Life From Scratch

I came for the food; I stayed for the story. Sasha Martin’s book begins with the remembrance of life with her brother and eccentric mother. After her mother lost her investments, life in a low-income and unconventional home was both rough and imaginative. As a result of their mother’s ways, Martin and her brother spent […]

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Etta and Otto and Russell and James

You know when you see something on Facebook that you really enjoy and you think you should mark in some way, but you don’t? Now I am sorry that I didn’t. A year or so ago a word floated around, a word to capture the feeling once you finish a book that you enjoyed so […]

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The Mangle Street Murders

In 1882 London, a detective duo playfully reminiscent of Holmes and Watson debut in M.R.C. Kasasian’s The Mangle Street Murders. When March Middleton’s father dies, she agrees to live with her godfather, the eminent “personal” detective (private is for bedrooms, he says), Sidney Grice. Cold-blooded, vain and avaricious, Grice is approached when a beautiful young […]

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Road Trip Reads

There’s nothing like a good audiobook to while away the hours on a long road trip or, for that matter, a short trip on a road under construction.  A great audiobook requires two things to capture your attention and entertain you: a great book and a great reader.  Here are some suggestions —   For a […]

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Books to Film: The Dovekeepers

I apologize that I did not think to share this news earlier! My friend and co-worker, Giselle, let me know a couple of weeks ago that there would be a mini-series based on Alice Hoffman’s historical novel, The Dovekeepers. The mini-series is produced by Roma Downey and Mark Burnett. My apology comes because Part 1 […]

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Book Review: Holy Cow

The review I initially read about Holy Cow by David Duchovny must have been a good one because it led me to the book. Allegory with animals usually irk me. My interest was sparked enough for me to place the hold and then to actually give the book a try once I had it home. […]

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This is the Water

Annie watches her daughters at swim practice, while wondering why her husband doesn’t kiss her anymore. At the same time, a  killer watches the girls and imagines seeing the life leaving their eyes. In This is the Water, by Yannick Murphy, we see Annie’s harried life as a swim mom in rural Vermont, driving her daughters […]

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Our Souls at Night

In this last novel before his death in 2014, acclaimed novelist Haruf (Benediction) captures small-town life to perfection in his signature spare style. Addie Moore and Louis Waters have been neighbors in the eastern Colorado farming town of Holt for over 40 years. Now, alone except for their grown children, Addie has asked Louis to […]

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