Another fabulous Kate Redman book by Celina Grace. If you love a good mystery with a flawed, very human and very strong female protagonist, read the Kate Redman series. You will not regret it.
Print Length: 276 pages
Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
Publisher: Isaro Publishing Ltd (December 14, 2014)
Publication Date: December 14, 2014
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
I read Hushabye and Requiem in a day. I literally could not put these books down. The series centers on Detective Kate Redman, an unmarried, clever police officer, with a cop's sixth sense. She also has an alcoholic mother and a past that haunts her. The combination works. If you enjoy a mystery novel that is about a complex woman, that is not too gritty, and not very cozy, you will love Hushabye and Requiem.
Hushabye (A Kate Redman Mystery: Book 1) (The Kate Redman Mysteries
Print Length: 268 pages
Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
Publisher: Isaro Publishing Ltd (December 11, 2013)
Publication Date: December 11, 2013
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
Requiem (A Kate Redman Mystery: Book 2) (The Kate Redman Mysteries)
Print Length: 232 pages
Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
Publisher: Isaro Publishing Ltd (November 19, 2013)
Publication Date: November 19, 2013
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
In the first two books of this series, Detective Kate Redman came across as a tough, but flawed, police woman with a haunted past. In the third book of the series, Imago, Redman's weaker side is portrayed. She has protected herself against relationships, in the same manner that she has protected herself from her disfunctional, alcoholic mother, by blanketing herself in, and enjoying the solitude of, her charming, clean and organized home. Not withstanding her need for solitude, she finds herself attracted to someone. Unfortunately, this attraction is portrayed as the kind of crush a lovesick adolescent would experience. Celina Grace has done an excellent job of portraying the mind set of a clever, tough police woman in a male dominated profession and I love her Kate Redman books.. Despite the one glitch in her portrayal of Redman, these books are among the best in the genre. If you love a good mysteries, read this series!
Print Length: 227 pages
Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
Publication Date: November 8, 2013
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
What sets this book apart from the others, however, is Shapiro's focus on the human being beneath the Donald Trump brand. While I find the Trump brand and Trump's bombastic personna distasteful, Shapiro still made me feel sorry for Donald the child who was exiled at 13 to a brutal military academy. It is this childhood, I think that will be of interest to sociologists, historians and others for generations to come, whether Trump wins the presidency or not.
Shapiro posits that the lack of hugs and kisses in Trump's childhood may have contributed to turning him into a bully. And a bully he was. As Shapiro notes: "The young Trump soon became a literal menace to the neighborhood. Parents had taken an immediate dislike to him and, in several instances, had forbidden their children from associating with him." Trump himself states in The Art of the Deal: "In the second grade I actually gave my teacher a black eye. I punched my music teacher because I didn’t think he knew anything about music. I’m not proud of that but it’s clear evidence, even early on, that I had a tendency to stand up and make my opinions known in a very forceful way.”
There are other interesting tidbits the book, such as the fact that Trump's family name was Drumph, not Drumf; and that it was Donald's father who set the record straight about his ancestry being German, not Swedish. Apparently, he had told people they were Swedish "because, at the time, he was renting apartments in a building he owned to predominantly Jews who he feared would not rent from him if they knew he was German." Shapiro also pulls no punches about the first business of Trump's grandfather during the 19th century gold-rush: brothels and bars.
At the end of the day, no one can deny that Trump is one most colorful personalities of the last fifty years. Whether you like Trump or not, Shapiro does an excellent job of presenting the real man behind that personality and this is a book worth reading.
(In exchange for an honest review, the publisher provided me with a review copy of this book via NetGalley.)
Print Length: 131 pages
Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
Publisher: Riverdale Avenue Books (February 25, 2016)
Publication Date: February 25, 2016
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
The Orient Express, itself, connotes a time where passengers dressed for dinner, slept in luxurious compartments, and travelled undisturbed from Calais to Damascus. Ashford captures the excitement and elegance of travel aboard this train starting with her depiction of the moment Christie decides to take this trip. It was at a dinner party, one of the few that Christie attended as a newly single woman. After learning that one of the guests, a military man, had been stationed in Iraq not far from a famous archeological dig, Christie exclaimed, "I've always been fascinated by archaeology, I do envy you, living there. I’d love to visit Baghdad.” His response, "Oh, you must go! You can get there by the Orient Express," had a "magical effect" on Christie and she told the guest that the Orient Express represented a pinnacle of elegance to her ever since she "had seen this train as a child, catching sight of the distinctive blue-and-gold livery when her mother took her to live in France before the war. She had watched men and women walking along the platform with rapturous faces, greeted by immaculate stewards standing to attention outside every carriage. She saw boxes of oysters glistening on ice, whole sides of bacon slung on hooks, and cartloads of every kind of fruit being loaded on board."
