O Caledonia
O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker (NCN Book Club Selection May) As you know, I dislike coming of age (COA) novels, and here’s why–they are uniformly grim. In British COA stories, […]
Yankee Doodle Dixie
Yankee Doodle Dixie by Lisa Patton Yankee Doodle Dixie chronicles the adventures of divorcee and professional Southerner, Leelee Satterfield. I was disappointed in this sequel to Patton’s bestselling novel Whistlin’ […]
Cleopatra
Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff My sister-in-law couldn’t put it down; another friend couldn’t put it down fast enough! Two different reactions to Stacy Schiff’s biography of Cleopatra. I take the […]
Being Mortal
Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande Our book club selection this month was Being Mortal by Atul Gawande, author of three bestsellers, Complications, Better, […]
The Jezebel Remedy
The Jezebel Remedy by Martin Clark A Parnassus First Editions Club selection, The Jezebel Remedy isn’t your typical legal thriller. Married for twenty years, Lisa and Joe Stone are also […]
The Beige Man
The Beige Man by Helen Tursten In a departure from most Scandinavian crime novels which feature gloomy, hard drinking, isolated detectives of the male persuasion, Tursten’s Swedish Inspector Irene Huss […]
Killer Ambition
Killer Ambition by Marcia Clark Killer Ambition is the third novel in Clark’s series featuring Los Angeles Special Trials prosecutor Rachel Knight and her buddy Detective Bailey Keller. In a […]
The Arc of the Swallow
The Arc of the Swallow by S.J. Gazan The Arc of the Swallow is the second in Danish author S.J. Gazan’s series featuring Deputy Chief Superintendent Søren Marhauge of Copenhagen’s […]
The Sociopath Next Door
The Sociopath Next Door by Martha Stout Most of us think of sociopaths as serial killers, but sociopaths walk among us and are not all killers, at least not in […]
The Light in the Ruins
The Light in the Ruins by Chris Bohjalian In the summer of 1955, Serafina Bettini, the only female detective in the Florence (Italy!)Police Department’s Homicide unit, is assigned the grisly […]
The Exiles Return
The Exiles Return by Elisabeth de Waal If the name Elisabeth de Waal sounds familiar, then you probably read her grandson Edmund de Waal’s book The Hare with Amber Eyes, […]
Armchair Traveler-India
Over the holidays I caught up with my friend Patricia who recently returned from two weeks in India. Listening to her colorful stories, I was reminded of my own trips […]
Prayers for the Stolen
Prayers for the Stolen by Jennifer Clement I admit that I was reluctant to read a book about women who live/hide in a bleak Mexican outback dominated by drug cartels […]
The Most Famous Man in America
The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher by Debby Applegate Although his sister Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, is the better known […]
I Still Dream About You
I Still Dream About You by Fannie Flagg I enjoyed Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café, both the novel and the movie, but I find most of Fannie […]