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Janet Evanovich

Fiction 2024/ 312 pages

It has been probably 10 years since I read a Janet Evanovich, but it was sitting on a table at the library calling to me, and so I picked it up! Immediately I was transported back into the characters of Stephanie Plum, Ranger, Morelli, and Lula.

The book opens with Stephanie bemoaning that fact that she said yes to two marriage proposals in the last week, and "celebrated big" with both of them! But the book isn't about her romantic problems, even though she is facing a moral, ethical, physical, and emotional challenge. It is still about her work, and she is still a bail bonds professional.

Some of the people she is trying to track down include Zoran, who, by all accounts, seems to a vampire, and Robin Hoodie, who wears a mask and a hoodie whenever he commits a crime, and his crime is always to hijack a commercial truck and then drive it to a homeless encampment and open the back. One truck was full of cookies. One was filled with rolls of toilet paper. Another was a soft-serve ice cream truck. Another was a UPS truck, full of many different items (one homeless person scored a brand-new iPad!)

If you haven't read a Stephanie Plum novel, filled with mystery and lots of humor, don't start with this one. I would go back to One for the Money and Two for the Dough.

(If anyone asked me, but of course no one did, I would have named this book Wedding Bell Blues or Fang).

November 2025

The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World

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Laura Imai Messina

Fiction 2021 | 400 pages

A man named Suzuki and his wife place a phone booth in their garden near Whale mountain, four hours from Tokyo. The disconnected phone is blessed or is magical. If you pick up the receiver, you can speak to loved ones who have died. Many people journey to this phone booth in their grief to speak with spouses, children, parents, siblings, best friends.

Yui was one such person. On March 11, 2011, a deadly typhoon hit this area of Japan. Many people were killed, including Yui's mother and seven-year-old daughter (whose bodies would later be found, hugging each other). Yui heard about this phone booth from a man she interviewed for the call-in radio show she hosts. Yui decided to visit this phone booth. While there, walking the gardens of Bell Gardia, she meets a man, Takeshi, who lost his wife on the same tragic day. As Yui and Takeshi both lived in Tokyo, they began to drive together to Bell Gardia, once a month. It wasn't long before a deep and abiding friendship formed between them. Takeshi also has a daughter, three years old and now motherless. We follow this relationship between Yui and Takeshi throughout the book.

"Tender" is the word I use to describe this book. Some reviewers complained that there was no plot, and they are right. It is a witness to how grief unfolds differently for different people, and how we cope with our grief and our sorrow, and our sometimes happiness and joy, as we learn to rebuild a life without these vital people .

I really like Messina's writing. I found it to be gentle, authentic, revealing, even vulnerable. Her descriptions of her characters, as well as her clear comprehension of grief, made this book come alive for me. One interesting technique she used would be to expand her writing by elaborating on something she just wrote about. For example, there is a chapter that simply lists the differences Yui observes in her daughter and Takeshi's daughter, Hana. She makes another list of the things grandma and Hana liked to do together, such as, "Opening their mouths when it rained and saying, 'How delicious! Compliments to the chef!'"

There is no question ... I really like this book and recommend it. It is a weekend read; not very long. Thank you, Sara, for this book club suggestion.

October 2025

The Good Liar

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Nicholas Searle

Fiction 2016| 352 pages

The Good Liar begins delightfully. Two people, Roy and Betty, nearing 80, meet for dinner through a dating app. Well, this could be an interesting story, no? It doesn't take long to figure out that Roy is the most despicable and irredeemable character I have met in a book. Roy is a dapper, well dressed and spoken, long-time conman. He is now in his 80s and is a misogynist, a selfish, psychopathic schemer. He smooth-talks Betty, who's much wealthier than he is, and moves in with her. Betty gives the appearance of being naive, trusting, gentle, forgiving, non-demanding ... an easy target. But you can feel it right from the start. Betty is not who she is pretending to be.

The book takes us back to four incidents that occurred earlier in his life, that explain or, more precisely, demonstrate, how Roy became this vile man. Unfortunately, the flashbacks to Roy's earlier years are, for the most part, infinitely less engaging than the present day with Roy and Betty, as dishonest and dysfunctional as their relationship is. As two reviewers have written, these early stories (maybe1/3 of the book) are dull and flat. I must agree. (Although the last flashback, when he is 14, held my interest.) In the present day, we watch as Roy's and Betty's relationship grows and the cunning and dishonesty builds.

