On the Savage Side by Tiffany McDaniel
#literarynovel, addiction, character driven fiction, coming of age, domestic fiction, family drama, generational trauma, literary fiction, poetry, Sense of Place Fiction, true crime, women's issues #literarynovel, addiction, character driven fiction, coming of age, domestic fiction, family drama, generational trauma, literary fiction, poetry, Sense of Place Fiction, true crime, women's issues

On the Savage Side by Tiffany McDaniel

McDaniel’s strength lies in her lyrical prose and character development. I cared for the twins and their ragtag family of friends, but I also despaired for their future, and raged at a world where the women were not considered victims, but somehow implicated in their own demise. Women in abusive relationships are often told they deserve to be mistreated and women who use drugs and prostitute themselves to make a living are told they are asking for it. ON THE SAVAGE SIDE is a testimony to missing women everywhere. Bravo to McDaniel for lifting up these silenced voices.

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The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn
#literarynovel, Action adventure, author interview, character driven fiction, coming of age, domestic fiction, family drama, historical fiction, literary fiction, Minnesota Fiction Lin Salisbury #literarynovel, Action adventure, author interview, character driven fiction, coming of age, domestic fiction, family drama, historical fiction, literary fiction, Minnesota Fiction Lin Salisbury

The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn

THE WHALEBONE THEATRE is a stunning debut – full of adventure and intrigue, Dickensian characters, and a mildewed mansion on the seaside. Joanna Quinn sets the stage for an immersive read, an escape from the doldrums of winter.

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The Ski Jumpers by Peter Geye
#literarynovel, Action adventure, character driven fiction, coming of age, domestic fiction, family drama, literary fiction, midwestern fiction, Minnesota Fiction, Minnesota interest, mystery, Nature, sense of place, Sense of Place Fiction Lin Salisbury #literarynovel, Action adventure, character driven fiction, coming of age, domestic fiction, family drama, literary fiction, midwestern fiction, Minnesota Fiction, Minnesota interest, mystery, Nature, sense of place, Sense of Place Fiction Lin Salisbury

The Ski Jumpers by Peter Geye

Geye writes with a musicality that soars above the complex plot of The Ski Jumpers. The novel moves back and forth in time and place – moving from Duluth, where Jon and his wife currently live, to the North Woods of Minnesota where he visits his daughter and her partner, and to Minneapolis, where Jon and his brother Anton grew up skiing in Theodore Wirth Park and jumping from the Highland Ski Jump in Bloomington. If you’re a fan of arresting family dramas with a bit of a twist, complex and provocative characters, breathtaking landscapes wrapped in luminous prose, The Ski Jumpers is your next read.

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Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro
#literarynovel, author interview, character driven fiction, coming of age, domestic fiction, family drama, literary fiction Lin Salisbury #literarynovel, author interview, character driven fiction, coming of age, domestic fiction, family drama, literary fiction Lin Salisbury

Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro

Whether Dani Shapiro is writing fiction or memoir, her writing is always reflective and wise. Signal Fires, her first novel in fifteen years, follows on the heels of her poignant memoir, Inheritance, and, like that memoir, examines the complexities of family relationships and the secrets that bind them together or tear them apart.

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The Evening Hero by Marie Myung-Ok Lee
#literarynovel, character driven fiction, domestic fiction, family drama, generational trauma, historical fiction, immigrant experience, literary fiction, Minnesota interest, Sense of Place Fiction Lin Salisbury #literarynovel, character driven fiction, domestic fiction, family drama, generational trauma, historical fiction, immigrant experience, literary fiction, Minnesota interest, Sense of Place Fiction Lin Salisbury

The Evening Hero by Marie Myung-Ok Lee

Lee is one of a handful of American journalists who have been granted a visa to North Korea since the Korean War. Her book is carefully researched and the sections on Yungman’s early life in Korea, as well as his return, are layered with historical truths and emotional impact. It isn’t an easy thing to sustain momentum in a four hundred plus page book, but Lee’s ending is pitch-perfect and will resonate with readers for a long time.

