By Nathan Coker
In Bayou Pages
Apr 1st, 2026
0 Comments
33 Views
REVIEW BY MEREDITH MCKINNIE “Menopause is puberty in reverse – a transition from one biological phase of ovarian function to another, but the way we view these two events couldn’t be more different.” Much like the woman-specific subjects of periods and pregnancy, menopause has been shrouded in ...
By Nathan Coker
In Bayou Pages
Apr 1st, 2026
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26 Views
REVIEW BY MEREDITH MCKINNIE “A person never forgets the landscape of their childhood.” In Kate Morton’s 6th novel, readers are again transported to another era, early 19th century, and another place, Cornwall, England. In 1914, Eleanor caught the attention of Anthony Edevane, an up-and-coming surgeon...
By Nathan Coker
In Bayou Pages
Mar 2nd, 2026
0 Comments
153 Views
“Time only pushes wounds aside. Regular life becomes insistent and crowds out the loss. Usually, this is a good thing. So much of healing is the recognition that not all your tissue got damaged in the accident.” As Crosley’s Grief is for People caught my attention because it centered the experience i...
By Nathan Coker
In Bayou Pages
Mar 2nd, 2026
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111 Views
REVIEW BY MEREDITH MCKINNIE “The stickiest sorts of violence are often incredibly intimate. They require trust. They take time.” In Paula McLain’s first venture into thrillers, we meet Detective Anna Hart (whimsical name, checkered past), who specializes in cases of missing persons in San Francisco. ...
By Nathan Coker
In Bayou Pages
Feb 2nd, 2026
0 Comments
893 Views
REVIEW BY MEREDITH MCKINNIE “I’m so good at being lonely, though. I’m just so good at it.” As a latecomer to Kate Quinn, who’s written 17 books including 4 series, I didn’t know what to expect, but the author had my attention by the second page. As a professed lover of historical novelists, namely Ka...
By Nathan Coker
In Bayou Pages
Feb 2nd, 2026
0 Comments
572 Views
REVIEW BY MEREDITH MCKINNIE “Happiness is a choice as much as anything. Or you could choose to be angry, and if you stay angry long enough, it will become comfortable, like an old robe.” As a newcomer to Elizabeth Strout, I belatedly realized the existing lives of the characters in Tell Me Everything...
By Nathan Coker
In Bayou Pages
Dec 1st, 2025
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577 Views
REVIEW BY MEREDITH MCKINNIE Claire Lombardo’s second novel Same As It Ever Was is a compelling portrayal of middle age life in a typical upper-class family. Julia Ames is now approaching 60. Her husband Mark still lovingly adores and desires her, son Ben is finding his own way at 24, and teenage daug...
By Nathan Coker
In Bayou Pages
Oct 31st, 2025
0 Comments
1173 Views
review by Meredith McKinnie “The wonder is that you could start life with nothing, end with nothing, and lose so much in between.” In the summer of 2024, NYTimes readers chose Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead as the best book of the 21st century, and I can see why. Channeling Charles Dickens’ Da...
By Nathan Coker
In Bayou Pages
Oct 31st, 2025
0 Comments
550 Views
Review By Meredith Mckinnie Adichie’s layered novel opens in an African barbershop in Trenton, New Jersey, where Ifemelu has traversed several trains to have her hair braided, a luxury/burden in America. While enduring the multi-hour process, Adichie emails her old boyfriend Obinze that she is moving...
By Nathan Coker
In Bayou Pages
Oct 1st, 2025
0 Comments
1367 Views
REVIEW BY MEREDITH MCKINNIE “Life didn’t just get better and better. You could actually miss out on something and that was that. That was your chance and now it was over.” Miranda July’s romp of an autofiction novel is absurd, titillating, and for lack of a better term, off the rails. Needless to say...