The context for their history is Nazi Germany, the Russians, and concentration camps. Rather disturbing.

I do not recommend this book.

October 2025

The Book of Lost Hours

Hayley Gelfuso | Fiction

2025, 391pages

In The Book of Lost Hours there is a place that looks like a library. It is where people have died and can create a book of their memories for storage before they completely crossover. Certain people, just a few, are "timekeepers" who can cross into and out of time space and consult these books. Some of the timekeepers are dead, some are still alive.

We first meet Lisavet, who has been a timekeeper, at 19, for nine years, but after some Renaissance visiting in Europe, she seems to be stuck in 1938 Germany. Then we meet Amelia who is 16 and a brand-new timekeeper, learning the ropes.

100 pages in, neither young timekeeper has returned to the present day.. I find this un-grounding ... like they are lost in the past in time space. At 100 pages in, there is no plot, but since Lisavet just met Amelia's uncle, Ernest Duquesne, you know a plot is coming. I am finding the book not captivating, confusing, and boring.

So, I have quit.

October 2025

The Lion Women of Tehran

Marjan Kamami

Fiction 2024 | 326 pages

The Lion Women of Tehran is the tale of two girls who meet in elementary school in the 1950s in Tehran. They develop a lifelong friendship with a large gap in the middle years when betrayal separates them. This book tells us what they encountered during their lives.

From the beginning, they have quite different personalities. Homa is talkative, a risk-taker, opinionated. Though she is only seven at the start of the book, she soon becomes a communist, driven in part by the fact that her father is in prison for being a communist. Ellie is more reserved, less socially and politically conscious. No surprise that, in their teenage years, this becomes a source of tension between the two, when Homa begins to organize and protest, and Ellie isn't very interested. With their love and respect for each other, however, their friendship thrives.

It doesn't take too long for college plans to be interrupted by an accidental betrayal, and its resulting prison sentence. And then a husband for one of them, and a baby by rape for the other.

The setting of this book ... the context of the culture, norms, and politics of Iran ... is fascinating. I loved learning about their food and their families and the way family members relate to one another. I was quite surprised to learn how long has been the fight for women's right in this country, and how complex it is.

The author draws you into the lives of Homa and Ellie, and where they diverge and when they converge. It is believable ... both heartbreaking and heartwarming. Kamali's writing is lovely, making this an easy, rewarding, and engaging read.

My heart is carrying these two women with me, a few days after the finishing the book. There are surprises and twists, and anguish and disappointment, and yet the bond between them is so very strong.

I sincerely recommend The Lion Women of Tehran. This is our book club book for this month. Thank you to Pam for introducing this book to us.

October 2025

You Belong Here

Megan Miranda

Fiction 2025/ 338 pages

(The first part of this review is borrowed from Jayme on Goodreads. An excellent summary ... I can do no better!)

"Wyatt college is nestled in a picturesque small town in Virginia’s Blue Ridge mountains. But, it has an ugly history - a HAZING tradition called “The Howling”, which went horribly wrong one year. When the wind whistles, the undergraduates must run from home base through the dense woods and back to campus without getting “caught” by any Seniors wearing masks.

Beckett Bowery was a senior at the college the year that tragedy struck. Two local men dead, and her roommate, Adalyn Vale, on the run, never to be seen again, after being suspected of starting the fire which claimed their lives. Beckett was accused of being her accomplice and though never proven, she was asked to finish her senior year at a “sister college” in London.

For the last two decades, Beckett has stayed away from Wyatt, despite both of her parents being Professors at the college. Then her daughter, Delilah, applies to Wyatt College secretly and accepts the full scholarship she is offered. Beckett is worried that the town will still remember the accusations.

TURNS OUT, SHE WAS RIGHT

Not less than a week later, Beckett is awoken by her cell phone in the middle of the night. Her daughter’s name is illuminated, but all she hears is a gasp before the call is dropped."

