About Book Marks
Recent Reviews
Kevin Wilson
Rave Seattle Book Review As in Kevin Wilson’s other novels, the book is peopled with indelible, often hilarious, characters, including Frankie’s brothers, who are huge, destructive triplets, and her recently divorced, distracted mother. Wilson renders adolescence perfectly: that intense time of absolute certainty, painful insecurity, and the passionate pursuit of vague, inarticulate dreams. Highly recommended.
Ron Howard and Clint Howard
Positive Manhattan Book Review Their new joint memoir focuses mostly on their early lives and will be of interest to fans of their shows (including Happy Days and numerous films) and of Hollywood in general. Although the writing often tends to tell rather than show (perhaps a fault of the author-editor who \'assisted\'), it is interspersed with more conversational quotes from the brothers that show their own voices and their genuine fondness for each other. Readers are treated to many behind-the-scenes details and insights, along with family photographs that illustrate the book.
Erica Abeel
Pan San Francisco Book Review \"This novel about the women’s movement is billed as a comic satire but I found it to be more of a snide, thinly veiled tale of revenge. Told from at least eight characters’ perspectives—but primarily, from Leora’s—it is laden with name-dropping, gossipy dialogue, and rumination, interspersed with a few slapstick scenes, such as a kayak overturning. Nearly all of the characters are spiteful, disparaging of others, unhappy, and disingenuous, and I found it impossible to root for any of them ... while the fictional \'strike\' succeeds, this novel does not. \
Mark Henick
Positive Portland Book Review Mark Henick vividly and emotionally recounts growing up in a small town off the coast of Nova Scotia ... This important memoir is unique in that it focuses as much attention on how he got better as it does on the drama of his depression and suicidality. Taking one’s one life is inherently dramatic, but most books gloss over what makes a real difference ... It is my hope that this memoir will be read by everyone who loves someone who is struggling so that they can better recognize what is often so difficult to put into words, and also by professionals who need to do a much better job of effectively helping their clients learn the necessary skills ... This much-needed memoir helps us all to recognize the stars and the blackness.
Leslie Brody
Positive San Francisco Book Review ... a thoroughly researched biography ... Brody has not only interviewed all of Fitzhugh’s remaining contemporaries and mined the existent drafts, letters, and papers, but she sets her subject’s life firmly in the context of her times ... A few photographs are included and I could only wish that some of Fitzhugh’s artwork could have been reproduced within these pages.
Meredith Hall
Rave Manhattan Book Review Beneficence is one of the best novels I’ve read all year, the perfect antidote to troubled times, beautifully composed and lyrically told. I cannot recommend it strongly enough.
Graham Swift
Rave The San Francisco Book Review ... slim, elegant ... Every voice in this novel is told masterfully; we \'hear\' what the characters think and say, each distinctive and enjoyable. Any reader who has experienced the theater firsthand will recognize the backstage drama ... Anyone who has attended a magic show will admire how such a performance is rendered here—describing without revealing too much, never giving away the secrets of how the tricks are done.
Jacqueline Woodson
Rave The San Francisco Book Review ...a lyrical novel told from multiple points of view ... These are characters who come to life on the page, each with their unique voice, profoundly connected to family, born and bereft, living and dead. Woodson writes with such rhythms that you will continue to hear their voices echo after you have turned the last page of this slim, rich novel. I marked passage after passage of beautiful writing and am eager to read her other novels and her memoir.