writerrhiannon 's review for:

How to Tell Toledo from the Night Sky by Lydia Netzer

4.0

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I didn't get around to reading Netzer's debut, Shine Shine Shine, despite several rave reviews from some of my most trusted book bloggers. I was not going to miss out this time around. (I read her novella, Everybody's Baby, and really liked it.) How to Tell Toledo from the Night Sky is like nothing I've read before. Netzer is able to provide two characters with opposite thoughts when they look skyward and although the characters represent science versus God, she doesn't distance the reader with their personal beliefs. Her secondary characters are anything but flat. They have strange habits, addictions, and uncommon religions. I felt that one secondary storyline should have either been flushed out more or excluded altogether and I found myself lost a few times when there was a sudden change in setting without notice. However, the overall achievement of this book outweighs what I thought were merely unpolished edges. I've read other reviews of this work and I see a lot of "quirky, nerdy, and outside-the-box" which are all true but what I really enjoyed is the lack of fluff. Now, don't get me wrong, I like a cupcake, predictable read now and then but this book is an important edition to the entire genre of women's literature. A smart novel that encompasses the macrocosms of humanity, science, religion, fate, and free will and presents the concepts in a modern microcosm daily connections.

** I received this book in exchange for an honest review ***
For my entire review: http://www.ivoryowlreviews.blogspot.com/2014/07/how-to-tell-toledo-from-night-sky-by.html