(Andrea's voice now). The book takes off from there. Beckett gets to the campus to try and find her daughter Delilah, who is not receiving her texts and not replying to email. After Delilah is found, the story is all about who is trying to intimidate her or hurt her. There is considerable evidence that someone is. Lots of action occurs at Beckett's parent's house, which is near to the campus. Beckett and Delilah kind of take it over, as Beckett's parents are traveling internationally. Eventually, someone else is killed ... someone who looks like Delilah ... and the tale becomes more complex.

This is not my favorite book. There is too much unnecessary information (is it important that Beckett's dad is selling antiques?) And the characters are shallow and caricatures. Beckett is an anxious mother. Delilah is a near-perfect daughter. And there are too many cops, so the relationships with them gets muddy and confusing. I just don't care for Miranda's style. It is a bit sophomoric, to me.

So, read this if you want something fun and light with some mystery. I never considered putting it down ... it is rather engaging. It is a "Book of the Month Club" book for July.

October 2025

North Woods

Daniel Mason

Fiction 2023 | 372 pages

North Woods begins a little slowly for me, trying to wrap my arms around characters, plot, and writing style. But then, about page 30, the character of the apple appears, everything falls into place, and the book hooks me. The Apple is a character, not a thing. It had its own passion, purpose, insight, inspiration.

The story of North Woods begins when a young couple abandon their Puritan community and travel to and through the north woods of Massachusetts. They build a small, rustic cabin to live in. We then learn all about the people who inhabit the cabin (and change it into a yellow house) for the next, perhaps 150, years or so. There is the apple orchardist, a crime reporter, a pair of spinster twins, a mother and her schizophrenic son, even a beetle ... we get to observe the house and the forest it is in, through the beetle's eyes.

While the chapters talk about different inhabitants and move forward the story, Mason creates links (sometimes perhaps a bit too coincidentally) among the characters. A relative, a connection to True Crimes magazine, a lost letter. And they are totally delightful. While Mason introduces each character and you don't know who they are, you are informed within a couple of pages in each chapter. His characters are so unique, one from the other, and some you get to know quite in depth, while others are more fleeting. My favorite are the spinster twins. Such depth of their love. Ultimately, such depth of their dysfunction.

The story, true to its title, is also about the woods in which they live. Trees, animals, flowers, rain, all the many changes over time.

The end confused me. This is the first time I think I had to go research a book with the question, "what does the ending mean?" Once I learned that, it made total sense. Do not ignore the spiritual messages, the role of death, and the inclusion of magical realism in this book.

And I am left with a question. If you have read this book, or you do read it, what happened to the two bodies that were under the kitchen floorboards? Someone must have found them! What did they do about them?

My college roommate Janet suggested North Woods to me. She still knows me well, 54 years later! In case it is unclear, I absolutely recommend this book. Enjoy the characters, the story, the soul, the woods, the humor, the depth, the visual vitality of nature and a yellow house..

October 2025

The Smell of Other People’s Houses

September 2025

Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock

Fiction 2016/ 230 pages

The story is primarily about teenage girls who are best friends, and their relationships with their younger siblings and their parents. Males join the cast a bit later and are also important. It is 1950 in Alaska, a time of significant change, when Alaska because a state and land laws change. The characters are indigenous ... Inupiaq, Athabascan, and others, and white.

The title is a reference to how different cultures and people are perceived and understood (by themselves and others) through the lens of their homes, customs, and traditions. Differences, yes, but so many similarities also. There is tragedy, fun, love, sorrow.

What is astounding about Hitchcock's writing, in this, her debut novel, is how she differentiates the characters by customs, traditions, history, family status, ability, color. Of course Dumpling, who is Athabascan, will see a situation differently from Ruth, who is white. The parents in this novel are also quite different in their parenting style. One of the dads is supportive of all the children, whether they are his or not. Another dad is abusive and violent.

One young woman becomes pregnant, and she is sent off to a convent ... an entire story in itself! There she discovers the links between her family and the nuns.

Three young men are stowaways on a ferry, and their fascinating story becomes its own subplot. (But don't worry ... they all tie together in the end.)

There is a character list and a map at the beginning of the book, which I found imperative. Nevertheless, using the character list all through the book, I could not keep track of who is who. This many characters was an unnecessary error on the part of the author, in my humble opinion, and is why The Smell of Other People's Houses earned three hearts from me instead of four.

Yes, an interesting and visual read.

Thank you Carol for the loan.

September 2025

Miss Benson’s Beetle

September 2025