Read More

Book Review

Plus One

by Karen Ackland

"Plus One" provides a comic view of Hollywood excesses, but at its heart is a family reclaiming what’s important. Christopher Noxon’s "Plus One" describes a family struck by sudden good fortune in Hollywood. It’s a laugh-out-loud,... Read More

Book Review

The Cottoncrest Curse

by Karen Ackland

Racial prejudice drives the action of this historical novel. In "The Cottoncrest Curse", the debut novel by Michael H. Rubin, an old family curse explains a murder-suicide on a Louisiana sugarcane plantation. The official explanation... Read More

Book Review

Wildfire

by Karen Ackland

Detailed depictions of firefighting provide a context for gender inequality in physically demanding careers. Mary Pauline Lowry’s novel "Wildfire" provides an insider view into the world of the Pike Interagency Hotshots. Lowry, who... Read More

Book Review

Undermining

by Karen Ackland

A visual narrative of photographs accompanies an inquisitive written narrative to show the link between rural and urban landscapes. Who has the right to decide how land in the Southwest is used? Homeowners or developers, Native Americans... Read More

Book Review

Spheres of Disturbance

by Karen Ackland

With compassion, Schutzer shares a quirky story, balanced in its humor and solemnity. A pregnant potbellied pig and a dying woman are at the heart of this novel about birth, death, and the power of love. Amy Schutzer’s whimsical... Read More

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