I have tried and tried to read Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel’s blockbuster hit from 2014, but just haven’t been able to get into it – so I can’t say I am a fan of hers. But after reading the blurb for her latest, The Glass Hotel, I was happy to receive a copy …
A friend whose opinion I value HUGELY recommended Rhys Bowen to me, so I was happy to receive a copy of Above The Bay Of Angels from Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Apparently, many of Ms. Bowen’s books move along crisply and bring the reader into another world (just …
In 2018, I read and reviewed An Anonymous Girl by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen, noting “…I may be burned out due to reading too MANY of these plucky-heroine-in-danger stories, but I also was not impressed with the writing. It seemed geared for a relatively low reading level, strong on plot but weak (IMHO) on …
I’ve read and reviewed two earlier books by Susie Steiner featuring Detective Manon Bradshaw (Missing, Presumed in 2016 and Persons Unknown in 2017) and really liked both of them (****), so I was happy to get a copy of Remain Silent, Ms. Steiner’s latest featuring Detective Bradshaw. In my earlier reviews, I expressed my fondness …
I love Erik Larson’s books Devil In the White City, Dead Wake, and In The Garden of Beasts. I always learn a LOT while enjoying the way his nonfiction reads like fiction. He’s one of my favorite authors, so I was particularly pleased to have a copy of The Splendid and the Vile from Crown …
Pacific Coasting is just amazing! It is informative, helpful, entertaining, and downright GORGEOUS. Subtitled “A Guide to the Ultimate Road Trip, from Southern California to the Pacific Northwest,” it covers the entire Pacific Coast of the Continental U.S., with clearly defined sections for the various regions in each of the three states. It includes interesting …
Katherine Pennavaria is a well-known expert on genealogy. In addition to being a professor a Western Kentucky University, she is a frequent presenter at both national and state conferences and the author of books on genealogy as well as a column published regularly in a library-specific journal. Her Genealogy for Beginners is a book that …
What incredible timing…the news today is full of the coronavirus (COVID-19) which allegedly originated with animals and came from Asia and everywhere I look, people are wearing masks, more or less freaking out, and are generally TENSE as we see the initial outbreak begin to expand, revealing how completely unprepared we are in this country …
The outline of the story of what happened to Shan’ann Watts of Colorado in August 2018 is fairly well known. She, along with her two daughters and the son who was due the following January, disappeared and her husband Chris was all over the media, pleading for their safe return. TBH I had no idea …
Saving Sara is an extremely detailed memoir of a woman’s struggle with food addiction. Born into an academic family, Sara Somers spent nearly fifty years battling her demons, whose names are sugar, grains, and simple carbs. Sara remembers incidents from as early as nine years old, going through her times as a camper (stealing food), …
I generally don’t like to write a review when I felt like I HAD to keep reading just to finish a book…which rarely happens, BTW. I’ve pretty much been willing to read ANYTHING my whole life! And I realize I have a less than stellar memory as I get older – but whoa, why didn’t …
The Boy From the Woods is Harlan Coben’s latest, and will likely be another very successful thriller. The story has several threads throughout…all related, and all done well. Naomi Pine is a miserable teenager who is mocked and bullied relentlessly by her classmates. She is a complete outcast who dreams of fitting in with the …
Hot topics in fiction these days: the opioid crisis in this country (horrific), police procedurals (always popular), and family dynamics (an endless source of material). Liz Moore, author of Heft (which I could not read because the premise freaked me out) and The Unseen World, has written a seriously good (and very serious) novel that …
About a year ago, I read and reviewed Judgment by Joseph Finder, a standalone novel featuring Judge Juliana Brody, a happily married up-and-coming judicial star who goes to a legal conference and does something out of character: she has a one-night stand. All kinds of legal (and other) wrangling went on as a result, and I …
As I have mentioned in earlier reviews of Robert Dugoni’s books, I first “met” Seattle Homicide Detective Tracy Crosswhite in My Sister’s Grave and I loved her, so I then eagerly read Her Final Breath. Following along in short order (he definitely can crank out books at a fast clip) were In the Clearing, The Trapped Girl, Close to Home …
Thomas Perry is one of my husband’s favorite authors, so I am relying heavily on his opinion as I rate A Small Town, which came to us thanks to Grove Atlantic / Mysterious Press and NetGalley in exchange for my (our?) honest review. The small town referenced in the title is recovering after being pretty …
I enjoyed both Bring Me Back and Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris, so I am grateful to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for an advance copy of her latest book, The Dilemma, in return for my honest review. I read this one yesterday, and I keep thinking about it, which ought to be worth …
I REALLY liked Catherine Steadman’s Something In the Water from 2018, so I was happy to receive a copy of her latest, Mr. Nobody, from Random House-Ballantine and NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review. The protagonist, Dr. Emma Lewis, is a psychiatrist who has been to examine a man who has apparently washed up …
Full disclosure: I am not a fan of the current President. Secondary disclosure: that is perhaps the understatement of the year…but I was intrigued by the premise of Diarrhea Diaries: Trump’s Tweets That Give Us the Runs, edited by Robert J. Emery, who also writes novels under the name R.J. Eastwood. Mr. Emery is a …
While I was reading Therese Anne Fowler’s contemporary novel A Good Neighborhood, it felt like a very simple story, but there is so much going on, it’s going to make a great book club selection! Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley, I stayed up late into the night to find out WTH was going …