Book Reviews—Themes by Month
 Every month we seek out books that work together thematically. You'll find a variety of themes—some fun, some serious, but all of them thoughtful.
The books are listed in the order of: |
| 2015 BookReviews — Themes | . . . and the Books | |
|
June '15 — The Sibs
Brothers and sisters make for some of our most intimate life relationships. Undergirding the rivalries, jealousies and suspicions, is a shared history and often deep, abiding love. |
• A Reunion of Ghosts • Early Warning • The Children's Crusade |
|
|
Apr '15 — Stranger Than Fiction
Real-life events and personalities in this month's nonfiction works are far stranger than can be found in most novels. When it comes to the incredible, history trumps fiction...easily. |
• Dead Wake • Little Demon in the City of Light • A Spy Among Friends |
|
|
Mar '15 — The Western, 21st-century style
The Westerns of yore—cowboys, Indians, and stagecoach robbers— have given way to far more nuanced stories. The vast spaces and endless skies are the same, but characters struggle with complex issues of love, memory, and redemption |
• Etta and Otto and Russell and James • Black River • All the Pretty Horses (coming soon) |
|
|
Feb '15 — We Are All Looking for Ourselves
Three wonderful books with characters in search of themselves—arguably literature's most enudring theme.. |
• We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves • We Are Not Ourselves • We Are Pirates |
|
|
Jan '15 — Stuck
It's easy to get stuck—in a dull job, untenable relationship, or humdrum life. But this month we follow three men, often with hilarity, who find themselves stuck in unimaginable situations. |
• The Global War on Morris • The Martian • Catch-22 |
|
| 2014 Book Reviews — Themes | . . . and the Books | |
|
Dec '14 — Women Unboxed
This month's books look at three women who defy convention and tackle careers traditionally reserved for those with the Y chromosome. These are women who think—and live—outside the box. |
• Wildfire • The Signature of All Things • The Spy Who Loved: Christine Granville |
|
|
Nov '14 — End times
Three remarkable books offer glimpses into end times: one imagines the end of civilization; another examines medicine and the end of life; and a third considers ... well, it's hard to say. |
• Station Eleven • Being Mortal: ...What Matters in the End • 10:04 |
|
|
Oct '14 — Strangers in Their Own Land
This month's book take a look those who through racism, misogyny, or maltreatment are excluded from the full rights and comforts of their own culture. They're aliens in their own land. |
• Mountaintop School for Dogs • Hidden Girls of Kabul • Invisible Man |
|
|
Sept '14 — Hell's a Kitchen
Conditions are brutal in restaurant kitchens. So what keeps chefs and cooks standing for 12-hour stretches, non-stop, in 110-degree heat? Find out. |
• Delancey • Sous Chef • Kitchen Confidential |
|
|
Aug '14 — Grumpy Old Men
Three books in which older men have reached the age where more of life lies behind them then ahead. Still, maybe it's not too late to start living large. |
• A Man Called Ove • The Unlikley Pilgrimage of Harold Fry • The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window |
|
|
June / July '14 — The Bawdy Politic
A double standard has long existed when it comes to the feminine body. The daring heroines of this month's books fight that standard in ways that even today we find troublesome. But what's a girl to do? |
• The Wife, the Mistress, and the Maid • Belle Cora • Moll Flanders |
|
|
May '14 — Women and the Bomb
This month's theme was inspired by two recent books on women and the Manhattan Project—fiction and history. Then we added a 2005 biography on Madame Curie, who helped usher in the nuclear age. |
• The Los Alamos Wives • Girls of Atomic City • Obsessive Genius: Marie Curie |
|
|
Mar '14 — War Lines: at the front and behind
Extraordinary books continue to be written about the Mideast wars, and despite the lack of media coverage, we believe they're essential. They cover those on the front lines and those behind the lines. |
• Thank Your For Your Service • Redeployment • Duty: Robert M. Gates |
|
|
Feb '14 — Marriage: For better or for . . .
