Clare Pooley Novels
Clare Pooley Novels If you are looking for charming, feel-good stories, I recommend the novels of British author and former advertising executive Clare Pooley. I reviewed How to Age Disgracefully […]
How to Age Disgracefully
How to Age Disgracefully by Clare Pooley When recent empty nester Lydia applies for the job running the local Senior Citizens’ Social Club, she envisions quiet, grateful pensioners enjoying bingo […]
The Silver-Haired Sisterhood
The Silver-Haired Sisterhood (the further adventures of the Five French Hens) by Judy Leigh The Five French Hens are back in another improbable adventure. (Old ladies do not really live […]
One Death at a Time
One Death at a Time by Abbi Waxman Romance writer Abbi Waxman (The Bookish Life of Nina Hill) has written a mystery. Twentysomething Natasha Mason and iconic, retired actress Julia […]
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride I am turning into my mother, and when I recently caught myself deep in a Southern Windup (SWU) I knew the […]
The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club
The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson Like many young women in post WWI England, Constance Haverhill is unemployed. Having taken a job as an estate manager […]
The Guncle
The Guncle by Steven Rowley Patrick O’Hara, a once-famous gay sitcom star, quite enjoys his niece and nephew’s brief visits to his stylish home in Palm Springs. But when their […]
The Good Lord Bird
The Good Lord Bird by James McBride As you know, my book club is a serious group. But every year we try to select a light hearted book with no […]
The Diary of a Bookseller
The Diary of a Bookseller and Confessions of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell In 2001, Shaun Bythell bought a second-hand bookshop in Wigtown, a tiny town located on a peninsula […]
Calling Invisible Women
Calling Invisible Women by Jeanne Ray One morning former journalist and unenthusiastic gardening columnist Clover Hobart finds herself inexplicably invisible. Not just unnoticed, a state familiar to all females over […]
Our Hearts Were Young and Gay
Our Hearts Were Young and Gay by Cornelia Otis Skinner and Emily Kimbrough In keeping with my retro reading theme, I just finished for the dozenth time, Our Hearts Were […]
My Sister, The Serial Killer
My Sister, The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite Whatever you think this book is about– and with such a title the possibilities are many—it’s not. Yes, Sister does bump off […]
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson First published in 1938, Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day is a completely silly, dated, and beguiling novel. Middle-aged Miss […]
Heartburn
Heartburn by Nora Ephron If you haven’t read Ephron’s hysterical first novel, a thinly disguised account of her marriage and subsequent divorce from the Washington Post journalist Carl Bernstein, I […]