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Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell
#literarynovel, character driven fiction, domestic fiction, family drama, feminist literature, historical fiction, literary fiction, sense of place, women's issues Lin Salisbury #literarynovel, character driven fiction, domestic fiction, family drama, feminist literature, historical fiction, literary fiction, sense of place, women's issues Lin Salisbury

Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

O’Farrell follows Agnes into the woods, into the field, and into the depths of her despair. Her writing is lyrical and layered, her characters are complex, and their relationships are complicated. There will be no easy passageway through this grief, and dear reader, you should be forewarned to have a tissue within reach, but you will be carried along by a mother’s love and a father’s remorse. “There will be no going back,” O’Farrell writes, “Time only runs in one direction.”

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The Net Beneath Us by Carol Dunbar
#literarynovel, author interview, character driven fiction, domestic fiction, family drama, literary fiction, Sense of Place Fiction, women's issues Lin Salisbury #literarynovel, author interview, character driven fiction, domestic fiction, family drama, literary fiction, Sense of Place Fiction, women's issues Lin Salisbury

The Net Beneath Us by Carol Dunbar

Dunbar’s writing is evocative and as lush as the forest. Structured in four segments: Fall, Winter, Spring, and Summer, we watch Elsa flail and falter and then grow in strength and confidence as each season passes. THE NET BENEATH US is about the promises we make and keep – to ourselves and to others – and the profound work of grief – how it cleaves us in two and yet, we live, allowing the days and months and years that pass bind us back together, the two halves of a split trunk like the before times and the after times, joined in the middle by the heartwood.

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Violeta by Isabel Allende
#literarynovel, character driven fiction, coming of age, domestic fiction, family drama, feminist literature, historical, historical fiction, literary fiction, Sense of Place Fiction Lin Salisbury #literarynovel, character driven fiction, coming of age, domestic fiction, family drama, feminist literature, historical, historical fiction, literary fiction, Sense of Place Fiction Lin Salisbury

Violeta by Isabel Allende

During a time when laws protecting a woman’s body autonomy are being threatened, reading Allende’s book reminds me that throughout history, women have exhibited great strength and resolve, and when banded together, are a force to be reckoned with.

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The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict
#literarynovel, character driven fiction, domestic fiction, family drama, feminist literature, historical fiction, literary fiction, women's history, women's issues Lin Salisbury #literarynovel, character driven fiction, domestic fiction, family drama, feminist literature, historical fiction, literary fiction, women's history, women's issues Lin Salisbury

The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict

THE OTHER EINSTEIN is a sad commentary on love and marriage in the early nineteenth century. In this age of two steps forward one step back in equal rights for women, THE OTHER EINSTEIN is a reminder of how quickly gains can become losses.

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When Women were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill
#literarynovel, author interview, character driven fiction, coming of age, domestic fiction, family drama, fantasy, feminist literature, Minnesota interest, political, political fiction, social justice, women's issues Lin Salisbury #literarynovel, author interview, character driven fiction, coming of age, domestic fiction, family drama, fantasy, feminist literature, Minnesota interest, political, political fiction, social justice, women's issues Lin Salisbury

When Women were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill

WHEN WOMEN WERE DRAGONS is an evocative tale about gender, gender roles, and the politicization of history. Barnhill has written a cautionary tale about what happens when women are silenced and their human right to make their own choices is taken from them.

