Likely Stories

I’m Jim McKeown , welcome to Likely Stories, a weekly review of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. If you enjoy twisty plots, building and breaking, secrets, love and forgiveness, Bill Clegg’s emotional novel, The End of the Day is captivating.

I’m Jim McKeown , welcome to Likely Stories, a weekly review of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. William Shakespeare is surely one of the greatest talents of all time. His works are witty, explosive, endearing, and charming admired and loved across the globe. Maggie O’Farrell has written a novel that captures the essence of Shakespeare himself. Maggie wrote eight novels, including her latest, Hamnet. She was born in Northern Ireland in 1972, and now lives in Edinburgh.

I’m Jim McKeown , Welcome to Likely Stories, a weekly review of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. I rarely bother with nonfiction, but Here We Are by Aarti Namdev Shahani is a well-written story of her family's move from Casablanca to Pakistan to the USA. The initial parts of the story detail the hardships the family had escaping from the terrors following the breakup between India and Pakistan.

I’m Jim McKeown , welcome to Likely Stories, a weekly review of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. The Last Bookshop in London, by Madeline Martin, is a marvelous story of love, passion, loss, and terrible hardship. Martin has penned five other novels, two of which will soon be on my TBR pile.

I’m Jim McKeown , welcome to Likely Stories, a weekly review of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. Kazuo Ishiguro was born in Nagasaki, Japan in 1954 and moved to Britain at the age of five. His eight previous works of fiction have earned him many honors around the world, including the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Booker Prize. Two of my favorite of his novels— The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go-- have had acclaimed films. I feel certain his latest novel, Klara and the Sun , will add

I’m Jim McKeown , welcome to Likely Stories, a weekly review of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. Jhumpa Lahiri has released six novels, and her latest, Whereabouts, is an eclectic series of short ruminations anywhere from one to about five pages. Her stories are lyrical, witty, interesting, with an ability to draw the reader from one story to the next.

I’m Jim McKeown , welcome to Likely Stories, a weekly review of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. Katlyn Greenidge is a spectacular young woman just coming out of her first novel, We Love You, Charlie Freeman . She has won a Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University, among other awards. Libertie is her second novel. Libertie Sampson is the story of the coming of age of a free-born Black girl in Reconstruction-era Brooklyn. Her mother is a practicing physician, and she hopes her daughter will

I’m Jim McKeown , welcome to Likely Stories, a weekly review of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. According to Wikipedia. “Mary Jane Oliver passed on January 17, 2019. She was an American poet who won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Her work is inspired by nature, rather than the human world, stemming from her lifelong passion for solitary walks in the wild. In 2007 she was declared to be the country's best-selling poet.” (Wikipedia) I felt a kinship with her works, and I miss

I’m Jim McKeown , welcome to Likely Stories, a weekly review of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. Betcha’ thought I’d run out of novels set in Libraries and bookstores! Well, here is a story of love and depression. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig is just what the book reviewer ordered. Matt is the author of the internationally bestselling memoirs Reason to Stay Alive, along with five novels, including How to Stop Time , as well as several award-winning children’s books. Somehow, I felt this

I’m Jim McKeown , welcome to Likely Stories, a weekly review of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. I have for you today the last of the six dramatic novels by Kent Haruf, The Tie That Bind. This story warns of potential dreadful results in a completely dysfunctional family. Kent won numerous awards, including a special citation from the PEN/Hemingway Foundation, a finalist for the National Book Award, the LA Times Book Prize, and the New Yorker Book Award. He died in 2014.