By Nathan Coker
In Bayou Pages
May 1st, 2026
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22 Views
“He can guess, but he won’t ever know, not really. What it was like, what she was thinking, everything she’d never told him.” Celeste Ng’s compelling novel Everything I Never Told You gifts readers with hindsight, the past of a young girl with no future. The novel opens with 16-year-old Lydia missing...
By Nathan Coker
In Bayou Pages
May 1st, 2026
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26 Views
“Sometimes it seems like writing is the only way I keep from hurting.” In Acevedo’s coming-of-age novel, Xiomara Batiste (nicknamed X) experiences the universal struggle of selfhood, learning who she is amidst the pressure of who her parents want her to be. X finds solace in her brother Xavier, whom ...
By Nathan Coker
In Bayou Pages
Apr 1st, 2026
0 Comments
63 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
0 Comments
57 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
249 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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151 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
962 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
663 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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609 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
1231 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...
