Writers seem to be rediscovering the feminist and ace reporter Nellie Bly. A vibrant, stubborn young woman thirsted to become a female journalist during the 1890s when women were relegated to the home. Bly was truly an independent woman, one of the early pioneers of...
It was refreshing to read a beach read in the winter. Though The Newcomer seems a bit long, I read it in one sitting. This is a classic fish-out-of-water story. The Newcomer revolves around Letty, formerly a Southern woman who now lives in NYC. When she finds her...
I’m trying to catch up on books lingering in the depths of my to-be-read pile and pulled this one out. The Gardener of Baghdad opens in a bookstore in Baghdad during modern times. With the current unrest and political fighting, Adnan, the owner of the bookstore, is...
Outlawed is an amazing speculative Western that really shakes up the Western genre by tackling the patriarchy, gender roles/identity, race, religion, fertility, and medicine in a unique way. The protagonist is irresistible: a no-nonsense, determined heroine, who has...
I read In a Town Called Paradox shortly after reading Edward Abbey’s Desert Solitaire, set in the same geographic area. Paradox is, in part, the story of how cowboy movies began to be made in Utah—which is diametrically opposed to Abbey’s vision of the West,...
Strange Deaths of the Last Romantic is a genre-breaking book with elements of thriller, science fiction, New Adult, and even romance. Which may or may not be a good thing. A boy commits suicide, but doesn’t die—he simply is transported to another location—sans...
I read this book because I adored Anita Diamant's earlier novel, The Red Tent. Dogtown, a real community on Cape Ann, Massachusetts, was populated by the downtrodden in early 1800s. When its industry moved elsewhere, those who remained included widows, orphans, freed...
A Question of Betrayal is the second in Anne Perry's spy series set just prior to World War II. I found it worked well as a stand-alone novel. Elena Standish’s grandfather, Lucas, has retired from British Intelligence, MI6. She follows in his footsteps, and on her...
Waiting for the Night Song is a genre-breaking work—literary fiction blended with suspense, racial issues, and climate change. The protagonist, Cadie Kessler, is an entomologist studying beetles and how they kill trees, which in turn, because of the increase in fuel,...
I finally pulled Circe off my to-be-read pile and, Wow! I loved it, even more than I did Miller’s earlier work, The Song of Achilles. As much of mythology is male-centric, it comes as a delight and a surprise that author Madeline Miller riffs on the myth of Circe and...
Valentine begins on February 14, 1976 when a fourteen-year-old Mexican girl, Gloria Ramirez, is picked up at a drive-in by a young oil field worker, Dale Strickland. He's the son of a preacher from Arkansas and reported to be a "good boy." However, hepped up on...
The Library of Legends is a gorgeous novel, a unique blend of historical fiction—based on Ms. Chang’s family stories about the second-Sino Japanese war—mysticism, and folklore. The storytelling is enchanting. The book, due to its broad scope, is told in an omniscient...
Set in present-day Massachusetts, Hinterland is stark and poetic, with far more beneath the surface than the words indicate. It is the third book I’ve read by L.M. Brown, and as in her others, melancholy runs like a ribbon through the pages as does (it seems strange...
Take It Back is so engrossing I stayed up until two a.m. reading it, then spent the next few hours replaying it in my head. Wow! Such a great book with challenging situations and legal and moral quandaries. Mariska Hargitay (Lieutenant Olivia Benson on Law & Order...
Blind Vigil is the seventh book in Coyle's Rick Cahill private investigator series, but reads well as a stand-alone book with just enough back story splashed in to orient the reader. Cahill is not on the best of terms with the local law enforcement stemming from days...
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