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Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
#literarynovel, author interview, character driven fiction, domestic fiction, family drama, feminist literature, fiction humor, literary fiction, women's issues Lin Salisbury #literarynovel, author interview, character driven fiction, domestic fiction, family drama, feminist literature, fiction humor, literary fiction, women's issues Lin Salisbury

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

Bonnie Garmus has created characters that mock convention. Elizabeth Zott defies authority, not on principal, but on practicality. She sees the world through safety goggles while her male counterparts just wish she’d put on the rose-colored glasses, form-fitting Donna-Reed dress, and sell the canned soup on Supper at Six. But everything in Elizabeth’s world boils down to science – including making her coffee at home with a Bunsen burner and turning her home kitchen into a lab. You’ll fall in love with her dog, Six-Thirty, one of the most astute and intelligent four-legged narrators in fiction today; Mad, her precocious daughter, who reads Nabokov at the age of five, and interrupts show and tell to ask her kindergarten teacher how she can join the Freedom Fighters in Nashville; and her friend and neighbor Harriet, whom after watching Elizabeth stand up to injustice, finds the courage to leave her alcoholic and abusive husband.

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Groundskeeping by Lee Cole
#literarynovel, author interview, character driven fiction, coming of age, domestic fiction, family drama, literary fiction, sense of place, Sense of Place Fiction, Southern Fiction Lin Salisbury #literarynovel, author interview, character driven fiction, coming of age, domestic fiction, family drama, literary fiction, sense of place, Sense of Place Fiction, Southern Fiction Lin Salisbury

Groundskeeping by Lee Cole

GROUNDSKEEPING is about that messy time in young adulthood when you are deciding what to pack up from your old life to bring into your new life. Cole’s writing belies that of a debut novelist. His characters are complicated and nuanced; their relationships are messy and there are no easy answers. Just like in real life.

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The Leopard is Loose by Stephen Harrigan
#literarynovel, author interview, character driven fiction, coming of age, domestic fiction, family drama, historical fiction, literary fiction, sense of place, Sense of Place Fiction Lin Salisbury #literarynovel, author interview, character driven fiction, coming of age, domestic fiction, family drama, historical fiction, literary fiction, sense of place, Sense of Place Fiction Lin Salisbury

The Leopard is Loose by Stephen Harrigan

In Stephen Harrigan’s big-hearted coming-of-age novel, LEOPARD IS LOOSE, five-year-old Grady’s tranquil world is upended when a leopard escapes from the nearby zoo. It’s 1952 and Grady and his 7-year-old brother Danny live with their widowed mother, Bethie, in a two-bedroom backyard apartment across a small patch of yard from her parents and siblings. For most of Grady’s life, the family compound has created a sanctuary where they could each heal from the devastating trauma of the war.

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The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
#literarynovel, #native voices, Black Lives Matter, character driven fiction, domestic fiction, family drama, literary fiction, Minnesota Fiction, Minnesota interest, Native American Authors, Native Voices, political fiction, race, sense of place, social justice Lin Salisbury #literarynovel, #native voices, Black Lives Matter, character driven fiction, domestic fiction, family drama, literary fiction, Minnesota Fiction, Minnesota interest, Native American Authors, Native Voices, political fiction, race, sense of place, social justice Lin Salisbury

The Sentence by Louise Erdrich

Erdrich has written another masterpiece. THE SENTENCE is a compelling read that serves as a time capsule. Maybe one day we will look back and remember the Summer of 2020 – not just as a period of loss and trauma – but as the antidote to it. E.B. White famously wrote that a writer must not only reflect and interpret the world but must also sound the alarm. THE SENTENCE does just that.

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Reeling by Sarah Stonich
character driven fiction, domestic fiction, family drama, fiction humor, literary fiction, Minnesota Fiction, Minnesota interest, Sense of Place Fiction, women's issues Lin Salisbury character driven fiction, domestic fiction, family drama, fiction humor, literary fiction, Minnesota Fiction, Minnesota interest, Sense of Place Fiction, women's issues Lin Salisbury

Reeling by Sarah Stonich

Stonich has a gift for revealing vulnerability in the most unlikely places. RayAnne’s first interview in New Zealand is with Ellie Mann, a tough-talking, tuna trawler captain who puts her to work throwing bait out the back of the boat. Donning a helmet with a visor to protect her from the fish frenzy that follows, RayAnne feels an unfamiliar squeamishness at reaching into a pail of live bait.