Aboard the Orient Express, Christie learns that she is not the only one hiding secrets behind the luxury of the Wagons-Lits train cars. A loner most of her life, she finds herself befriending two women whose friendship will change her life. It is through the eyes of these three friends that Ashford shows us parts of Middle East as it was in 1928, a time when Aleppo and Baghdad were busy, whole and cosmopolitan, and the Yezidis live peacefully on their mountain- Jebel Sinjar.
As Christie cleverly demonstrated in her mystery novels, dark secrets can be harmful. Ashford brings such dark secrets to light when Christie is called upon to solve real life mysteries involving her friends. Never having solved a real life mystery before, Christie screws her courage to the sticking place and thinks, "what would her little Belgian detective do in a situation like this? The answer came back in a flash. You must use the little gray cells."
 |
| Agatha Christie as a young woman |
Through this fictionalized biography, Ashford paints a magnificent portrait of Christie as a woman of great depths, with a plethora of emotions and moods. This is a novel that will engage both your heart and your little gray cells.
(I received an advance review copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.)
Paperback: 330 pages
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing (September 20, 2016)
Language: English
Strayed addresses many topics in this book. Fear, is one. Eleanor Roosevelt said, "Do one thing every day that scares you." Strayed says, "Hello, fear. Thank you for being here. You’re my indication that I’m doing what I need to do." Forgiveness is another. "Forgiveness doesn’t just sit there like a pretty boy in a bar. Forgiveness is the old fat guy you have to haul up the hill."
Some of Strayed's prose falls flat, for example: "Don’t own other people’s crap," and "You’re here. So be here." Some is absolutely stunning and it is this prose that makes "Brave Enough" good enough: "I’ll never know and neither will you about the life you didn’t choose. We’ll only know that whatever that sister life was, it was important and beautiful and not ours. It was the ghost ship that didn’t carry us. There’s nothing to do but salute it from the shore."
Print Length: 160 pages
Publisher: Knopf (October 27, 2015)
Publication Date: October 27, 2015
Sold by: Random House LLC
One of those hard workers was Victoria MacPherson, a young Irish Protestant. After the potato crop failed for the third year, and her father was murdered for evicting families on orders from the local landed gentry, Victoria fled to New York. Sailing the Atlantic as a steerage passenger, she befriends Maeve, an Irish Catholic, whose brother has promised to meet her in New York. On their first day in America, however, Maeve's brother fails to appear and Victoria has her life savings stolen by a well dressed con man. Despite this, Victoria and Maeve find piece-work as seamstresses and begin their climb out of the rat infested tenements. Maeve's brother, Patrick, eventually does find them. Transported to Australia from Ireland at 16 for a crime he did not commit, he has made his way from Australia to the San Francisco gold rush to malaria-soaked Central America and finally to Manhattan.
Wallace skillfully recreates New York and Ireland in the 1840s. His depiction of the hopelessness of famine-ridden Ireland, the injustice and wildness of Australia, and the pestilence, despair and corruption of New York City, is vivid and realistic. As is his depiction of the gutsy Victoria as she builds a clothing business and demolishes any person who tries to cross her. "Victoria Crossing" is a fabulous novel that is on a par with the work of Howard Fast, Caleb Carr and Colleen McCullough.
(In exchange for an honest review, I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.)
Print Length: 320 pages
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1503934136
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing (May 17, 2016)
Publication Date: May 17, 2016
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
Karl Alexander does a wonderful job re-creating H.G. Wells in this sequel to his 1979, "Time After Time," but, as in the prior novel, he still is unable to create believable women characters. How does Amber Reese fall in love with Wells? Her immediate love makes absolutely no sense. Why does Amy Catherine Robbins Wells's second persona, "Catherine," come across as psychotic and why is Amy such a wimp? Notwithstanding the fact that at times I was ready to throw the book against the wall because the women characters were so badly developed, I finished the book because the plot was excellent and the character of H.G. Wells was so well crafted. This is why I gave the book four stars and why the book is worth reading.
