The Mars Room and Alternative Remedies for Loss have almost nothing in common. One is dark and very serious, the other is light with a humorous take. One is a debut, the other by an established author. In one I found hopefulness and in the other hopelessness. One is literary fiction, the other contemporary fiction. It could be argued that both are coming-of-age novels, but that would be a stretch. For me, the strongest commonality between these two May releases was grief. Grief suffered, grief endured by two very, very different young women….

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An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Release Date: February 6.2018
Length: 320 pages
Amazon

{A Bit of Backstory}

Single Sentence Summary

It seems Celestial Davenport has the easy part, waiting on the outside as her husband serves a prison term for a crime he didn’t commit, but does she really?…

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Desperation Road by Michael Farris Smith
Publisher: Lee Bourdeaux Books
Release Date: February 7, 2017
Length: 304
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Single Sentence Summary: Russell Gaines, fresh out of prison, returns to his hometown where he crosses paths with a desperate woman and her young daughter.

Primary Characters: Russell Gaines has just been released from 11 years in prison. He returns to the small Mississippi town where he grew up in the hopes returning to the life he should have led. Maben is a hard luck a story of a young woman if there ever was one. She and her daughter are homeless, traveling on foot to the town where she also grew up….

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