As a child of the 60s/70s I was one of the numerous little girls clamoring for a Barbie doll. Much like the opening for the movie Barbie (fabulous, a must see) I’d loved my baby doll to death, but needed something more and Barbie was the dream, but it was not to be for me. My personal trauma aside, Renée Rosen now takes readers on an in-depth journey of how the ... Read More...
Capote’s Women by Laurence Leamer
After all the agita of getting taxes filed on time, I needed a reward. Overindulging in champagne was my first choice, but not a healthy option so I turned to reading that gave me the same light, fizzy feeling and required no thought to enjoy. The book is Laurence Leamer’s Capote’s Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song for an Era—a frothy biography of Truman ... Read More...
The Things We Didn’t Know
When Andrea is 9-years-old she finds herself and her little brother Pablo uprooted from their home in Woronoco, Massachusetts and left in a small Puerto Rican village with an aunt they’ve never met. All because their mother hates living in their small 1950s factory town in America and is lonely. This unsettling turn of events is just the beginning of Andrea’s voyage from ... Read More...
Love & Saffron: A Novel
Seattle and Los Angeles, same coast but vastly different places, especially in the 1960s. Imogene Fortier writes a column known to readers in the Pacific Northwest so is surprised to not only get a fan letter, but a gift from a young woman in L.A. It’s a small packet of saffron with a recipe for mussels. This innocuous beginning leads to an impactful friendship in Kim Fay’s ... Read More...
The Secret Keeper of Jaipur
There are many types of satisfaction to be found in reading. One is the excitement of a new voice, a compelling story. But just as good (and sometimes better) is the quiet joy of opening a book and being immediately returned to a place and characters you already know. That’s the case with Alka Joshi’s The Secret Keeper of Jaipur. It’s the sequel to The Henna Artist, a novel I ... Read More...
Utopia Avenue: A Novel by David Mitchell
‘Utopia’ means ‘no place.’ An avenue is a place. So is music. When we’re playing well, I’m here, but elsewhere, too. That’s the paradox. Utopia is unattainable. Avenues are everywhere. Derek, Elf, Jasper, and Griff each has a dream: make it big in the music industry playing music they love. So far, it hasn’t panned out for any of them. But when manager Levon Frankland ... Read More...