For worse? If Gone Girl gave you a thrill, these books centered on spooky marriages will too. The fun is in not knowing who's nuts—is it he or she? |
• Before I Met You • Before I Go to Sleep • Rebecca |
|
|
Jan '14 — The Cinder-Fella Complex
Young boys, bereft of parents, struggle to find love, belief in themselves, and maturity—in a hard-knock world that works against them. |
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone • The Goldfinch • David Copperfield |
|
| 2013 Book Reviews — Themes | . . . and the Books | |
|
Nov '13 — LOL Books
Yes, we're laughing out loud. Sometimes it feels good to take a break from all the heavy lifiting. Each of this month's books is a humorous take on a particular slice of life. |
• The Rosie Project • Truth in Advertising • Me Talk Pretty One Day |
|
|
Oct '13 — The JFK Assassination: 50 years
Three books on the death of the president: one, a portrait of Kennedy and Oswald; one fiction, and one challenging the lone gunman theory. |
• Killing Kennedy • 11/22/63 • Conspiracy |
|
|
Sept '13 — D.C. Dysfunction...was it always so?
Given the state of the nation's capital, this month's books take a good look at the ins and outs of life as it is—and was—in the District of Columbia. |
• This Town: Two Parties and a Funeral • Gore Vidal's Lincoln and/or Team of Rivals • Advise and Consent |
|
|
Aug '13 — Scott & Zelda, Beautiful & Damned
America's first Jazz-Age couple. Fitzgerald's famous Flapper girl stories, inspired by Zelda; a fictional bio of Zelda; and The Great Gatsby, a love story paralleling Scott's deep attachment to his wife. |
• The Gatsby Girls: Stories • Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald • The Great Gatsby |
|
|
June '13 — The Power of Perfume
Three books explore the age-long hold that exotic scent has over the human imagination—it's power to evoke memory, elicit passion, and inspire crime. Two works of fiction and one nonfiction. |
• The Perfume Collector • The Book of Lost Fragrances • The Emperor of Scent |
|
|
May '13 — Class Conscious / Class Conscience
We like to think of ourselves as a "classless" society. But as this month's books show, socio-economic divisions are part of our history and still with us today. |
• Seating Arrangements • The Accursed • The House of Mirth |
|
|
Apr '13 — The Process of Becoming
Young women who withstand hardship, in both body and soul, as they struggle to become the person they know they're meant to be. |
• With or Without You • An Unquenchable Thirst • Jane Eyre |
|
|
Feb '13 — Mystery Meet
What makes people fall in and out of love, hurt those closest to them, even commit murder? And how is justice best served? Questions our three mystery books ponder. |
• Gone Girl • Faithful Place • And Then There Were None |
|
|
Jan '13 — Family Matters
What makes a family? This month we consider three books with different ideas of what constitutes family. |
• The Death of Bees • Arcadia • Little Women |
|
| 2012 Book Reviews — Themes | . . . and the Books | |
|
Dec '12 — War
Three books about the brutality, randomness, and absurdity of war—and the impossibility for civilians to ever comprehend combat. |
• Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk • The Yellow Birds • Slaughterhouse-Five |
|
|
Nov '12 — The Age of Edith
We've been through "The Age of Jane"; now it's Edith's turn. We feature a fictionalized biography of Edith Wharton, a re-make of her masterpiece, and the masterpiece itself. |
• Innocents • The Age of Desire • The Age of Innocence |
|
|
Oct '12 — Quests: Personal & Epic
This month's books are about quests—one to find love, one to answer to a desperate question, and one to rid the world of evil. Ultimately, though, all quests are about the search for Self. |
• Coral Glynn • A Partial History of Lost Causes • The Lord of the Rings |
|
|
Sept '12 — The Ways of Grief
