Category: books
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Book review: True Grit by Charles Portis
True Grit by Charles Portis My rating: 4 of 5 stars I used to be an avid reader of Westerns, but this hasn’t been true for decades (literally). However, I read a commentary on the place “True Grit” should hold in the pantheon of books and decided to read it. All I knew beforehand was…
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Book review: Invisible Child by Andrea Elliott
Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City by Andrea Elliott My rating: 4 of 5 stars This book was recommended to me by a mentor of mine, and I am so glad she made the recommendation. The author, who is a reporter at the New York Times, follows one family and, in…
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Book review: The Recovery Agent by Janet Evanovich
The Recovery Agent by Janet Evanovich My rating: 3 of 5 stars This is the first in a new series by a well-known mystery author, Janet Evanovich, who writes the Stephanie Plum series. Gabriela Rose is a “recovery agent,” someone who is retained to find lost/stolen/missing items. And this time she is off to find…
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Book review: The Murder of Mr Wickham by Claudia Gray
The Murder of Mr. Wickham by Claudia Gray My rating: 3 of 5 stars The premise of the book is clever–the author has taken many of the characters from Jane Austen novels, thrown them together, and murdered one of them (no spoilers, but based on the title, it’s clear which character it is). Then, two…
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Book review: Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn
Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is a difficult-to-place genre of a book, which I really enjoyed). A group of middle-aged female assassins are retiring, but someone is trying to kill them, and they have to “unretire” long enough to fend off attempts to kill them…
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Book review: When We Fell Apart by Soon Wiley
When We Fell Apart by Soon Wiley My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is the debut novel of the author (and full disclosure: the author was my son’s favorite high school English teacher).Reading this novel is like peeling an onion–you think you know what’s happened and what’s going to happen, but then you peel…
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Book review: Cleopatra’s Daughter by Michelle Moran
Cleopatra’s Daughter by Michelle Moran My rating: 5 of 5 stars I have really enjoyed all of Michelle Moran’s books that I have read, but this one is one of my favorites. Of course, it helps that I love reading about ancient Egypt. This book is about Cleopatra’s daughter, Selene, and what befell her after…
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Book review: Sweet Revenge by Andrea Penrose (A Lady Arianna mystery)
Sweet Revenge by Andrea Penrose My rating: 4 of 5 stars The debut novel of the Lady Arianna Regency Mysteries (I think my theory is that if I keep discovering new good series, I will never run out of books to read. I think I will never run out of books to read anyway, but…
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Book review: Castle and Key by W.R. Gingell
Castle and Key by W.R. Gingell My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is the latest (but hopefully not the final!) book in the author’s Two Monarchies series. I have loved all of the books in this series and highly recommend that you read them. This most recent book is the story of Susan Farrah…