For anyone who’s purchased a house in a competitive market the subject of Marisa Kashino’s novel Best Offer Wins won’t come as a surprise: the lengths a buyer will go to win the house of their dreams. Think buying a home is just about paying the price the owners are asking for it? Then you’ve been lucky to miss the hoops that prospective buyers have to jump through in ... Read More...
May Reading Recap
May turned into quite a month for my reading and beyond. There’s plenty to share, but for now, I’ll stick with some of the books that stuck with me (and a couple that missed the mark). Daniel is a criminal profiler who works finding serial killers. He’s chosen this line of work because he’s haunted by having seen an abducted boy at a highway rest stop when he was ... Read More...
Penitence: A Novel
When Penitence begins 13-year-old Nora is alone in a jail cell after turning herself in for killing her 14-year-old brother. An opening like this has the heft to carry a traditional thriller/mystery whether as a police procedural (solving the crime) or a courtroom drama (Nora on trial). Instead, debut author Kristin Koval forges a completely different path in what becomes a ... Read More...
The Sequel by Jean Hanff Korelitz
More devious, delicious, escape reading! The Sequel is just that, the sequel to Jean Hanff Korelitz’s novel The Plot. Anna Williams-Bonner is the widow of critically acclaimed author Jacob Bonner. Only she’s not happy about her husband’s success as his novel cuts a bit too close to her own life. She’s aggrieved by this as she is by most things. Her most fervent wish is to be ... Read More...
March Reading Recap
My March reading is a wrap, but I have a question: would you rather have highs and lows in your reading or a steady diet of good? You can probably guess where I’m going with this. I ended the month on a streak of 3.5 star books, most of which I can hardly remember reading. I want need more amazing reading. I guess I’m naïve, but there are certain institutions that ... Read More...
The Fury by Alex Michaelides
When actress Lana Farrar finds her mood dragged down by London’s dreary weather she does what any of us would, invites her friends for a weekend away on her private Greek island. All right, probably not what we would do, but Alex Michaelides needed a remote backdrop for his new novel, The Fury and what’s better than a private island? Unfortunately, once on the island, old ... Read More...
