Years ago, I read Regeneration, the first in Barker’s trilogy about World War I — and it totally blew me away. At that time, I knew nothing about Pat Barker. In fact, I was stunned when I learned that the author was female, as I assumed only a man who had experienced battle could write …
Even though I find the subject of the Middle East depressing these days, I LOVE Richard Engel’s reporting, so I was excited to get an advance copy of his book And Then All Hell Broke Loose: Two Decades in the Middle East from NetGalley in return for my honest review. Overall, I will just say …
Whenever I see a blurb that says something like “…THE thriller to read in 2016!!” my reaction is something along the lines of “hmmm, I’ll be the judge of that.” So I was a bit of a skeptic going in to this one. Also, a bit of curiosity about whether this might come across as …
I admit it. I apparently am a name bigot. Otherwise, why was I so hesitant to dive in to Tawni O’Dell’s new book Angels Burning? I am pretty sure I read her Back Roads (2001), but I had no strong feeling about her other than that her named evoked a memory of a real-life woman …
After reading the premise of this book, and skimming a couple of reviews, I was so prepared to settle in for a nice binge read – I am a sucker for psychological thrillers (a la Gone Girl) and I went into it with an open mind and heart…and OK, maybe it was just me, …
This fast-paced novel from Thomas Perry focuses on two couples: Sid and Ronnie (Veronica) Abel are married detectives, retired from LAPD and now working together in their own agency. Ed and Nicole Hoyt are married assassins who live in the San Fernando Valley and sell their services to anyone who will pay them. A year …
This book left me feeling surprised and totally schizo. Surprised because I started reading it without knowing anything about it other than that it was a thriller and the protagonist was a thirty-something female prosecutor named Claire Talbot in Florida. Beyond that, I had no expectations. The surprise came halfway through when a tectonic shift …
Lisa Lutz, author of the Spellman Series, has a new novel to be released in spring 2016, a thriller about a woman who goes on the run and makes a habit of changing identities as she goes. As the story opens, right away I learned a bit about the protagonist, Tanya Dubois, that made her …
In The Lies We Tell, two adult women (Jude and Katy) are shown in both present day and as their teenage selves in flashback. The story unspools to reveal the horrible thing that happened 24 years ago. This psychological thriller alternates chapters between present day & 24 years ago, and this alternating is perhaps why …
I loved Ethan Canin’s book America, America so was predisposed to love this book…and while there is much to like, part of it left me feeling stupid (not something anyone particularly enjoys). The book is about a family and focuses on Milo Andret, a tyrannical genius, his son Hans, and various others who live in their …
The Guest Room by Chris Bohjalian Let’s get it out of the way: I loved this book. It is somewhat a thriller, and somewhat about family/relationships combined with social issues. I’m a sucker for that stuff (e.g. Jodi Picoult when she is on her game) So, the premise is that this successful hedge fund guy …
The title of Mike Dow’s book The Brain Fog Fix leapt out at me, and I was eager to read it for two reasons: I am always interested in general in the topic of behavior being influenced by nutrition (which I suspected was the core of the “fix”) and I happen to have a grandson …
In 1996 I remember reading A Civil Action, about a town in Massachusetts where people fought back against environment pollution. That book freaked me out, and made me conscious of the cavalier way our water supply can so easily be placed at risk by greedy corporations. When I heard about Dan Fagin’s book Toms River: A …
The Blue Hour by Douglas Kennedy grabbed me and didn’t let me go until it was finished! In retrospect, I probably need to re-read it, because I was so wrapped up in finding out WTF was going to HAPPEN that I admit I raced through parts that should probably have been read at a more …
As soon as I read Dennis Lehane’s praise for Stuart Neville’s books, I wanted to read this one. I figured, if Dennis Lehane can’t wait for Neville’s next book to come out, that sounds like something I’d like. Holy crap, this is dark, powerful stuff. It reminded me of the video store that used to …
Forty years ago, Fear of Flying made Erica Jong (and her protagonist Isadora Wing) household names, along with the infamous concept of the Zipless Fuck. In this not-exactly-a-sequel, Isadora is back as the sidekick to the protagonist Vanessa Wonderman, a past-her-prime actress who is coping with her husband’s illness, her parents’ aging, and her own …
This book shares some things with another of Chamberlain’s books, in terms of a very similar protagonist ( a female who leaves the South, relocates to San Diego, etc. ) Although I had read the earlier book, I was quite eager to read this, although part of me now wishes that I had also read …
Ronnie Gilbert: A Radical Life in Song This is a wonderful memoir of the woman best known as a member of the folk group The Weavers, who died a few months ago at the age of 88. I admit I knew her only as a singer, someone who had originally performed with the Weavers starting …
This book, focused on women past the ago of 60, is a combination of stories told by the women themselves, interspersed with the latest research.When I was young, women in their 60s were…OLD. Not many of the ones I ever saw were vibrant – they were mostly sedentary and seemed resigned to being…old. Ms. Singer’s …
Shades of Blue: Writers on Depression, Suicide, and Feeling Blue By Amy Ferris For starters, this book is amazing. Amy Ferris has gathered writings about a subject that is close to my heart, and the result is a powerful, gut-wrenching, piercing look into a topic that is too often stigmatized, hidden, shame-based, you name it, …