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March Reading Recap

March 31, 2025

march reading

Hello, fellow readers! I’m not sure I’ll get to say this again, but despite a completely miserable and toxic month in the news, my March reading was calmly solid. I only had one book I didn't finish, am fully immersed in a fabulous fantasy series, and read six books that were successful (3.5 stars or above).   I have a bit of an unusual situation with this book. ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Feature Tagged: book clubs, mini-reviews, vacation reading

Kate & Frida: A Novel of Friendship, Food, and Books

March 24, 2025

kate

It begins with a letter sent from Paris to Seattle. Nothing romantic or between friends, but business because in 1991 that’s how these things were done. Frida writes to the Puget Sound Book Store looking for a book. Kate is the employee delegated with filling this customer request. Neither could know that this brief correspondence would grow into an intense and wonderful ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: 1990s, book clubs, friendship, historical, women

The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus

February 19, 2025

life cycle

Monday I shared a literary novel I loved and now I’m back with another. The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus is the witty, contemporary story of two friends and their freshman year at the University of Edinburgh. Alice and Penelope both have their reasons for wanting to leave Canada and go to this particular school. Alice’s is practical in that she hopes it will be the gateway ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: coming-of-age, literary

This Motherless Land

January 27, 2025

motherless

A loving, happy, Nigerian family is torn apart when a daughter survives a horrific car crash that leaves her mother and brother dead and her father’s grief makes him hate her for surviving. This is This Motherless Land and Funke is the daughter, who at eight finds herself on a plane to England to live with her mother’s white family, people she’s never met and knows almost ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, childhood, cultural, family

Swift River: A Novel

September 19, 2024

swift river

Swift River is both the title of Essie Chambers’ debut and the town where the novel is set. It’s about Diamond Newberry, a 16-year-old girl who stands out, but not for her flashy name or sparkling personality. She’s morbidly obese and ever since her father disappeared 7 years ago she’s the only Black person in town. Her white mother is of little help. She doesn’t drive and ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, coming-of-age, debut, New England

All the Colors of the Dark

July 10, 2024

all the colors

When 13-year-old Patch sees a girl being abducted he acts without thinking and rushes the kidnapper. The girl escapes, but what follows changes Patch’s life and is the foundation for Chris Whitaker’s new novel All the Colors of the Dark. Patch and everyone he knows is changed by his heroic act in this opus saturated with the feeling of a writer who is leaving it all on the ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: coming-of-age, Midwest, mystery, suspense

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