My Rating: 4.7
Jane is a dog walker in the McMansion/Stepford wife neighborhood in Alabama, until she meets recently widowed Eddie. His ex-wife and her best friend drowned and Jane sees this as her opportunity.
This is a fast paced thriller. I loved that everyone in it had a motive and there wasn't the token "innocent/nice" person. Everyone was angling for something and that kept me on my toes. A fun page turner.
My Rating: 4.8
In 1937 Martha Gellhorn travels to Spain alone to be a war correspondent. She writes as frantically as she can so she doesn't forget a single detail in the articles to be published by Colliers. She ends up falling in love with the up and coming Ernest Hemingway.
McLean does a phenomenal job of bringing both Gellhorn and the war to life with graphic beauty. As per other books I have read, Hemingway is not a likeable person. Thankfully, this book is mainly focused on Martha Gellhorn and not Hemingway. Martha had an incredible life and this has beautiful writing that captures to much. This makes me want to read Martha Gellhorn's actual writings of her war coverage.
My Rating: 5.0
Four kids - Star, Sissy, Walker (Walk) & Vincent - grow up together.
Fast forward to Walk being Chief of Police, Vincent about to be released from prison and Star having two children....13 year old Duchess has had a rough life as she tries to protect her little brother Robin from their drunk mother. Star loves them both deeply but will not win any mother of the year awards.
This book was so powerfully written - the story, the character and the words. It is sad, haunting and absolutely beautiful.
My Rating: 4.8
God's bank account can't be overdrawn. This spiritual checkbook shows you that you only need faith and God will see you through every circumstance.
This daily devotional is not light and fluffy nor overly heavy but somewhere in between. It leaves me with something that I can marinate on and continues to remind me of God's amazing promises that we can rely on. Click on the book link above and see if the kindle version is still free like it was when I got my copy as it is worth having.
My Rating: 4.6
An off-site company retreat meant to promote mindfulness and collaboration goes utterly wrong when an avalanche hits, survival trumps togetherness. Come Monday morning, how many members short will the team be?
This is a typical light thriller novel. I don't think that Ruth Ware is the best of the thriller writers but, listening to this on audio helped to make this enjoyable. I enjoyed the premise of the company Snoop and the setting.
My Rating: 4.7
An interpreter has come to The Hague to escape New York and work at the International Court. A woman of many languages and identities, she is looking for a place to finally call home.
This is a tough one to review. The writing was beautiful and rich. Kitamura captures everything so well - life in The Hague, the intricacies of being a translator in the Court and the complexities of the friendships but, very little happens. This is neither character driven nor plot driven. It unfolds in a quiet, lyrical way. I enjoyed it a lot but realize that this book won't be for everyone.
My Rating: 3.5
This recounts the famous Truman Capote murders from In Cold Blood. The family of four that were murdered by Perry Smith, Dick Hickock....and possibly one additional person.
Maybe it was my mood or maybe it was that this wasn't on audio like the other books I read in the series but, this was not near as enjoyable for me. I felt very pulled down as I got immersed into the multiple killings and the cold dysfunctional of the killers - which may mean it was well written but just not for me. Sadly disappointing when I enjoyed the other three books in this series. I did enjoy the tie in with history and that it made me research a few things.
I am always so excited when my Bookmarks Magazine comes in the mail and this issue was EXCEPTIONALLY good - 32 books! I don't think I have ever had so many books added to my queue from one issue. They had the books from the Booker Prize 2021 and also Recent Historical Fiction broken out by topic of geography. My queue overfloweth!! 😁
Let me know any good books you have read that you think I should add to my list.
Click on any book cover to go to Amazon and read the reviews.
My Rating: 1.0
A 14-year-old boy is subjected to relentless torment for having a lazy eye. Instead of resisting, the boy chooses to suffer in complete resignation. The only person who understands what he is going through is a female classmate who suffers similar treatment at the hands of her tormentors.
