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 ...
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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 ...
Review of “The Midnight Watch: A Novel of the Titanic and Californian” by David Dyer
The Midnight Watch provides us with a beautifully written, compelling, and moving account of the failure of the Californian, a fellow White Star Line ship, to respond to the distress signals of the Titanic in those fateful early morning hours of April 15, 1912. Eight individual white rockets indicating distress were fired from the deck of Titanic. Second Officer Herbert Stone, of the Californian, ...
Review of “Dodgers” by Bill Beverly
Dodgers is not what I would call a mystery/thriller or even a crime novel in the strictest sense. It's definitely more of a coming-of-age story. East is a young L.A. gang member who has recently failed to protect a house he was in charge of from a police raid. His Uncle, the leader, sends him to Wisconsin along with 3 other gang members, including his younger half brother, to execute a judge who ...
Review of “Jane Steele” by Lyndsay Faye
Jane Steele is a well-written, fun, and quirky read. I haven't read Jane Eyre and wondered if it would make a difference in my ability to follow the book. It didn't. Each chapter begins with a passage from Jane Eyre but this book is its own story and you won't be impeded in any way if you haven't read it. (Though I wonder at how I, calling myself a reader, could have made it this many years ...