Print Length: 336 pages
Publisher: Forge Books; First Edition edition (November 10, 2009)
Publication Date: November 10, 2009
Sold by: Macmillan
Language: English
Karl Alexander does a very good job of bringing H.G. Wells to life as we time travel with him back to 1893. Unfortunately, Alexander doesn't make his female characters believable. This is a shame because his ability to tell a story, and his ability to describe 1893 London and 1979 San Francisco is top notch. Despite the character development problem, I highly recommend you read this book.
Print Length: 286 pages
Publisher: Forge Books (February 22, 2010)
Publication Date: February 22, 2010
Sold by: Macmillan
Language: English
Then one day, without warning, the food gets scarcer and scarcer. There are no more toys, and you miss school in order to scrounge for food. A vast and dismal landscape of orphaned children, gangs of thugs, and dead bodies replaces the warm and happy landscape that you knew.
Is this the plot of a young adult's dystopian novel? It could be. Instead, it is the story of Joseph Kim, a child of North Korea, who lost his family and was homeless at 11 years old due to the famous famine of the 1990s and the brutal uncaring Kim dynasties. Joseph kept alive the only way possible for him, by begging, stealing, working in dangerous coal mines, fighting and joining gangs.
At thirteen, completely alone, dressed in rags and starving, he crossed into China, not caring if the Border Guards saw him. Still considering himself a thief, he learned that something called "churches" and "Christians" would give him food and money. Eventually, an American charity, "Liberty in North Korea (LiNK)," found him and brought him to the United States. You may have watched his TED Talk from Scotland or read a newspaper article about. Neither conveys the horror that a whole generation of North Korean children faced when their parents could no longer feed them and their government abandoned them. The true magnitude of the famine is unknown due to lack of information. Some reports estimate the death toll at 2 million.
This is not a brutal future depicted in a science fiction book, this is North Korea today. Joseph Kim survived in ways that would have destroyed most of us. His story deserves to be read.
Print Length: 293 pages
Publisher: Mariner Books (June 2, 2015)
Publication Date: June 2, 2015
Sold by: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
1. She has fled two countries, North Korea and China;
2. She was forced to leave school at 11 and spend nine years trying to survive, most of the time without sufficient food and without a real home;
3. She watched her father, grandparents and neighbors die of starvation;
4. She was sold by a human trafficker, along with her mother and sister, to an abusive family in rural China;
5. In order to reach South Korea, she and her mother were smuggled into Mongolia and had to cross the Gobi Desert at night;
6. She and her mother were forced to abandon her baby brother in China; and
7. She spent many months being interrogated by South Korean intelligence in order to prove she was not a North Korean spy.
This book is one of a growing number that exposes the true horrors of the great famine that killed over a million North Koreans in the 1990s and the brutal conditions that still exist in that country. Despite all of the above, and worse, Eunsun's love of her homeland and her hope for a free, unified Korea remains, as does her commitment to try and help children who are experiencing devastation similar to what she endured. After reading her book, the common complaints of the West seem so unimportant. This book should be required reading in every high school.
Hardcover: 240 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Press (July 21, 2015)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1250064643
ISBN-13: 978-1250064646
Three of her visits, however, stand out as the most poignant. While at the Women's Maternity Hospital, Simmons learns that twins and triplets are rare and they are raised in orphanages. We then meet these children at an orphanage. Simmons includes photos that show how beautiful they are. Although they appear healthy, my heart hurt at the idea of children taken from their family simply because they are twins or triplets. The second poignant visit involved a trip to a high school. While there, Simmons was impressed at how smart and accessible the students were, especially one young man who smiled at her and allowed her to take his picture. Looking at the photo and seeing the engaging smiles of the students, most caught off guard, it's hard to believe that they won't, somehow, change the direction of their country for the better. The third poignant visit involves the DMZ and the delight of the North Korean soldiers when they have their photos taken with Simmons's instant camera. Later that day, an older general takes Simmons to see (via binoculars) the wall built along the DMZ by South Korea. A gentle soul, he asks about her life, sings to her, and calls her a "brave girl" for visiting a dangerous place.
