Book Reviews—Themes by Month

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.

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.

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!