Novels

Messenger by Michael Polowetzky 80’s?. The central character of this novel is a girl, Pascale Kedari, from a prominent Middle Eastern family, who finds herself cut off from her own country because

The Whole by John Reed 90’s. If malapropisms make you laugh out loud, you will have fun with this book. Thing, the blond hottie and main character, can’t seem to get out a sentence without one. Le

Venice Beach by Emily Gallo 50’s. This is the first in a series of novels that features a Jonestown survivor, Jed. Having already read The Columbarium , the second in the series, I decided to begi

The Columbarium by Emily Gallo late 60’s. As a child, Jed, the fiftyish protagonist, lost his family in the mass suicides and killings at Jonestown in Guyana. One of the few survivors, he ran as fa

Frenemy of the People by Nora Olsen ‘9?. We discover this story of complicated young love through the dueling voices of Clarissa, a popular and successful equestrian who has the sudden realizatio

Maxine Wore Black by Nora Olsen ’93. At nineteen, Jayla, the transgender narrator and protagonist, is propelled into the adult world of love she is anxiously hoping for when she meets Maxine at the

· A Mystery’s No Problem by Lou Rowan(ff) This rollicking novel takes place over the wide expanse of the US – coast to coast - as the hero and narrator (coincidentally named Lou Rowan) seeks to f

The Wakeful Wanderer’s Guide to New New England and Beyond by Jim Infantino ’83. The last book I read before this one was Alas, Babyon , an early (1959) apocalyptic book about the world after a nuc

The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson ff. Sometimes this book seemed to me to be an early twentieth-century translation of a recently unearthed work of Homer. (“. . .hardly did dawn ex

Woman on Top by Deborah Schwartz 60’s Novel. If the title of this book were part of a multiple choice question (say, “What does the title mean?) I think that “all of the above” would be the correct

The Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street by Susan Jane Gilman middle school? Malka (later Lillian) narrates her story, vividly bringing to life the brutal conditions endured by immigrants in the early

End Time by Keith Korman??. Mysterious disappearances, brutal murder, strange, devastating plagues, and visitations from past times pull you in to this scary, wildly inventive adventure where life a

The Long Haul by Amanda Stern 80’s? A college girl falls for a small time rocker, who pulls her into his murky world of alcohol and petty crime. This trip into the fog of booze has its own fascin

The Beginners by Rebecca Wolff (not sure when. I believe she was at Friends for Middle School). The Beginners has all the trappings of a witchy, ghostly Gothic tale. Ginger Pritt, the narrator and

Murder at the Columbarium by Emily Gallo ’67. This is the third novel of Emily’s I have read with Jonestown survivor Jed as the protagonist. Having found a way to go forward as caretaker for this f

Grievous by H. S. Cross mid 80’s ff. Grievance takes place five years after Wilberforce in the same British boarding school, where intrigue and rule-breaking lurk behind the austere and punitive

Second Growth by Joan L. Cannon ’46. Serge Dziminowitcz, the protagonist of this novel has much to overcome in his quest to become a caring and fully realized human being. His abusive, con artist fa

The Man who Could be King: A Novel by John Ripin Miller ’55. This novel is based on the Newburgh Conspiracy, a plot by the Continental Army to instigate a military coup because of the failure of Co

Best intentions by Emily Listfield, ’74. Lisa’s marriage is in trouble. Or maybe it isn’t. We discover with Lisa the tantalizing hints of infidelity and their possible logical explanation. While we

The Angel of Darkness by Caleb Carr. The same team we found in T he Alienist gathers together again to track down a serial baby killer. In The Alienist, the narrator was John Moore, an urbane journa