I have to admit that I was taken aback at first by Simmons's light hearted, and at times snarky, approach to her minders and North Korea. It is a dictatorship and the population lives in an isolated bubble. There is still famine in parts of the country, there are still brutal labor camps and gulags, and life spans are shorter than the west. Simmons reminds us, however, that the population of that brutal country is composed of humans. They laugh, they dream, they live their lives. While they may believe that America is the great enemy, most did not view Simmons as their enemy. She writes of crowds of school children at one stop who swarmed around her, so happy to see her, yelling "hello" and "good bye." Simmons's writing made me think and laugh and cry. The people she describes are the people we should think about when we think of North Korea, and these are the people who need us to work hard to make sure they have a future. I give this book four well-deserved stars.
(I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.)
Print Length: 312 pages
Publisher: RosettaBooks (May 3, 2016)
Publication Date: May 3, 2016
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
When Park and her mother were smuggled into China, her mother was raped by the human traffickers, and Park, at 13, was forced to become the mistress of another trafficker. After escaping to South Korea with the help of Christian missionaries, Park fought against the growing anti-North Korean defector sentiment in South Korea, against her own shame at what she was forced to do to survive, and against her own lack of education.
She is a remarkable young woman, so remarkable the North Korean regime has retaliated against her for exposing the true horrors in that concentration camp of a nation. Park's growing awareness of the need for critical thinking, as opposed to brainwashed regurgitation of another person's or regime's ideas, is truly awe inspiring. Her recognition that there is no "I" in North Korea, only "we," is something that individuals who have escaped cults have long understand. This is one of the first times that a survivor of North Korea has drawn that exact comparison. We will be hearing much more from Park. She is only in her early 20s, and she has already sent a repressive regime into apoplexy- imagine what else she has in store for this world. Five stars.
Print Length: 290 pages
Publisher: Penguin Press (September 29, 2015)
Publication Date: September 29, 2015
Sold by: Penguin Group (USA) LLC
Ellie Dean has written a fabulous series depicting how the inhabitants of a seaside town and boarding house survive WWII. The hardships, rationing, bombings, romances, deaths, estrangements, jobs, and love of family are brought to life by Ms. Dean. As I read, I was transported to 1940s England. I loved every one of the first eight books in the series, and I am looking forward to reading the next two which have just been released in the U.S.
Viets creates well developed plots and smart protagonists with unique voices, including her tough, engaging landlady; Pete the parrot; Phil, Helen's handsome, silver haired, PI husband with the ponytail; and Thumbs, Helen's big, six-toed cat. (Disclaimer: I have a bias in favor of Thumbs because I am owned by a big six-toed tabby.) If you love a good mystery involving engaging, likable characters, you will love this book.
Print Length: 289 pages
Publisher: NAL (May 7, 2013)
Publication Date: May 7, 2013
Sold by: Penguin Group (USA) LLC
Angela Richman is a death investigator, a professional that meets the deceased at the crime scene and documents everything meticulously, without making judgments or drawing conclusions. Half-blinded by persistent, chronic migraines, Angela visits the scene of a deadly car crash caused by a drag race between a BMW and a Ferrari. Both cars were driven by spoiled children of the elite in a wealthy part of Missouri called "the Chouteau Forest." Angela also is a Forest resident, except she resides there because her deceased parents spent their lives as servants to one of the elite families. The victims of the crash, two 16 year old girls, one dead and one disfigured, are from that same family.
Forced by her awful headaches to go to the emergency room, Angela is sent home by an arrogant neurologist, Dr. Gravois, another member of the Forest elite, who discounts the fact that she is on hormone replacement therapy because he claims she is "too fit and too young" to be having a stroke. So Angela goes home, falls asleep and wakes up from a coma 20 days later in the ICU of Sisters of Sorrow Hospital. She learns she has had six strokes and only the talent of a socially inept, outsider, doctor has saved her life. During Angela's long recovery, she has trouble discerning reality from delusion, a problem that becomes dangerous when Dr. Gravois is murdered and she must recover her investigative skills to solve his murder before it is too late.
