David Baldacci Fiction 2023/ 432 pages I have not been reading much of the “psychological thriller/mystery” genre lately, so perhaps what I am about to type is not very relevant, but once again, I found the mystery, it’s development, and it’s resolution, overly complex. Mickey Gibson, a single mother with two young children, and a…
Pip Williams Fiction 2021 | 376 pages A novel based on the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, we follow the life of Esme (Es, Essy, EssyMay), the daughter of one of the lexicographers (a person who compiles dictionaries). As a young motherless child, she often stays…
Bonnie Garmus Fiction 2022 | 400 pages From what I heard, I expected this book to be good. I didn’t expect to be astounding! This is a must read. Another debut novel to celebrate! The story is set in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Elizabeth Zot is a chemist. It goes without saying, a…
Priya Parker Nonfiction 2018 | 304 pages I was anxious when I first began reading this book. I thought I would have to learn all about how to design great gatherings and then put it in place in my work. Oh. Right. I don’t work anymore. So, I was able to read this book for…
Elizabeth Strout Fiction 2016 | 209 pages In the mid-1980s, Lucy Barton arrives at a New York City hospital with a ruptured appendix, develops a mysterious illness, and is in the hospital for nine weeks. This is before cell phones and in the midst of the aids epidemic. One day, Lucy awakens to find her…
Yuval Noah Harari Nonfiction 2015 | 443 pages We all know we are Homo sapiens, but did you know that there were multiple species of humans, as few as six, and perhaps as many as 14? Homo erectus, Homo ergaster, and Homo neanderthalensis are three that might seem vaguely familiar to you. What happened to…
A.G. Riddle Fiction 2022 | 451 pages A small group of scientists creates a company called Absalom and invents a machine that can send people into the past … way into the past, like the Triassic Period, 200 million years ago. They were attempting to build a machine that would transport an object instantaneously to…
Liane Moriarty Fiction 2021 | 467 pages Slow. Apples Never Fall is, for me, a slow read. Hence, two hearts. But we will come back to that in a moment. The background is this: the Delaney family, in Sydney, is a tennis family through and through, from top to bottom. The parents, Stan and Joy,…
Brit Bennett Fiction 2016 | 304 pages Luke, the pastor’s son, impregnates one teenage woman, and eventually marries her best friend. These three characters form the foundation of The Mothers, while many of the older women in the Upper Room church (especially Luke’s mother) give their opinions and advice, gossip, and attempt to orchestrate the young…
Maggie O’Farrell Fiction 2020 | 305 pages Pardon me if this is too much information, but I am going to share a “hint” for reading this book. There are two timelines, but, IMHO, the author does not distinguish them very well in the beginning chapters. The primary timeline is the story of the twins Hamnet and…