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...
This is a Love Story
For someone who’s been leery about literary fiction for the past six months I have two novels this week that epitomize the genre and what I love about it. With Central Park as the backdrop, This is a Love Story unfolds in alternating chapters from the novel’s three main characters: Abe, Jane and Max. Abe and Jane are creatives—he’s a writer and she’s an artist and they ... Read More...
The Stolen Queen by Fiona Davis
A novel that includes the Egyptian wing of the Metropolitan Museum, Vogue editor Diana Vreeland, and ancient Egypt is not one I’m likely to miss out on. Fiona Davis’s The Stolen Queen follows two women and two timelines right up until they intersect on the night of the Met Gala in 1978 when a priceless Egyptian heirloom is stolen. Charlotte Cross is a young woman who refuses ... Read More...
The Sicilian Inheritance by Jo Piazza
Sara is at a low point when her favorite aunt dies. Her well-reviewed restaurant has closed, she’s bankrupt, and her husband is leaving her and wants custody of their daughter. It’s a mixed blessing when she’s given a letter left to her by the aunt containing a final request, a deed for a piece of land in Sicily, and a plane ticket there. This is the intriguing groundwork laid ... Read More...
What Wild Women Do: A Novel
When Rowan and her fiancé Seth stall out in their dreams of being a screenwriter (her) and a novelist (him) they decide to take a break from the dreary reality of moving back home to Michigan and rent a rustic cabin in the Adirondacks for a month. This simple decision, made to save money, leads to the discoveries that lie at the heart of What Wild Women Do by Karma Brown. The ... Read More...
The Shadow of Perseus
For some, the retelling of Greek myths may have run its course, but for others (me!) I’m still on board to read mythology from a different perspective. My first 5-star novel of the year was Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes, a fiercely feminist, wickedly funny adaptation of the Medusa myth. Now, author Claire Heywood is tackling the same subject in her new novel, The Shadow of ... Read More...