Angela's story is compelling on many levels. There are still many doctors who misdiagnose women based on obsolete theories taught years ago in medical schools. Women, especially women on hormone replacement therapy, are at risk for stroke, no matter how young and how fit they may be. As she explains in an afterword, in telling Angela's story, Elaine Viets tells her own story, since she too was sent home from the ER with a misdiagnosis only to suffer six strokes shortly thereafter. She tells her story, and Angela's story, well in this riveting first novel in her new series about death investigator, Angela Richman. It deserves many more stars than the five stars I am able to give it.
(In exchange for an honest review, I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.)
* Series: Death Investigator Angela Richman
* Paperback: 320 pages
* Publisher: Thomas & Mercer (August 2, 2016)
This book is about an invasion of Earth by body snatchers who believe that, after the invasion, their hosts no longer have any thoughts, free will or control over their own bodies. One of the invaders, however, knows that is not true for every host and the book charts the evolving relationship between one special invader and her host. Despite its theme, this book is not a horror novel. Instead, it is a very unusual tale about relationships and the strength of free will. This is not a complex novel, but it is a very entertaining book. Five stars.
Print Length: 651 pages
Page Numbers Source ISBN: B00BG6M74O
Publisher: Back Bay Books; 1 edition (April 21, 2010)
Publication Date: April 26, 2010
Giles has given us a glimpse of the true early Hollywood, and she leaves us wondering what wonderful things Olive Thomas could have accomplished if she had not died so young...
Print Length: 422 pages
Publisher: Sepia Stories Publishing; 1 edition (August 1, 2015)
Publication Date: August 1, 2015
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
In "The Garden on Sunset," Martin Turnbull introduces us to Kathryn, Gwendolyn, and Marcus, three 20-something odd socks who fall in with each other through happenstance: all three find themselves living at the Garden of Allah Hotel in Los Angeles.
Kathryn wants to be a journalist, despite the frantic push into acting by her stage mother. Gwendolyn, from Florida when Florida was the old South, wants to be an actress, but finds herself fighting off mashers as the Cigarette Girl at the Coconut Grove. Marcus, who was kicked out of his Pennsylvania home and family after his father caught him making out with his boyfriend, wants to write screen plays. He fled to the Garden of Allah at 8152 Sunset Boulevard because this is the address Madam Alla Nazimova had given him when she visited him years before. Her kindness to a small boy with diphtheria, and her message that he should visit her at her home, has carried him through his father's betrayal and it is the only place he knew he would be welcome.
Unfortunately for Marcus, Madam Nazimova has sold her mansion, and it has become the Garden of Allah Hotel. The three young people meet at a bash celebrating the Hotel's Opening Night (which happens to coincide with Marcus's visit). For the next three years, we follow them as they deal with bootlegged liquor and a time when unwed pregnancies were scandalous, and loving someone of the same sex could end a career and send you to prison.
While surviving their own battles with the restrictions of the times, the three friends are befriended by Talulah Bankhead, Greta Garbo, George Cukor, and Ramon Navarro, to name just a few. Madam Nazimova does finally appear, and we learn why she befriended Marcus when he was a young boy. The friends also find themselves tangled up with Louella Parsons, William Randolph Hearst, and Marion Davies.
Turnbull brings the "Golden Age of Hollywood" to life with the same type of humor, insight and love used by Armistad Maupin in "Tales of the City," his homage to 1970s San Francisco, centered around a group of iconoclastic, loving, odd-sock friends.
"The Garden on Sunset" is an exceptional book. If you love time traveling while sitting in your comfortable, reading place, you will think so too.
Print Length: 313 pages
Publication Date: January 16, 2014
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
As Turnbull takes the gloves off, we begin to see the nastier side of old Hollywood. Louella Parsons and Kathryn go head to head (Louella shows us her claws, as she dumps a chicken fricassee dinner on Kathryn). Hedda Hopper shows up, and Kathryn proves there is more than enough Hollywood gossip for the three of them.
In this second installment, Turnbull provides us with a wonderful, front row seat to 1938-39, probably the most glorious two years for film making in Hollywood history. Along the way, we learn that Talulah Bankhead, Joan Crawford, and Paulette Goddard all were considered for the role of Scarlett in "Gone with the Wind," and that Vivian Leigh was the long shot because she was British. We also learn a few secrets concerning the making of "The Women" (my favorite film), and the "The Wizard of Oz."