There are raw and realistic portrayals of bullying.
UGH! Despite the writing, the story line was horrific. It is graphic and uncomfortable about bullying and there didn't seem to be any redeeming value to the story,. Don't ask me why I stuck with it but I hope I can save you the time and you skip it.
My Rating: 4.7
In December 1926, Agatha Christie goes missing. Investigators find her empty car on the edge of a deep, gloomy pond. Her husband and daughter have no knowledge of her whereabouts, and England unleashes an unprecedented manhunt to find the up-and-coming mystery author. Eleven days later, she reappears, just as mysteriously as she disappeared.
It took me a while to puzzle out how I felt about this book. On one hand, it was a lot about nothing and, if it hadn't been Agatha Christie, this plot would never have been able to be pulled off. That being said, it was about a very mysterious little known time of Agatha Christie and I wanted to know what happened! After finishing the book I think that, as always, Ms. Benedict did an amazing job of researching and filling in the gaps with very plausible hypothesis of what happened. I also enjoyed getting to know Agatha's life.
My Rating: 4.9
This incredible book will help you to discover what it means to offer God your very best for His greatest purpose--to truly offer Him your utmost for His highest
In fictional books there are "light and fluffy" and there are "solid and meaty". This daily devotional book is definitely 'solid and meaty'. Each daily devotion is only one page long but you will find yourself reading to 'absorb' the meaning of each sentence and it will stay with you.
My Rating: 4.4
Nancy is a bold unapologetic Aussie living in Britain during the war. Nancy ends up being recruited as a spy and becomes the unsung French Resistance leader who was #1 on the Gestapo’s most-wanted list by the end of the war. Told in interweaving timelines around the four code names Nancy used during the war.
I enjoyed the audio book but, Nancy does come off as very brash. There was also a lot of extraneous details that I felt should have been edited out. Maybe I read this too closely on the heals of Trapeze which was a very similar plot line - so much so that I wondered if it was a remake of the same plot (no, this is based on real life spy Nancy Wake). If I had read this first, perhaps I would have rated it higher. All in all, an enjoyable read.
My Rating: 4.8
In WWII, Marian Sutro gets only a few short weeks of training to be a spy before she is dropped from the sky. Being bilingual, a quick study and willing to sign up were almost all the qualifications needed during the rampant War time recruiting. You quickly realize, along with Marian, how much France has changed, how risk taking and nerve-wracking it is to be a spy as well as despite her training, how little it has prepared her for having her boots on the ground.
This was my first, but definitely not my last Simon Mawer book. Excellent writing and plot. It really helped me to understand the recruiting of a spy and how ill equipped they were once they were deployed. Also, the subterfuge was even more than you would expect. Excellent!
My Rating: 4.9
This is about Ana, the fictional wife of Jesus. After the death of her betrothed, Ana marries Jesus and they live with his brothers families, and their mother, Mary in Nazareth
Having strong Christian beliefs, I wasn't sure how I would feel about this book. I truly enjoyed it. It captured very real characters and the time period. While there was much that I could have balked at, I went with it as a work of fiction. If you can put aside any personal beliefs and read this story as the fiction that it is, I think you may enjoy it. The writing is wonderful and she brings the relationship and the people to life. She obviously did a lot of research and handled this topic with reverence. It very much focuses on Jesus' humanity and takes the approach that, not only did he marry but, initially he has no idea of his purpose here on earth. A very entertaining piece of fiction.
My Rating: 4.6
Selena and Martha don't know each other but they both have sordid secrets. They are commuting home on the same train and both confess - Martha that she is sleeping with her married boss and Selena that she has seen her husband on the nanny cam having sex with their nanny. They part ways, presumably to never meet again. Then the nanny disappears and Martha starts texting Selena saying they should meet.
This is a quick paced fun thriller / whodunit. Like most of Unger's thrillers, I find you need to suspend logic and reality and just enjoy the ride.