Grief—the most painful and universal of emotions but experienced in profoundly different ways. Two recent novels and Shakespere's greatest drama explore how those left behind cope with loss. |
• The After Wife • The World Without You • Hamlet, Prince of Denmark |
|
|
August '12 — Hollywood, vanity of vanities
We take aim at the self-consuming, self-important world of Hollywood. Yet all three books remind us it's our wider culture that drives Hollywood's vanity. |
• The Next Best Thing • Beautiful Ruins • The Last Tycoon |
|
|
June '12 — River Journeys
Authors often use rivers to represent life's passage —and journeys on rivers to explore mysteries of the human soul. |
• Once Upon a River • State of Wonder • Heart of Darkness |
|
|
May '12 — Good Books, Tough Subjects
Some books tackle difficult, painful subjects but do so with exceptional prose, wit and, most of all, compassion. They make for compelling reading. |
• The Fault in Our Stars • The Orphan Master's Son • Lolita |
|
|
Mar '12 —Pride & Prejudice, Murder & Mayhem
Pure fun. Start with Austen's original...then turn to either P.D. James's mystery...or Graham-Smith's zombie send-up. Have fun comparing the homage to the "homagee." Oh! 'Tis too much joy. |
• Death Comes to Pemberley • Pride & Prejudice & Zombies • Pride & Prejudice |
|
|
Feb '12 — Baseball, the Art of Perfection
In the eyes of literature, baseball is life—the heroic individual standing against forces both within and out. Three books pit players' drive for perfection against their own human frailties. |
• The Batboy • The Art of Fielding • The Natural |
|
|
Jan '12 — The Past Is Never Past
As Faulkner put: "The past is never dead. It's not even past." This month's characters are haunted by events of their childhoods. To move on, each must achieve understanding and let go. |
• The Language of Flowers • The Cat's Table • Death of a Salesman |
|
2011 Book Reviews — Themes |
. . . and the Books |
||
|
Dec '11 — Kids Raising Cain
Kids on the loose, their compasses askew—"fierce savages" as one of our books puts it. All of which makes you wonder: how did they get like this? Did we do it? |
• LIE • Nightwoods • Lord of the Flies |
||
|
Nov '11 — Nuclear Family Explosions
Ordinary families explode under pressure from everyday life. Yet their struggles to put the pieces back together is a tacit acknowledgment of our primal need for family ties. |
• Fathermucker • The Astral • Freedom |
||
|
Oct '11 — Love You To Death
Vampires don't die...and neither, it seems, does our fascination with them. So why not cozy up to our trio of scary vampire books this month? |
• Twilight • The Radleys • Dracula |
||
|
Sept '11 — That New York Glitter
Three books with characters on the outside looking in at New York's glittering society. They discover life's sad maxim—all that glitters is not gold. |
• Rules of Civility • The Emperor's Children • The Age of Innocence |
||
|
Aug '11 — The Books of August
August, the last gasp of summer—when temper- atures run high and emotions run hot. We've got three great reads, all with August in the title. |
|||
|
July '11 — Eastward Ho
Many authors have explored the cultural divide faced by Asians making their homes in the West. We're bucking the tide to find out what happens when Westerners head to the East. |
• City of Tranquil Light |
||
|
June '11 — Crash of the Titans
So many books have been published about the 2008 Wall Street crash that book clubs might want to take note. We've chosen three—all great reads, like the best of fiction. |
• The Big Short |
||
|
May '11 — Ghostworld
Authors use the paranormal to explore the normal— their earthbound human characters who turn out not to be so normal after all. |
|||
|
Feb '11 — Stranger than Fiction
When it comes to history—especially the history of human achievement—what constitutes real life is simply stranger than fiction. |