In one breathtaking scene that takes place during the filming of "Gone with the Wind," we wilt with Marcus as he sweats in the heat in an old, wool, confederate uniform. Joining hundreds of extras, he moans and slowly "dies" as Scarlett (Vivien Leigh) wanders through their midst. Off camera, a still prostrate Marcus delivers a message to Leigh from George Cukor, who has been ousted as director since Clark Gable, apparently, refused to be directed by a "fairy."
We also meet F. Scott Fitzgerald as he takes up temporary residence at the Garden of Allah. As he works on screen plays, he falls on and off the wagon; and off the wagon, he is not a pretty sight. Dorothy Parker and Robert Benchley move in, providing the kind of advice only they could offer (along with many authentic "Parkerisms" such as when Dorothy tells Gwendolyn that her Scarlett O'Hara-type dress "flounce per ounce ratio is just right").
It truly does not get better than this if you are a film buff and you love to "time travel" while reading. I loved Turnbull's first Garden of Allah novel, "The Trouble on Sunset," and I love this second novel. Thankfully, he has four more in print, and four more promised after that.
Print Length: 347 pages
Publication Date: January 14, 2014
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
The fens or fenlands, with its low-lying villages and farms, is an ancient, tradition-steeped part of eastern England. When Amber burns out at her stressful PR job in London, she moves her life to Skylark Farm, an apple farm in the fenlands managed by her boyfriend, Jake, and his 70-something Aunt Annie. As Amber settles in with her new life and friends, we also meet the farm's other inhabitants, including Pip, the pudgy pony, and Patricia, a very broody old hen, who patiently sits on eggs waiting for little chicks to hatch, despite the fact that this is impossible since there is no rooster at the farm.The "Train Through Time" series is a five-book, time travel, science fiction-romance saga. Each of the five books in the series focuses on the story of a different, young woman who gets on a train in the 21st Century, but falls asleep and awakens in the very early years of the 20th Century, penniless and "scandalously" miss-dressed. Leggings, shorts, and yoga pants are not what ladies wore in Edwardian society. In each book, the heroine is rescued from her dilemma by a young man, but the two do not live happily ever after until overcoming some very large obstacles. Although Bess McBride makes little effort to explain the science of the fiction, her exceptional story telling talent overrides any such flaw. The time travel stories are intriguing with tons of mystery, paradox, drama, loss and period detail. You will want to read each book more than once.
A Train Through Time (Train Through Time Series Book One)
* Print Length: 200 pages
* Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
* Publisher: Bess McBride (December 14, 2013)
* Publication Date: December 14, 2013
* Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
Together Forever Across Time (Train Through Time Series Book Two)
* Print Length: 174 pages
* Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
* Publisher: Bess McBride (December 22, 2013)
* Publication Date: December 22, 2013
* Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
A Smile In Time (Train Through Time Series Book Three)
* Print Length: 180 pages
* Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
* Publisher: Bess McBride (December 22, 2013)
* Publication Date: December 22, 2013
* Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
Finding You in Time (Train Through Time Series Book Four)
* Print Length: 159 pages
* Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
* Publisher: Bess McBride (July 12, 2014)
* Publication Date: July 12, 2014
* Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
A Fall in Time (Train Through Time Series Book Five)
* Print Length: 193 pages
* Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
* Publisher: Bess McBride (November 29, 2014)
* Publication Date: November 29, 2014
* Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
In 1940, Isabelle de Florian locked the door to her flat on the Rue Blanche for the last time. Inside was a time capsule from France's glorious Belle Epoque era, 1871 to 1914. Virtually every surface was covered with the gifts her grandmother, Marthe de Florian, had received from wealthy, powerful male admirers when she was the pre-eminent Demimondaine (courtesan) of Paris society. When Isabelle dies in 2010 at the age of 91, her will mysteriously leaves the flat and its contents to Cat Jordan, an American photographer who is the granddaughter of Isabelle's closest friend, Virginia, an American who spent many years living with Isabelle and Marthe in the 1930s. Cat, however, had never heard her grandmother speak of Isabelle, and Isabelle's descendants know nothing of the flat. Why did Isabelle turn her back on the apartment? Why did she not leave it to her own family? Why did she leave it to Virginia's granddaughter when she never contacted Virginia after 1940? These are just a few of the questions that Carey answers as she meticulously unfolds the story.
