msmichaela's reviews
522 reviews

I love Catherine Newman’s nonfiction, but her fiction to me feels a bit weaker—in part because it feels like such thinly veiled auto fiction. The protagonist of this novel, for instance, feels about her adult children exactly the way Newman had written about hers; same with her parents and husband. It’s only the plot details that (presumably) diverge from real life. 

I don’t know that I would recommend reading this 10 days before taking your only child to college—though if you’re looking for catharsis, it certainly did the trick. Kelly is a warm, generous, emotionally intelligent companion, even if the memoir is at least as much about her career as a foreign correspondent as it is an account of a single year in her family’s life. I wanted more of the latter, but was happy enough with what Kelly shared about love and grief and community. 

The most unlikeable protagonist in recent memory! The novel is unrelentingly grim as Kuang traces the all-too-believable path a third-tier white female writer takes after her much more successful Korean frenemy dies suddenly. The plot is a little overwrought at times, but it packs a punch. 

Jenn Romolini and I are the same age, from similar backgrounds and work in related fields (she was far more successful, at least by external measures). When I tell you I gobbled up this memoir… she is a sparkling, evocative writer, and her take on the role of over-work as an avoidance of feelings was nuanced and compelling. 

Wholly original and unexpectedly captivating. 

Whew. The deep sadness of this novel almost made me stop reading, but I’m really glad I stuck it out. 

The chemistry was hot. But I find it incredibly hard to believe that

private equity bros turn out to be the heros and a woman in STEM is the villain.

Just deeply, ridiculously unlikely. 

Absorbing novel of a WASPy Cape Cod family simultaneously falling apart and piecing itself back together. It’s not a huge page turner—it’s more literary than that—but I read it in a lazy summer day nonetheless. 

Just a perfect romance. I love the way Jasmine Guillory writes sex scene — no dumb euphemisms or tortured metaphors. 

This is not my usual genre, but CROOK MANIFESTO is an entertaining look at crime, race, politics and business in 1970s New York. A good vacation read.