Antigone Books

Wow! This is a thought-provoking book. The author describes raising her children in what she calls the Chinese Tiger Mother way, in other words, ferociously pressuring her children to do their best. It raises many questions in my mind, about parenting, of course, but also about human potential, which is enormous -- especially when we are pressured. ("Why do you think there are so many Asian prodigies?" she asks.) The author is very frank, and she's well aware that her method will raise hackles -- sometimes they even raise her own. The book is very entertaining, too -- a page turner!

"[A] riveting read... Far from being strident, the book's tone is slightly rueful, frequently self-deprecating and entirely aware of its author's enormities... Chua's story is far more complicated and interesting than what you've heard to date -- and well worth picking up... I guarantee that if you read the book, there'll undoubtedly be places where you'll cringe in recognition, and others where you'll tear up in empathy."--SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

Powerful, beautifully written novel of people caught up in World War I. I loved it, and I don't generally like war novels.

I’m thrilled this book has come out in paperback (finally), because now more people can read it. This is an excellent book: well written, fascinating and gripping. It takes place in Jackson, Mississippi in 1962, and tells the stories of three women who come together to write, in secret, a tell-all book about what it’s really like to work as a black maid in the white homes of the South – a risky endeavor, indeed.

This is an amazing novel, full to the brim with interesting characters and a skillfully woven history of the turn-of-the-century. Dense and fascinating.

This is an excellent read.  Lee Smith’s writing is beautiful, tough and graceful.

A dusty box discovered in the wreckage of a once prosperous plantation on Agate Hill in North Carolina contains the remnants of an extraordinary life: diaries, letters, poems, newspaper clippings, court records, dolls, and bones.  It's through these treasured mementos that we meet the indomitable Molly Petree.  Raised in those ruins and orphaned by the Civil War, Molly is a refugee who has no interest in self-pity.  Spanning half a century, On Agate Hill follows Molly's passionate and wild journey through childhood, love, betrayal, motherhood, a murder trial -- and back home to Agate Hill under circumstances she never could have imagined.

This is a great read!  A bit of a page-turner, The Condition is a very interesting and well-written book about family dynamics.

The McKotches are a dysfunctional New England family struggling toward normalcy in this poignant novel from PEN/Hemingway-winner Jennifer Haigh, who follows the children of resentful, controlling Paulette and distracted, needy Frank.  Even during a childhood in idyllic Cape Cod, there are hints of a rocky future.  When that future arrives, Billy, the most successful of the children, keeps a secret about his sophisticated New York life from almost everyone.  Scott, formerly the uncontrollable brat of the bunch, sees himself in his own troubled son.  Meanwhile, Gwen, the youngest, suffers from a genetic condition that prevents her from developing into womanhood.

This novel is fantastically set against a backdrop of a depression-era travelling circus.  Powerful and engrossing, the story centers on a young, out-of-luck vet student who jumps onto a train that turns out to be carrying the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth.  Jacob enters a world of freaks, grifters, and misfits, a second-rate circus struggling to survive during the Great Depression, making one-day stands in town after endless town.  He meets Marlena, the beautiful, talented star of the equestrian act, and her husband August, a charismatic but twisted animal trainer.  Jacob is put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie where he encounters an unbelievable cast of critters, including an elephant that seems untrainable until he discovers a way to reach her.