The time capsule flat actually existed. It was unsealed in 2010, and it was indeed owned by Isobelle de Florian. The story Carey tells, however, is an intriguing and absorbing fictional tale told by a master storyteller who grabs the reader and does not let go. In her more recent, "The House by the Lake," Carey unfolds her inspired tale even further. I read each novel in one sitting apiece, and I am impatiently awaiting her next novel.
Print Length: 282 pages
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing (May 26, 2015)
Publication Date: May 26, 2015
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
As Anna carries out her task, her family's past unfolds for her, one small morsel at a time. Anna learns that her grandfather had a connection to the time capsule flat, and that he fled the Nazis, and his family in 1940. Since he has always refused to discuss the past, she must figure out why he never went back to Germany and why he cut all ties with his family. Along the way, as Anna visits the cosmopolitan, reunified Berlin, and the struggling rural villages of the former DDR, she learns that "the past must be dealt with on its own terms."
This is not a history book, although there is history in it as Carey goes back and forth between the 1930s and 2010. It also is not a frothy romance, although there is romance. It is historical fiction, with some true history. It also tells a very intriguing, suspenseful story that will make you think.
(I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.)
Print Length: 258 pages
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1503934152
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing (March 29, 2016)
Publication Date: March 29, 2016
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
This is a book that will haunt you in the best sense of that word. Ignore the snarky reviews that claim the book is defective because it has a young protagonist. So did "Catcher in the Rye," and several of Mark Twain's novels. Having a young protagonist does not make this book a "Harry Potter-style, children's book," as several of the book's most famous critics have asserted. The Goldfinch is a story of a young man who is lost emotionally and mentally after his mother is killed in a terrorist bombing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He survived, and events occurred during the bombing and its aftermath that unfold in the book. I loved this book, and I loved the flawed and wonderful characters that Donna Tartt brought to life, including the artist who painted the Goldfinch, and his vulnerable little bird. If you love to read good books, you will love this book
Print Length: 760 pages
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company (October 22, 2013)
Publication Date: October 22, 2013
Sold by: Hachette Book Group
A charming, endearing book. Written as a children's book, but you will want to keep it for yourself.
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers; First Edition edition (August 9, 1994)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0517597039
ISBN-13: 978-0517597033
Product Dimensions: 0.5 x 8.5 x 10.5 inches
On the eve of visiting her newly inherited cottage, in the (fictious) English coastal village of Plummergen, Miss Seeton stumbles upon a London murder in progress. She confronts the murderer by poking him with her umbrella. Thus, Miss Seeton becomes embroiled in her first murder mystery.
Her country cottage is everything it should be, including a cupboard under the stairs, a twisty staircase, and a quiet bedroom facing the rear garden. As all of her new village neighbors cluck, with "seed borne on the breath of a scandal," about Miss Seeton's very recent run-in with a murder in London, (which, of course, was in all of the newspapers), Miss Seeton tries to settle into what may become her permanent new home. Peace, however, is not what she finds. After befriending a young resident of the village, she approaches the police detective on "her" murder case, and innocently passes along information on another crime from her young friend. The detective is then sure that Miss Seeton has the soul of a crime solver and admonishes his aide de camp that until he can understand Miss Seeton, he will "get nowhere as a detective."
Although Miss Seeton appears to be a subtle parody of Miss Marple, the gentleness with which Carvic depicts her, combined with his obvious admiration for the toughness of his "old bird," belies any notion that he intended her to be the object of ridicule. This book is a great introduction to the Miss Seeton cozy mystery series. Those readers who like a good cozy mystery, with a touch of grit and a gallon of very funny humor, will be very glad it is back in print.
(I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.)
Print Length: 209 pages
Publisher: Farrago; 3 edition (May 5, 2016)
Publication Date: May 5, 2016
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
MissEss, deeply concerned that she doesn't have much artistic talent, proves just the opposite as her intuitive, and probably psychic, abilities allow her to draw sketches for the Oracle that identify a child at risk, that crack the modus operandi of a series of Post Office robberies, and that identify two very nasty murderers. Along the way, MissEss's empathetic instincts also save an unjustly accused young man, and cause her to unknowingly place herself in great danger multiple times. MissEss, however, has a new friend who recognizes that MissEss and her umbrella ("brolly") are survivors. This friend, newly promoted, crime writer, Miss Mel Forby, proves, in many ways, to be as understatedly brilliant at her job as MissEss is at hers.
