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Recent Reviews
Patricia Lockwood
Positive The Kansas City Star What’s glorious in her writing has little to do with her father and everything to do with her fascinating mother and the way Lockwood’s relationship with her matures ... This book shines brightest not when Lockwood is parsing through hurtful or odd interactions with her father, but when she dramatizes scenes with her mother or sisters.
Gary Taubes
Rave The Kansas City Star ...his evidence is extremely well-researched and compelling, and even the most skeptical reader would find it hard to entirely dismiss his findings, most of which go beyond what we’re already familiar with ... The author does well to steer clear of dogma and recognizes that he’s presenting others’ often inconclusive research as well as his own 'unscientific' observations. And that’s OK. We’re in the midst of an epidemic, and few people are equipped to carry out the extensive digging and compiling Taubes has done ... The Case Against Sugar will make you rethink what you buy, eat and feed your family. It also might help you drop a few pounds.
Margot Livesy
Positive The Kansas City Star Livesey doesn’t force answers to these questions. Rather, she presents them to readers as keys to unlocking the mettle-testing cages she builds around her characters. Mercury is a page-turner, but the aftertaste smacks of sadness and uncertainty, with just a shred of hope that an equilibrium might be reached between ambition and family.
Margot Livesy
Positive The Chicago Review of Books The author doesn’t force answers to these questions, rather presents them to readers as keys to unlocking the mettle-testing cages she builds around her characters. The strain of the ethical and moral dilemmas rips at Donald and Viv’s marriage until it’s in pieces. But Livesey’s use of these difficult, open-ended questions corrals readers to ask themselves if they’d fare any better ... Mercury is a page-turner, but the aftertaste smacks of sadness and uncertainty, with just a shred of hope that an equilibrium might be reached between ambition and family.
Candice Millard
Rave The Chicago Review of Books Through meticulous research of primary sources she crafts historically accurate dramatic scenes that fill the senses. It’s impossible not to feel the claustrophobia of capture when Churchill’s detained in a corrugated-iron shed ... Millard has no shortage of strengths as a writer, but particularly spectacular is her ability to make history and historical figures not only relatable, but absolutely relevant to contemporary readers.
Anna Quindlen
Positive Kansas City Star Quindlen rocks the reader into a comfortable place with the steady ebb and flow of everyday events — but the more comfortable you get, the more you should pay attention to what’s afoot...Miller’s Valley, like many of Quindlen’s novels — with the exception of the soul-jarring Every Last One — isn’t full of drama. Rather, it’s a portrait of what it is to live and age, fueled by insight into the human condition.