Dave Pell’s “Please Scream Inside Your Heart: Breaking News and Nervous Breakdowns in the Year That Wouldn’t End” is a kind of time capsule of the year 2020, month by month, by the man who calls himself the managing editor of the internet. Pell’s newsletter, NextDraft, is apparently well-known, but I admit I went into …
I’ve generally enjoyed J.A. Jance’s mysteries, although I have always preferred the series featuring J.P. Beaumont (Seattle-based detective) to those with Joanna Brady or Ali Reynolds (which kind of surprises me, given my usual preference for well-written female protagonists). Possibly it’s the fully developed, well-rounded though flawed character of recovered alcoholic Beau and my relating …
Another librarian’s review summed this one up perfectly: “Horrifyingly thorough!” This book was written by two “superfans” who watched every season of the Bachelor — so we dont have to! Despite the subtitle referencing the “secret to finding love and fame on America’s favorite reality. show.” they really don’t focus all that much on finding …
Wikipedia defines cryptocurrency this way: “A cryptocurrency, crypto-currency, or crypto is a collection of binary data which is designed to work as a medium of exchange.” Um, OK. But it’s never made sense to me. If I have a Bitcoin, or some Bitcoin, what do I actually HAVE? And how can I “spend” it? And in …
Back when I had just received a cancer diagnosis, I found Kate Bowler’s book Everything Happens For A Reason to be entertaining, inspiring, comforting– all the things you want from a book at a time like that! Recently, I read her follow-up book, No Cure For Being Human, in which she addressed the fact that …
Apparently I am in the minority, at least among my friends (both IRL and online) — I haven’t read either of Elizabeth Srout’s books featuring Lucy Barton: 2016’s My Name Is Lucy Barton or 2018’s Anything Is Possible. So when I began her eighth book, Oh William!, I lacked any familiarity with Lucy, a plainspoken …
As a child, I took ballet for several years. I am pretty sure my parents were trying to find some way to make me graceful…oh well. I do enjoy stories and films about ballet and ballerinas, and love watching dancers perform well. In any case, the premise of Rachel Kapelke-Dale’s The Ballerinas sounded like just …
If asked whether I was a fan of Diane Chamberlain’s books, my instant response would be yes…thinking of Necessary Lies, the first book our neighborhood read together. Looking back, I realize I have found her inconsistent (The Dream Daughter was only 2 stars, but I’m not much of a fan of time travel stories). But …
In 2018 (coincidentally, the year I received an unfortunate medical diagnosis), I happened to read Kate Bowler’s Everything Happens For A Reason (And Other Lies I’ve Loved). It hit me at just the right time, as her ability to describe the experience of battling cancer helped me face my own journey. Described as a “Christian …
I was REALLY looking forward to reading The Last Case by David Guterson, mostly because I loved Snow Falling on Cedars. Thanks to Knopf Dougleday and NetGalley, I received a copy in exchange for this honest review…and I REALLY wanted to love it. The story sounded like it was perfect for a well-written book by …
OK, I admit it:over the years, I have enjoyed watching and discussing episodes of both The Bachelor and The Bachelorette with my sister. Rachel Lindsay appeared on both shows, first as a candidate for perennial character Nick Viall (what is up with him returning over and over?) and subsequently as the first Black Bachelorette, where …
True confession time: I was happy to receive The Left-Handed Twin, Thomas Perry’s latest effort in the Jane Whitefield series (thanks to Mysterious Press and NetGalley) in exchange for my honest review, and even happier to give it to my husband to read first. Like Jane, he was raised in Western New York State and …
I haven’t read many of Jacquelyn Mitchard’s novels (although I recall Deep End of the Ocean — I looked it up and it was 1997, which shocked me!), but I am happy that I received a copy of The Good Son from Harlequin Trade Publishing/MIRA and NetGalley in exchange for this honest review. This story …
I have been reading and enjoying Stephanie Plum’s adventures as a bond enforcement agent (bounty hunter?) for twenty-five+ years (gasp!), ever since One For The Money. And everytime a new one comes out, it makes me happy to know I’m in for hours of entertainment. Seriously, I can’t think of any that let me down…so …
I’m fairly sure I hadn’t previously read anything by Joe Hart, but I was happy to get a copy of Or Else (thanks to Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley) in exchange for my honest review. When they were kids, Andy Drake was friends with a girl named Rachel. As time went on, Rachel got into …
Last month I read and reviewed Lauren Groff’s new book…the one by the author everyone RAVED about last year? The one so many people are raving about THIS year? And, admittedly, I felt like a loner because I JUST. DID. NOT. CARE. (That’s a feeling I don’t have that often, and when I do it …
Until this week, I had not read anything by Ann Cleeves. When I received The Heron’s Cry in audiobook format and realized it was the SECOND in the Two Rivers Series (#1 was The Long Call), I went back and read the print version of the first book in order to be familiar with the …
As an avid mystery fan, I’m not sure why I had never read anything by Ann Cleeves, author of the Shetland and Vera series (neither of which I ever got into). But then I received a review copy of her 2021 book The Heron’s Cry from St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley in exchange for my …
When I first read T. Jefferson Parker’s Laguna Heat back in 1985, I had recently moved to Santa Cruz and was ecstatic to be living in a small beach town again — because I grew up in South Orange County (specifically in and around Laguna Beach) and graduated high school in 1965. So I know …
When asked the name of my favorite author, the name Elizabeth George is what first comes to mind. As I said in 2018, reviewing The Punishment She Deserves (5 stars), “I LOVE Elizabeth George, and have been reading the Inspector Lynley novels (or, as I prefer to call them, the Lynley-Havers novels) since the mid-1990s …