Children of the Jinn, by Margaret Kahn
Review by Rea Keech In 1974, twenty-five-year-old linguist Margaret, with her husband of six months, went to Iran’s border town of Rezaiyeh to research the Kermanji dialect of Kurdish. There were Kurds in the town, but it was difficult for the young American woman to...
Behind Closed Doors by B. A. Paris
Review by Tom Keech Grace puts on a fine show of a loving relationship with Jack, her rich attorney husband who prosecutes men who abuse their spouses. In actuality, he’s a brilliant psychopath who devotes all his energy making sure she speaks to no one outside of his...
The Woman Outside My Door
Review by Tom Keech Oh my, Georgina’s in trouble! She has a history of post-partum depression verging on psychosis. Her husband not only had (or is still having?) an affair with a beautiful ex-schoolmate, but he’s also lying about it. Meanwhile, he’s advising Georgina...
Let Me Tell You Where I’ve Been, ed. Persis M. Karim
Women without a Home Review by Rea Keech This collection of 87 poems and stories by 50 different women presents a more unified picture of Iranian women living outside of Iran than one might think. I would suggest jumping right into the selections themselves and saving...
To Keep the Sun Alive, by Rabeah Ghaffari
Life in the Orchard Review by Rea Keech Ghaffari cleverly interweaves stories of an extended Iranian family in Naishapur in 1979 as Iran edges towards the Islamic revolution. Gradually, the characters realize a change is coming, but life goes on: their traditions,...
A Fine Imitation, by Amber Brock
And the Beats Go On Review by Rea Keech It's sad, but I picked up the hardback version of this book from a stack of them in the Dollar Store. No need to write a review. There are plenty. I read it for the endless inventive "beats" in the dialogue: "Bea chewed...
Persian Mosaic, Getting Back to Iran after 25 Years, by David Devine
The More Things Change, the More They Stay the SameReview by Rea KeechDevine begins Persian Mosaic with a description of leaving Iran in 1973 after living there for two years. When he arrives in Tucson, he receives as letter from his Iranian friend Sarkis asking when...
The Wind in My Hair, by Masih Alinejad
An Unbroken Spirit Review by Tom Keech An extraordinary memoir from an Iranian journalist in exile about leaving her country, challenging tradition and sparking an online movement against compulsory hijab. A photo on Masih's Facebook page: a woman standing...
Chez Betty, by Kenneth Farmer
Oh, It's a Mystery! Review by Tom Keech A forty-something lawyer in the middle of a divorce suddenly travels to France in his quest to live more spontaneously. This delightful, quirky tourist story with a sweet romantic twist quickly turns to murder, and the lawyer is...
Star Touched, by A.L. Kaplan
Blending Genres Review by Rea Keech Star Touched is a dystopian novel that takes place after a terrible Cataclysm has destroyed much of the country. It is also a fantasy novel in which some survivors of the Cataclysm have received magical powers. And it is a young...
Losing an Enemy: Obama, Iran, and the Triumph of Diplomacy, by Trita Parsi
Countries Are Like People Review by Rea Keech Trita Parsi, fluent in English and Farsi and acquainted with all the major players in the diplomacy that took three years to produce the Iran nuclear deal, is uniquely qualified to write this account. He has an...
My Absolute Darling, by Gabriel Tallent
Incest is Not Best Review by Tom Keech Five stars for the intensity of this incestuous love story between a brutal, twisted, gun-obsessed survivalist father and his fourteen-year-old daughter. The daughter, Turtle, shares her father’s belief system but has begun to...
The Program, by Suzanne Young
Teenage Dystopian Fiction with a Twist Review by Tom Keech Because of a rash of teen suicides, a new system of handling teenagers’ problems has been developed. Kids are tested for emotional wellness every day to detect signs of suicidal thoughts. If any signs of...
The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim, by Jonathan Coe
A Garrulous Sad Sack Review by Rea Keech Maxwell Sim, the garrulous Sad Sack narrator of this 2010 satirical novel, is unable to connect with other people, even those in his own family. The story traces his pitiful, humiliating...