Heron Carvic clearly loved MissEss and took great joy in writing about her escapades with a dry, subtle wit that may have scorched the village busy bodies, but never disrespected his heroines. This is a five star novel written by a five star author. I highly recommend that you gobble up this series.
(I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.)
Print Length: 212 pages
Publisher: Farrago; 3 edition (May 5, 2016)
Publication Date: May 5, 2016
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
This is a delightful book with an important message for young readers who are having trouble focusing or who are anxious. The illustrations make this book super special--they are truly magnificent!
(In exchange for an honest review, I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.)
Publisher: Plum Blossom (September 13, 2016)
Publication Date: September 13, 2016
Sold by: Penguin Random House Publisher Services
In her latest book, "Into Dust," Daniels centers her story around Cassidy Hamilton, the youngest daughter of Buckmaster and Sarah Hamilton. In earlier books, we learned that Buckmaster was running for president and that Sarah had suddenly reappeared, without her memory, 22 years after her disappearance and supposed death.
Cassidy has been lured to Houston by several new acquaintances. While walking to meet them, she is accosted. Jack Durand stops her assailant from abducting her. Jack, a rancher, had been following one of his father's employees after he saw his father, Tom Durand, hand that employee a large envelope full of cash. Together, Jack and Cassidy must figure out why his dad wants her kidnapped, or dead, and where Cassidy's mother has been for 22 years......
Are you hooked yet? If not, you will be if you read just a few pages of this book. It's a great summer read!
(In exchange for an honest review, I received an advance review copy from the publisher via NetGalley.)
Print Length: 368 pages
Publisher: HQN Books (August 1, 2016)
Publication Date: July 26, 2016
Sold by: Harlequin Digital Sales Corp.
Lawyers are notoriously cynical, and meditation is not the first thing the average lawyer thinks about when he/she is burnt out. Quitting law, sabbaticals, long vacations, and/or changing jobs are what pops into the mind of a very tired, very anxious attorney. I should know, I have practiced law for over two decades. Accordingly, I have to admit that I approached "The Anxious Lawyer" looking for a quick fix, will it "fix" the problem now? I found that the answer is both yes and no. The act of reading the book is the beginning of the "fix." Learning to meditate, grappling with mindfulness, learning to breathe and have compassion for yourself, as well as others, these are some of the lessons Jeena Cho teaches. I think Cho's seminar must be an effective continuing legal education course, and I would like to see it offered. I also think this book would be a very effective audio book or dvd (if they don't exist already). Will this book "cure" anxiety? No, the practice of law produces overwhelming amounts of anxiety, as does almost any profession in 2016. Cho does, however, provide many of the tools needed for dealing with that anxiety and minimizing the damage to your health and mental well being.
(In return for an honest review, I was provided with an advance review copy of the book by the publisher via NetGalley.)
Print Length: 251 pages
Publisher: Ankerwycke (July 1, 2016)
Publication Date: July 1, 2016
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
(A page from Elgin Park demonstrates how amazing this book is.)
(I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.)
Perfect Paperback: 324 pages
Publisher: Animal Media Group LLC; 1st edition (June 24, 2015)
Language: English
This is a wonderful collection of advertisements and photos that depict the influence of the Art Deco/ Art Moderne style on British furniture and interiors during the 1930s. If this is your decor style, or you just like/love this period, this is the book for you. I love this book!
Series: Moda Style Guides
Paperback: 64 pages
Publisher: Museum of Domestic Design & Architecture; New edition edition (July 23, 2015)
This is a beautiful little book full of photos of art, furniture, textiles and ephemera from the Art Deco era. If you love this era, as I do, you will treasure this book!
Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Star Fire (2006)
Language: English
The illustrations in this children's book on the theater are wonderful, and they make the book very special. The author also does a good job setting out the history of ancient theater and describing the basics of modern plays, acting, directing, and scripts. It is a remarkable book that I wish had been published when I was ten. (I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.)
Age Range: 5 and up
Grade Level: Kindergarten and up
Series: Want to Know
Hardcover: 32 pages
Publisher: Clavis (July 12, 2016)