That it is better 100 guilty Persons should escape than that one innocent Person should suffer, is a Maxim that has been long and generally approved. - Benjamin Franklin, letter to Benjamin Vaughn dated March 14, 1785 On the evening of October 30, 1975, Martha Moxley, a beautiful fifteen-year-old girl residing in the prestigious Belle Haven enclave of the very affluent town of Greenwich ...
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Review of “We Could Be Beautiful” by Swan Huntley
Catherine West is a wealthy trust fund (43 year old) kid living the good life in Manhattan. Like many wealthy people, she seems to have it all from the outside. Her days are spent bag shopping and lunching (though she doesn't actually eat anything). Her nights are filled with gallery openings other society events. Somehow she manages to squeeze in massages on Sundays. She barely has time for ...
Review of The Girls by Emma Cline
The Girls , Emma Cline's highly-anticipated debut novel, is the story of 14 year old Evie, growing up in 1960's California, and how she becomes entangled with a violent cult. Evie is now an adult who has, for the most part, moved on with her life. The story toggles back and forth between the two timelines in a well-paced and seamless manner. The parallels with the Manson killings of that time ...
Review of “Britt-Marie Was Here” by Fredrik Backman
Britt-Marie was an intensely unlikable woman in My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry. Perhaps that's because she was so unhappy herself. I'm so glad I was able to get to know her better in Britt-Marie Was Here. It should be mentioned that, although I highly recommend reading My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry, and you will be even more impressed by Britt-Marie in ...
Review of “The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper” by Phaedra Patrick
Arthur Pepper misses his wife. It has been a year since she passed away. Miriam and Arthur were married for forty happy, peaceful, uneventful years. It's not until Arthur steels himself to the task of sorting her things that he discovers a charm bracelet he'd never seen before. A telephone call to a number on one of the charms prompts Arthur to begin a journey in search of the truth of his wife's ...
Review of “Free Days with George: Learning Life’s Little Lessons from One Very Big Dog” by Colin Campbell
Full disclosure: I own a Newf. Therefore, there was little to no chance this book was getting less than five stars no matter what. But I'm happy to say those five stars are well-deserved! I read this book in less than a day. It's a fast-feel good read and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Colin Campbell was a man who'd hit a rough spot in life. His wife, the love of his life, left him suddenly and with no ...
Review of “Modern Girls” by Jennifer S. Brown
Rarely, upon finishing a book, am I at such a loss for words. What I want to know is: Where is the rest of the book? Modern Girls had the potential to be so much more... Rose and Dottie, a Jewish mother and daughter living in 1930's Manhattan, become pregnant at the same time. Neither is exactly thrilled to learn that they are in the family way. Rose is in her early 40's and will ...
Review of “The A to Z of You and Me” by James Hannah
This book filled me with a sense of bittersweet melancholy from start to finish. Ivo is a young man with diabetes who didn't take very good care of himself and, as a result, his kidneys have failed and he's in a hospice with (mostly) elderly people who are (mostly) dying of cancer. Throughout the book we learn the details of how he lost Mia, the love of his life. The story of Mia and Ivo, which ...
Review of “Before the Fall” by Noah Hawley
Though I probably shouldn't have started reading Before the Fall during a super-turbulent flight, I will say that it's certainly a page-turner. We know how the story ends (begins). The plane crashes. Nine people are dead. There are two survivors; Scott Burroughs, an artist who was offered a free ride to the city from a woman he's met on the Vineyard, and her four year old son. Beyond that, we are ...
Review of “Glory Over Everything: Beyond the Kitchen House” by Kathleen Grissom
"I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person now I was free. There was such a glory over everything. The sun came up like gold through the trees, and over the fields, and I felt like I was in heaven." -Harriet Tubman I absolutely loved The Kitchen House and was thrilled when I heard Kathleen Grissom was writing a sequel. Though Glory Over Everything: Beyond the Kitchen House is a ...