• The Professor and the Madman |
||
|
Jan '11 — Sisters in Exile
Sisters banished from lives of comfort and security find unknown reserves of strength and courage in adversity. They discover who they are—and learn what matters most. |
• The Three Weissmanns of Westport |
|
2010 Book Reviews — Themes |
. . . and the Books |
|
|
Dec '10 — Time's (Crooked) Arrow
Time appears to us as a steady forward movement. This month's books disrupt its normal flow—and two of the books do curioius things with aging. |
• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button |
|
|
Nov '10 — Rock-Paper-Scissors
ROCK for the fossils at Lyme Regis, PAPER for an international newspaper, and SCISSORS for the medical profession satirized in Sinclair Lewis's Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel. |
||
|
Oct '10 — Work, If You Can Get It
A tribute to everyday heroes who labor in the underbelly—the infernos of restaurant kitchens, coal mines, and assembly lines—to make life habitable for the rest of us. |
• Last Night at the Lobster |
|
|
Sept'10 — Tudor History - Herstory
The momentous events surrounding Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn: three books follow the same figures...yet a hero in one is a villain in another. Who says history is dull? |
||
|
May '10 — The Good, Bad & the Ugly
A nod to the iconic Clint Eastwood Western—with it's stark mix of heroes and villains. This month's books remind us it's not always so easy to tell who's good...and who's not. |
• The Pursuit of Alice Thrift |
|
|
April '10 — Urban Mysterioso
Cities lend themselves to the mysterious—their immensity, anonymity, and teeming diversity make them ideal settings for the fantastic. |
||
|
Mar '10 — M is for Magic
Despite our knowledge of science—from the big bang to the human cell—we continue to strain to the possibilibies of magic. |
||
|
Feb '10 — True Grit
Three real-life Americans who helped shaped their country—courageous, persevering, inventive, they found ways to do what needed to be done. |
• Half Broke Horses |
|
|
Jan '10 — Coming of Age
Young people, crossing over the threshold into the adult world, often find that passage bittersweet, even searing, as they leave their innocent childhoods behind. |
|
2009 Book Reviews — Themes |
. . . and the Books |
|
|
Dec '09 — Domestic Disturbances
Marital bliss—a bumpy road toward a dubious destination. A sustaining marriage depends not on the ignorance of bliss but on self-knowledge. |
• The Motion of the Ocean |
|
|
Nov '09 — Criminally Addicted
Murder mysteries offer a strange sort of comfort by presupposing a world that can be known, answers found, and order restored. No wonder so many of us are addicted. |
• The Stephanie Plum Series |
|
|
Oct '09 — Those Who Teach...Must
Teaching is in the DNA for some. It's a passion—a need, really, to offer young minds a glimpse of a wider world and guide them through the first rumblings of self-knowledge. |
• Ms. Hempel Chronicles |
|
|
Sept '09 — Henry's Ladies
Henry James' most famous heroines are wealthy, young Americans—vibrant, intelligent yet untested innocents, who find themselves up against a rigid, even duplicitous society. |
||
|
Aug '09 — Municipal Bonds
Communities bind us together, for better or worse. They offer comfort and aid—and something larger than ourselves—but they can stifle and exclude. |
• Hotel on the Corner of Bitter & Sweet |
|
|
July '09 — The Kindess of Strangers
Those who stretch out a hand to strangers end up changing not just the lives of those they help, but their own lives as well. |
• The Cure for Modern Life |
|
|
May '09 — Chick Lit on Steroids
Real Chick Lit: vibrant heroines living rich, complex lives. Their stories give us a lot more to chew on than Prada shoes and Gucci bags. |
• Ex Libris-Confessions of a ... Reader |
|
|
Apr '09 — What Women Want. Really.
