For fans of Isabel Allende, quality fiction in general, and historical fiction in particular, The Long Petal of the Sea (to be published in early 2020) is another stunning work by an amazing author. Allende’s books do what my favorites do: they teach while they entertain. A Long Petal of the Sea follows a young …
Thanks to Harper Collins and NetGalley, I was fortunate to receive a copy of Ann Patchett’s latest book, The Dutch House, in exchange for my honest review. I was a big fan of Bel Canto and Commonwealth, so my expectations were quite high going in… The story focuses on Maeve Conroy and her younger brother …
I’ve been a non-meat eater for over 30 years…but I sometimes eat fish–or as my friend put it, “oh, you’re a HYPOCRITE!” So I don’t exactly qualify as a vegetarian, let alone a vegan…but I aspire to eat healthy, so I was very happy to receive a copy of Nadine Hom’s Vegan Everything from The …
I’m not totally clear what an “emotion scientist” does, but have long been interested in the concept of “emotional intelligence” and Brene Brown’s shame-focused research. Dr. Marc Brackett, Ph.D., is a professor in in the Child Study Center at Yale , and the founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence.Thanks to Celadon Books …
Nearly ten years ago I read Amy Waldman’s book The Submission, in which a Muslim woman submits a blind entry in a contest for a post-9/11 memorial, and the selection of her design sets off a complicated series of events. Ms. Waldman’s latest book, A Door in the Earth, revolves around an Afghan-American woman named …
I have a TBR list that is way too long, and Lisa Jewell’s The Family Upstairs has been repeatedly sinking to the bottom of that list for way too long! I generally like the psychological suspense/woman in danger genre, so when Atria Books and NetGalley provided me with a copy in exchange for my honest …
An American Spy is the third in the series by Steinhauer featuring super spy Milo Weaver. Thanks to St. Martin’s/Minotaur Press, I received a copy in exchange for my honest review. I’m truly unclear why I wanted to try this third one…I read the first two, and in my review for the second one, I …
50 Hikes with Kids is another handy guide for anyone looking for guidance on finding great places to hike (a previous title in the series covered Washington and Oregon, this time the subject is California). Again, the title is being promoted as something designed for “…parents, educators, and caregivers that want to spark a love of …
I was looking for something good in the historical fiction genre so was happy to receive a copy of Singapore Sapphire, set in 1910 China in exchange for my honest review (thanks, Berkley Publishing and NetGalley). This is the first in a planned series by A.M. Stuart featuring Harriet Gordon and Inspector Robert Curran, and …
Thanks to RandomHouse/Ballantine and NetGalley for a copy of The Perfect Wife by JP Delaney in exchange for an honest review. I’m very fond of woman-in-danger psychological thrillers, so I was eager to read this book. For some reason, I kept having trouble getting into it, but it turned out to be a fun read. …
I received an advance copy of William Kent Krueger’s This Tender Land from Atria Books and NetGalley in return for this honest review. My brief advice is, if you are one of the MANY people who loved this spring’s smash hit from Delia Owens entitled Where The Crawdads Sing, definitely add this one to your …
Apparently, The Last Widow by Karin Slaughter, featuring the characters Will Trent and Sara Linton, is the NINTH in the Will Trent series…who knew? Apparently, LOTS of people! And I am a sucker for the psychological-thriller-woman-in-danger genre, so it sounded like a good fit for me. The overview gives three clues: A mysterious kidnapping, a …
NOTE: some of this is taken from my review of deMille’s The Cuban Affair (2017). Nineteen years ago, someone whose opinions on books NEVER matched mine recommended Lion’s Game by Nelson DeMille, and I LOVED it. Since then, I’ve grabbed every new DeMille book and been puzzled by the inconsistency: for example, Night Fall was terrific. The Panther? Not so …
I graduated high school in the mid-sxties, so the time period of the Manson murders was right up my alley. The killing spree took place over two nights, when the “family” of young followers of Charles Manson murdered seven people. There didn’t seem to be any discernible motive, and the nationwide freakout that followed seemed …
I was happy to receive a copy of Ruth Ware’s new novel, The Turn of the Key, from Gallery/Pocket Books/Scout Press and NetGalley in return for my honest review. I enjoyed The Woman in Cabin 10 and didn’t really care for The Death of Mrs. Westaway, so I was pretty neutral in my expectations for …
AsI have stated before, I have been a diehard fan of Robert Crais/Elvis Cole/Joe Pike for THIRTY YEARS. Seriously, when The Monkey’s Raincoat was published in 1987, I was working in a public library, grabbed it as soon as it came in, and was HOOKED. Since then, this has been one of the most reliable …
Chances Are, by Richard Russo, is one of those great summer reads for Boomers: set on an island, with reminiscences galore, back to the late 60s-early 70s, with references to Vietnam, college adventures and relationships, and then the counterpoint of the kind of wistfulness that people in their mid-sixties get when they look back at …
I love Laura Lippman (particularly her Tess Monaghan mystery series), so I was happy to receive a copy of her latest book, Lady in the Lake, thanks to Harper Collins/William Morrow and NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Lippman has taken her Baltimore roots and her experience as a newspaper journalist and based her …
My true crime interest in general and the fact that I have family members living in north San Diego County ensured that I REALLY wanted to read She’s So Cold by Donald McInnis, and thanks to J&E Publications and NetGalley, I received a copy in exchange for this honest review. Back in 1998, a 12-year-old …
The Missing Wife by Sam Carrington sounded like another woman-in-danger-psychological-thriller novel. It has an interesting premise: Louisa is turning forty, living with her husband and their teenage daughter, and her newborn son (surprise!) She is exhausted, having trouble remembering and focusing (including on important things, like “did I feed the baby?” And “where did I …