By Nathan Coker
In Bayou Pages
Sep 2nd, 2024
0 Comments
239 Views
review by Meredith McKinnie “Happiness is harder to put into words. It’s also harder to source, much more mysterious than anger or sorrow, which come to me promptly, whenever I summon them, and remain long after I’ve begged them to leave.” When I want to laugh, I turn to author David Sedaris. In Caly...
By Nathan Coker
In Bayou Pages
Jul 31st, 2024
0 Comments
249 Views
“It was stunning how casual lying was woven into most married life.” Forever drawn to debut novels, I’m curious about what a budding author has to say. Is their goal to tell a good story, to write what they assume we want to read, to cloud social commentary in the balm of fiction? As a […]...
By Nathan Coker
In Bayou Pages
Jul 31st, 2024
0 Comments
308 Views
“We often mistake love for fireworks – for drama and dysfunction. But real love is very quiet, very still. It’s boring, if seen from the perspective of high drama. Love is deep and calm – and constant.” Alicia and Gabriel Berenson’s love story featured displays of affection and tension-fi...
By Nathan Coker
In Bayou Pages
Jul 1st, 2024
0 Comments
314 Views
review by Meredith McKinnie “Weddings, she quickly discovered, were about everything except the health of a couple’s relationship. They were social performances, the purpose of which varied from family to family. And they were competitive.” Gonzalez’s debut novel Olga Dies Dreaming opens with the tit...
By Nathan Coker
In Bayou Pages
Jul 1st, 2024
0 Comments
309 Views
review by Meredith McKinnie “Why books? Because no other thing possesses that mystical faculty to make people see with other people’s eyes. The Library is a bridge of books between cultures.” No surprise, I’m a self-professed bibliophile, and gravitate towards books about books. Reading the intricate...
By Nathan Coker
In Bayou Pages
May 1st, 2024
0 Comments
431 Views
review by Meredith McKinnie “Sometimes which choice you make is not as important as making a choice and committing to it.” Matthew McConaughey, the Oscar winning actor best known for romantic comedy, box office gold and shirtless paparazzi photos, has published a memoir to surprisingly rave reviews. ...
By Nathan Coker
In Bayou Pages
May 1st, 2024
0 Comments
937 Views
review by Meredith McKinnie “Trauma is not what happens to you but what happens inside you.” I first fell in love with Barbara Kingsolver’s voice while reading Flight Behavior, which I reviewed here in May of 2022. Kingsolver’s impressive ability to take on entire literary worlds is astounding in sco...
By Nathan Coker
In Bayou Pages
Apr 1st, 2024
0 Comments
312 Views
“Being a Windsor meant working out which truths were timeless, and then banishing them from your mind. It meant absorbing the basic parameters of one’s identity, knowing by instinct who you were, which was forever a byproduct of who you weren’t.” When I requested the Spare’s memoir from the Ouachita...
By Nathan Coker
In Bayou Pages
Feb 29th, 2024
0 Comments
466 Views
review by Meredith McKinnie “The young delude themselves that the music will never stop playing. So it makes sense for them to explore rather than savor; to meet new people rather than to devote time to their nearest and dearest; to learn new skills and soak up information, rather than ponder the mea...
By Nathan Coker
In Bayou Pages
Feb 29th, 2024
0 Comments
364 Views
“Even in a place of sorrow, time passes. Even in a place of joy. Do not assume that either keeps life from continuing.” I n Honoree Fanonne Jeffers’ first novel, the poet blesses readers with a multi-generational saga. The physically heavy text of historical fiction spans the lives of early Native Am...
