In the 1960s and 1970s, I lived in Southern California and was a huge fan of professional basketball in general and the LA Lakers in particular. I followed the team closely, every season, through the playoffs, with the too-frequent finale being a loss to the Boston Celtics in the NBA Championship Finals. Back in the …
Harleigh Collier, who goes by Leigh, is a hard-working professional woman, working her way up at a fancy high profile law firm. One Sunday evening, she is at her daughter’s school play and gets a call from one of the law firm’s senior partners, asking her to defend a wealthy client accused of multiple counts …
The story of this book’s publication is almost as much fun as the book. A young woman named T.J. Newman spent years working as a flight attendant for major airlines. During and outside of her long flights, she made good use of her time thinking and writing about a terrifying story set around an airline …
Back in 2018, when I read Jake Tapper’s novel The Hellfire Club, I said it was “four and a half stars, rounded down to four because it isn’t QUITE a five – but I would bet his next one will be.” Now here we are with a sequel, The Devil May Dance, bringing back New …
Reclaim Joy, by Emine Rushton, is just what the subtitle says: a guided journal to discover simple pleasures every day. The author is a holistic therapist (not exactly sure what that entails) who provides a years’ worth of prompts and rituals designed to help the reader who is trying to incorporate more mindfulness into their …
Recently, I read Nancy Thayer’s new book “Family Reunion,” which I said was like a warm blanket and a cup of tea. Comfort reading, perfect for the pandemic. Despite my shudder when I hear the phrase “women’s fiction,” I actually enjoyed it. So when I had the opportunity to receive a copy of Miranda Cowley …
I’m a fan of psychological thrillers, even those that require a fair amount of willing suspension of disbelief, so I was happy to receive a copy of Nicci French’s lates, What To Do When Someone Dies, from William Morrow/Custom House and NetGalley in exchange for this honest review. TBH, the title was a bit off-putting …
Stacey Abrams, well-known for her political work in Georgia and an experienced tax attorney IRL, has written When Justice Sleeps, a legal thriller that is complex, clever, and revelatory of the high-stakes political maneuverings in Washington DC (particularly the Supreme Court). The protagonist of this fast-paced thriller is Avery Keene, a brilliant young law clerk …
Cassie Woodson is a hot mess…think Cassandra Bowden in The Flight Attendant — after a drama-filled breakup that led to her humiliating firing from her job as an attorney at a top-level law firm, she has been forced to take a job as a legal temp, working long hours on a mind-numbing project reviewing documents, …
Fire season was very real for us last year. And the year before, and before. Northern CA has endured more than its share of fire damage, and the worst of all might be the November 2018 “Camp Fire” that destroyed the beautiful town of Paradise. Lizzie Johnson, a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, tells …
Catherine Steadman is an accomplished actress (memorably played Mabel Lane Fox in Downton Abbey) and author. I loved 2018’s Something In The Water, but 2020’s Mr. Nobody didn’t do it for me, so I was curious about the latest from this talented woman, and was happy to receive a copy of The Disappearing Act from …
True Crime – my guilty pleasure. Well-written true crime — too rare but oh so enjoyable. Frequently when reading true crime, the characters and outcome are familiar (think Laci, O.J., Menendez brothers). I admit I was not aware of At Any Cost, the story of Shele Danishefsky and her younger husband Rod Covlin, but the …
Jenny Lawson is brave, and funny, and smart, and willing to share her struggles with anxiety and depression in her blog posts, essays, and books. Why “brave?” I share some of her afflictions and, while I totally bought in to the concept that depression won’t lose its stigma until people are willing to talk openly …
I generally enjoy thrillers, with legal and financial being my favorite subgenres. There are several authors that are consistently ones whose latest books are always on my TBR shelf as soon as I can get them, and John Lescroart has been on that list since I first came across his work in the late 1980s. …
Maybe it’s pandemic fatigue. Or maybe it’s just me. My expectations may be a bit high? But when Mary Kubica is referred to repeatedly as the “queen of the domestic thriller,” and I am so ready for a grabber — you know, the kind where you just want people to leave you the bleep ALONE …
I admit it. The phrase “women’s fiction” generally makes me shudder. I don’t quite equate it with the phrase “bodice ripper,” but almost. Maybe it’s because I took over as manager of a nice suburban branch library from a woman who had done everything she could to run it into the ground (like getting rid …
I have enjoyed several of Harlan Coben’s books, but have found him inconsistent — actually it is likely I who am inconsistent, he’s probably just fine. But in any case, I was happy to receive a copy of Win from Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley in exchange for this honest review. The story begins with …
One of my all-time favorite TV shows is The Wire, for which David Simon was the creator, show runner, executive producer and head writer. Between that show and the podcast Serial and subsequent book Adnan’s Story, I was fairly well convinced that Baltimore had just about the most corrupt law enforcement and city/county government around. …
I’m a true crime buff, and one of my recent favorites was Bad Blood, John Carreyrou’s exhaustive tale of Elizabeth Holmes and her scam company Theranos, so I expected to like Bad Medicine by Charlotte Bismuth. I received a copy from Atria/One Signal Books and NetGalley in exchange for this honest review. Subtitled “Catching New …
I wasn’t sure I even wanted to read When The Stars Go Dark, having been underwhelmed by The Paris Wife (I thought Circling The Sun was OK — I know, I’m in the minority on both these titles). But when I read the blurb from Kristin Hannah that said it was “….guaranteed to keep the …