The Crescent, the Sea, and the Long Sand, by David K. Lemons
Exotic Experiences Review by Rea Keech Lemons’ book is not an autobiography in any traditional sense, but it provides a record of key moments in the interior life of the author. The pieces were written in different places around the world and depicting times ranging...
August 29: How Kabir H. Jain Became a Deity, by Gandharva raja
Transfigurations Review by Rea Keech Set in Delhi from the years following Bush’s invasion of Iraq up to the middle of Obama’s first term as president, this novel depicts the philosophical development of Gora, an Indian university student who lives in times of...
Last of the Annamese, by Tom Glenn
Life Went On Review by Rea KeechAnybody who, like me, might want to know what it was like to live in South Vietnam in the last few months of the Saigon regime will find this novel riveting. Glenn shows what it was like for the Vietnamese and the remaining...
Days of Revolution, by Mary Hegland
Choosing the Right Strong Man By Rea Keech Hegland served in the Peace Corps in Iran from 1966 to1968 and returned for visits from 1971 to 1972 and the summers of 1970 and 1976. She returned again to study the agricultural credit system primarily in the...
Oola, by Brittany Newell
Hipster Nonchalance Carried to Extremes Review by Tom Keech This book reminds me a lot of The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, except it’s better. There’s the same young male character who thinks and acts like a girl. The same absence of any apparent emotional connection...
My Boat Is So Small, Ruta Sevo
Shaggy Dog Chronicle Review by Rea Keech If everything in this book is not a chronicle of exactly what actually happened to the writer, then it’s hard to say why it was written. The events, whether recalled or occurring in the present, certainly don’t make...
The Last Hotel Room, by Sean McLachlan
Touring without a Guide Review by Rea Keech This book, published by Kindle Scout, is written in a simple, unpretentious style that is a pleasure to read. It’s in what I like to think of as the I Traveled to a Foreign Land, Saw All the Tourist Sites, and...
A Man Called Ove, by Fredrik Backman
A Slapstick Morality Play Review by Rea Keech What I like best about this book is the way it made me laugh out loud so often, sometimes at statements made by Ove and sometimes at the author’s descriptions and comments that mimic how Ove would have...
Censoring an Iranian Love Story, by Shahriar Mandanipour
What It Takes to Survive Review by Rea Keech In this unconventional novel, the passages in bold print are the love story that the author is attempting to write. His sense of humor is evident from the start as the girl and boy in love are named Sara and...
Three Wishes, by Liane Moriarty
More Droll Than Tragic Review by Rea Keech There are already 2,511 reviews of this novel on Amazon and 3,945 on Goodreads, and so I will just explain why I found it such a pleasure to read. It wasn’t for the plot or action (mostly chick concerns) but for the witty,...
Lipsi’s Daughter, by Patty Apostolides
Ipatia's Choice Review by Rea Keech Lipsi’s Daughter gives us a picture of what life in Greece was like at the end of the 20th century for a girl raised in a family with conservative values. Ipatia conforms to the expectations of society without rebellion—except that...
Walled In, Walled Out, by Mary Dana Marks
Becoming "Human" Review by Rea Keech This is a beautiful memoir that reads like a novel. It begins with the idealistic Mary being sent by the Peace Corps to help people in an Iranian city, where she is immediately made to feel it is she who is lacking in civilization...
Barefoot Beach, by Toby Devens
Chick Lit 101
The Abstinence Teacher, by Tom Perrotta
A Distanced, Ironic View By Rea Keech Perrotta’s novel has a witty, ironic, detached tone. The author seems to be above it all, looking with amusement at the world around him. Here are some phrases and sentences that typify this attitude. Sometimes it’s a character...
The Rejected Writers’ Book Club, by Suzanne Kelman
Detached Amusement By Rea Keech This novel is an example of writing with a distinct authorial or main-character voice. Kelman’s first-person narrator, Janet, looks at the world around her with what might be called a detached amusement. This is evident in her...
A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles
A Montaigne Trapped in His Tower with Nothing to Say Review by Rea Keech Having taken an accustomed seat in my worn leather chair, its polished surface as always conjuring up wistful memories of the familial heritage which was its origin, I set out to indulge myself...