Alice Hoffman | FictionWhat is this book about? The reviews and the back cover imply that it is about Nora, a newly-divorced woman who moves into a rundown house with her two sons. She is a major character, but it really isn’t all about her and the influence she has on her neighborhood. Really, it…
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…
Patti Callahan Henry Fiction 2017/ 326 pages This book is very relational, very emotional, very much about self-discovery, self-awareness and insight. It actually was too much of all this for me. There was not enough plot or action moving life forward. The Bookshop at Water’s End is about two life-long friends, Lainey and Bonny, who…
Karen Russell Fiction 2025/ 419 pages A change in perspective is often useful. I was calling this book boring and then decided to read a few reviews to see if I was alone. Many people loved it, and a few reviewed is as “slow-moving.” This helped a lot! Once I saw it as slow-moving it…
Anthony Marra | Fiction 2022, 416 pages The story is about a young woman who emigrates from Italy to the US and, in 1941, is hired at Mercury Pictures. It sounded interesting! But I did not survive. The average reading level of best-selling books, across genres, is 7th-grade. While many novels (especially) are dumbed down…
John Boyne Novel 2017 | 580 pages I am struggling a bit to write this review. I guess it is because this book is more of an epic than a novel. It is large and deep and bold. Thank you, Pam, for recommending this book. Cyril’s mom is 16 and pregnant when she is thrown…
Kristin Hannah Historical Fiction 2024 | 480 pages The longest wait at the library finally came to an end! After months of moving up the wait list, I finally received a library copy of the immensely popular The Women. It was worth the wait. I thought it was a non-fiction book until I brought it home…
Scott Alexander Howard Fiction 2024 | 290 pages In this debut novel by Scott Alexander Howard, an intriguing premise is set. The valley where the townspeople live is surrounded by mountains. But the mountains are very unique. If you pass over them to the east, you will be in the same town twenty years ahead in…
Barbara Davis Fiction 2023 | 425 pages Thank you, Donna, for suggesting this fun book, The Echo of Old Books. Ashlyn is the proprietor of a rare books store and is gifted with psychometric abilities that allow her to read the vibrations of old books and sense their previous owners’ feelings. When she picks up an…
Kevin Kwan Fiction 2024 | 467 pages I loved this book from page one. I don’t know why books about superbly rich people keep showing up on my bookshelf these days but Lies and Weddings just seems to have none of the ostentatious excess of The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post. The super-rich characters in…