Earth to Freud.... Why was it so hard to for the great man to figure out what women want? Women want what men want—love, family, and freedom to pursue their dreams. |
||
|
Mar '09 — Animal Planet
This month's books honor those creatures that domesticate their owners. |
• Dewey: the Small-Town Library Cat |
|
|
Feb '09 — Remembrance of Things Past
When we explore the past—the confluence of events, family and friends, choices made and made for us—we uncover our present selves. |
||
|
Jan '09 — The Gatsby Effect
What does it mean to be an American? This month's main characters attempt to re-invent themselves in order to achieve their ideal of the American dream. |
|
2008 Book Reviews — Themes |
. . . and the Books |
|
|
Dec '08 — African Trio
A newly elected US president—half African; a reader requesting a book guide for Cry, the Beloved Country; and a daughter taking a semester in Africa all served as inspiration for this month's LitPicks, beautiful books, all. |
• The Syringa Tree |
|
|
Nov '08 — A Boy's Life
Three boys come of age in the years soon after World War II—one from the American Midwest, one from Norway, and one from India during the tumultuous years of independence. |
• The Life & Times of the Thunderbolt Kid |
|
|
Oct '08 — Quiet Intimacy
Some books speak to us softly, peering into the corners of our lives and matters of the heart. Plot is secondary to characters and relationships. These works are quiet but remarkable. |
||
|
Sept '08 — Beyond the Pale
This month's authors tackle horrific subjects, the unthinkable. Yet as readers we end up sympa-thasizing with characters we would otherwise villify. This is life in its irreducible complexity. |
||
|
Aug '08 — Uses of Mythology
Literature draws on mythology, primitive stories that frame life's events. Populated with heroes & heroines, deities & monsters, myths reveal a universal pattern of human behavior. |
||
|
July '08 — No theme this month, just a few good books. |
||
|
June '08 — War Torn Lives
Lives and communities torn apart by World War II. This month's stories are tales of survival. Though grim at times, each offers a transcendent vision of humanity. |
||
|
May '08 — Wherefore Happiness?
What is happiness? How does one attain it, who deserves it, and how does one hold onto it? Three books consider happiness—using vastly different lenses and reaching very different conclusions. |
||
|
Apr '08 — Transgressions
Three women cross boundaries, defy codes, and flout tradition. They gain much—and lose much—as they search for a truer self. What are we to make of them? |
||
|
Mar '08 — Healing: horses, books, people
Three books use parallel symbolism to explore human healing. A sick horse heals her owner; a damaged manuscript heals its conserver; and a returning spirit heals her mother. |
||
|
Feb '08 — Magical Realism
These books use a pretense of realism while weaving in fantasty and the supernatural. The magic blends seamlessly with the natural world to reveal life's wondrous possibilities. |
• Garden Spells |
|
|
Jan '08 — No theme this month, just a few good books. |
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn |
|
2007 Book Reviews — Themes |
. . . and the Books |
|
|
Dec '07 — In Praise of This Land
This month's books delve into the soil of the great American plains where their characters find rootedness, connection and community. |
||
|
Nov '07 — Sons and Mothers
A connection like no other—born of intensity, bound by love, and fed by dreams. The lives of three men are shaped, for better or worse, by their mothers' ambitions. |
||
|
Oct '07 — Novelist as Master Weaver
"Social Novels" are sprawling works, inter-weaving multiple plot strands with large casts of characters. They reflect the complex social fabric of an era, it's ideals and traditions. |
• Can't Wait to Get to Heaven |
|
|
Sept '07 — The Novel of Ideas
Some works masquerade as fiction—they use the narrative mask of plot and character to explore serious philosophical ideas. Serious, yes, but gripping stories, too. |
||
|
Aug '07 — The Inimitable English Woman
Three very different English heroines from three different eras. Bridget, Edith, and Elizabeth—all distinct characters, but each delightful...and each very, very English. |
||
|
July '07 — Male Bonding
Male friendship is a literary theme reaching back to Homer. Rarely without conflict, books about friendship are windows onto our own capacity for love, loyalty...and sometimes betrayal. |
• A Walk in the Woods |
|
|
June '07 — Seeking Wholeness
This month's works revolve around those who seek to piece together broken hearts, fill empty souls, and mend divided identities. |
||
|
May '07 — The Meaning of Water
Water occupies a special niche in our collective psyche: it connects us, it binds us in common humanity. We spring from water, we are made of water. Water is pure, it cleanses, it nourishes, it heals, it renews. Water is mysterious, it is eternal, it merges past with present. To be adrift on water is to be adrift in life, it is to be in life, it is life. |
||
|
From this point on there are no themes. It just hadn't dawned on us until May 2007. So don't quit now—you're near the end! Scroll down just a bit farther to see our earliest Book Reviews. There are some great ones!
|
April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 — End — |
|
Site by BOOM
LitLovers © 2024