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Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane

August 18, 2023

small mercies

He has no idea where it all comes from—the loyalty and the rage, the brotherhood and the suspicion, the benevolence and the hate. If you’re looking for refined forays into the more delicate human emotions in your reading than Dennis Lehane is probably not an author you read often or at all. He’s a bareknuckle bruiser who writes about a Boston unfamiliar to anyone whose ideas ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: 1970s, book clubs, historical fiction, New England, suspense

Strange Sally Diamond

August 8, 2023

strange sally

In rural Ireland 44-year-old Sally lives alone with her elderly father. They seldom come in contact with the outside world because Sally is neurodivergent and interactions with people never seem to go well. When Liz Nugent’s novel Strange Sally Diamond opens her father has just died. Sally handles the situation exactly as he told her to, but the after effect of her actions ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary life, mystery, suspense

June Reading Recap

June 30, 2023

June

This June recap is a little special. Monday, July 3rd, is my mother’s 85th birthday and I want to give her the biggest shout-out I can because aside from being a wonderful mother, this blog, the podcast, my career as a librarian, none of it would have happened without her passion for books. She’s the lovely high schooler in the photo above and  my love of reading is one of the ... Read More...

4 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Feature Tagged: historical fiction, suspense

The Quiet Tenant

June 27, 2023

quiet tenant

Her name is Rachel. But it’s not. It’s simply the name the man has told her she must use when and if she were to come into contact with others. Which is unlikely given that she’s chained by the ankle to the wall in a padlocked shed. This is The Quiet Tenant by Clemence Michallon, a taut debut novel about a serial killer, told solely from the perspective of the women in his ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: suspense, vacation reading

The House Guest

March 24, 2023

house guest

Reading as much as I do is a joy, but it can make me feel jaded. It leaves me with a ‘been there, read that’ mindset, especially when it comes to thrillers. That’s one of the reasons I was so tickled by Hank Philippi Ryan’s The House Guest. She uses the reader’s cynicism and suspicion against them, jamming the novel with dubious characters at every turn and a maze of a plot. It ... Read More...

4 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: mystery, suspense, vacation reading, wealth

February Reading Wrap-Up

March 6, 2023

february

February was a month of extremes. I either held onto a book for dear life or dropped it like a bad habit. There was no middle ground. Thankfully, the majority of what I read was outstanding with 6 of the 11 novels I read being 4 stars or higher. DNFs are painful, but that disappointment aside, it was a great month.   This was definitely a case of my bored mind ... Read More...

10 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Feature Tagged: dystopia, mini-reviews, suspense

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