About Book Marks
Recent Reviews
Attica Locke
Rave BookPage Many mystery fans are willing to overlook hackneyed turns of phrase and oft-used literary tropes for a walloping plot. But with Locke, there’s no need. Her language is precise, refreshing and often beautiful.
Pamela Prickett, Stefan Timmermans
Rave BookPage Groundbreaking ... A gripping and compassionate account that leaves us with a feeling of social and personal responsibility for our kin, our community and ourselves.
Jesmyn Ward
Rave BookPage Brings Ward’s intimate knowledge of place to the pre-Civil War South, where her captivating narrator, teenage girl Annis, is enslaved ... Vivid observations and poetic interpretations.
Kendra Decolo
Rave Nashville Scene I Am Not Trying to Hide My Hungers From the World...rejects the usual tropes of mothering. In their place, she molds a more honest representation of the mother—one that is defiant, joyful and feminist ... The collection is rich with imagery ... DeColo is a master at building tension and tricking you down a path you didn’t agree to follow. It’s rollicking good fun, but the crest of the wave in this collection is the title poem, in which she describes first being aware of her pregnancy as she climbed through the mountains.
Jenny Offill
Positive Chapter 16 ... equal parts humor and dread. At the crux of the book is an emotional landscape that is rich and verdant but surrounded by a desolate, burning world ... In its first half, the novel feels meandering. Scenes are short and unconventional. It takes sharp attention to infer where Lizzie is, to whom she is speaking, and how the scene connects to one earlier in the book. Often, the narrator’s thoughts don’t seem to connect. But this style rewards patience: If you’re content to ponder Lizzie’s philosophical queries and make the most of her observations, you’ll be rewarded with a joyful sense of slowing down. Weather asks us observe our own thought processes in our daily lives. The pacing picks up in the second half ... The novel seems an answer to Rebecca Solnit’s 2004 book of nonfiction Hope in the Dark ... Weather takes the broad historical strokes of Hope and shrinks them to the size of a woman’s life in her neighborhood.
Jenny Offill
Rave Nashville Scene In its first half, the novel feels meandering. Scenes are short and unconventional. It takes sharp attention to infer where Lizzie is, to whom she is speaking and how the scene connects to one earlier in the book. Often the narrator’s thoughts don’t seem to connect. But this style rewards patience: If you’re content to ponder Lizzie’s philosophical queries and make the most of her observations, you’ll be rewarded with a joyful sense of slowing down. Weather asks us observe our own thought processes in our daily lives.
Chanelle Benz
Positive Chapter 16 You can easily read The Gone Dead in a weekend, and you likely will. It grabs hold early with truly compelling characters and a central mystery, and it sets off at a brisk pace ... Benz...dispenses with the regular signposts of Southern fiction — slamming screen doors, cicadas, sweet tea — in favor of refreshing, original imagery. Billie’s South is gritty ... Benz uses small details, keenly observed by Billie, to warn us that trouble is afoot ... The Gone Dead is above all a blues novel. Even the protagonist’s name — Billie James — reminds us of the blues. But it’s also an arresting whodunit, a portrait of an American family, and a Southern narrative that won’t let the past go.
Bridgett M, Davis
Positive Nashville Scene \"... compelling ... the book is not academic in tone. Davis’ account of her mother’s life and business is first and foremost a loving memoir ... The World According to Fannie Davis is an inspiring tale of love, loyalty and prosperity against all odds.\
Elizabeth McCracken
Rave Nashville Scene \"... enchanting ... When you think you’ve got a handle on this novel, McCracken shakes it up ... A less skilled or confident writer wouldn’t dare kill her heroine off at the end of the first act, but McCracken is no ordinary writer, and Bertha’s presence is keenly felt for the rest of the novel, which spans about 60 years ... McCracken’s prose is a dance. Sometimes it’s ecstatic — the words seem to leap from each other in the most unpredictable moves ... McCracken’s prose is striking in its originality, but once you’re accustomed to it, you can’t remember reading anything else. It’s the kind of writing that has the ability to alter the language of your dreams ... It’s impossible not to fall under McCracken’s spell. Bowlaway is a rare treasure, a perfect and precious gift.\
Jacqueline Woodson
Rave The Nashville Scene ...a lyrical testament to childhood, pulsating with emotions that often feel beyond language. Woodson has a genius for meeting readers exactly where they are, taking a hand and leading them through a fully realized world ... Woodson’s lyricism will fool you into thinking you are reading a poem, but there’s a story here as well, an arc that is as familiar as childhood itself and just as surprising and heartbreaking.