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Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson
#literarynovel, Black Lives Matter, character driven fiction, coming of age, domestic fiction, family drama, feminist literature, historical fiction, literary fiction, women's issues Lin Salisbury #literarynovel, Black Lives Matter, character driven fiction, coming of age, domestic fiction, family drama, feminist literature, historical fiction, literary fiction, women's issues Lin Salisbury

Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson

RED AT THE BONE is a compact novel of trauma and recovery, and all the messiness in between.

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Waterfall by Mary Casaova
character driven fiction, coming of age, domestic fiction, family drama, feminist literature, historical fiction, midwestern fiction, Minnesota Fiction, Minnesota interest, women's issues, Young Adult Fiction Lin Salisbury character driven fiction, coming of age, domestic fiction, family drama, feminist literature, historical fiction, midwestern fiction, Minnesota Fiction, Minnesota interest, women's issues, Young Adult Fiction Lin Salisbury

Waterfall by Mary Casaova

Mary Casanova shines a dim light upon the early treatment of mental illness, the infantilization of women in the early twentieth century, and drug addiction in the privileged class. Though heavy subjects, the novel treats all these things with a light hand, so readers who prefer their historical fiction to be unburdened by the darker aspects of the early twentieth century, should still find WATERFALL appealing. The story of resilience and resistance as told through Trinity’s experience may also appeal to teen readers.

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Are We There Yet? by Kathleen West
author interview, coming of age, domestic fiction, family drama, fiction humor, midwestern fiction, Minnesota Fiction, Minnesota interest, women's issues Lin Salisbury author interview, coming of age, domestic fiction, family drama, fiction humor, midwestern fiction, Minnesota Fiction, Minnesota interest, women's issues Lin Salisbury

Are We There Yet? by Kathleen West

Alice Sullivan has it all – two perfect children, a handsome and successful husband, and a booming interior design business – until suddenly, she doesn’t. In a conflagration of events, Alice learns that her second grade daughter, Adrian, is reading below grade level, her seventh grade son, Teddy, has been suspended for bullying another student, and her job is on the line as she ricochets between parent/teacher conferences and meetings with the principal. Alice’s husband, Patrick, is away on business all week long and only home on the weekends, but her mother Evelyn, a child psychologist, is on hand with advice and unfortunately, a long-held secret that threatens to further unravel Alice’s carefully curated life.

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The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah
#literarynovel, character driven fiction, coming of age, domestic fiction, family drama, historical fiction, Sense of Place Fiction, women's issues Lin Salisbury #literarynovel, character driven fiction, coming of age, domestic fiction, family drama, historical fiction, Sense of Place Fiction, women's issues Lin Salisbury

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

It’s hard to write about the Dust Bowl without tipping over into melodrama, and at times it felt as if the only thing moving the story forward was the next disaster. The relationships between the women in THE FOUR WINDS kept me invested. Elsa is a bit of a sad-sack, but her daughter Loreda is fierce and as she ages, she challenges Elsa to overcome her fears.

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Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
#literarynovel, author interview, character driven fiction, coming of age, domestic fiction, family drama, feminist literature, historical fiction, literary fiction, Sense of Place Fiction, women's issues Lin Salisbury #literarynovel, author interview, character driven fiction, coming of age, domestic fiction, family drama, feminist literature, historical fiction, literary fiction, Sense of Place Fiction, women's issues Lin Salisbury

Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

THE GREAT CIRCLE is a big book – not just because it is nearly 600 pages long – but because of the breadth of the subject matter – art, aviation, prohibition, noncomformity, war, isolation, connection – and the period it spans 1909-2014 – give or take a few decade gaps. There will be So. Much. To. Discuss. with your book group! Maggie Shipstead has a keen understanding of longing and what it means to be human.

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