Tricia Nelson
This was a great book club pick. Most of our members liked it, and many loved it. Our conversation included so many topics - parenting styles in the US and elsewhere, different perspectives of the characters in the book, appreciation for what we have and are given, cultural differences and how that plays out in interactions amonst the characters and within their own social circles, and so much more. Great read.
Wow. Hard to write about this one without spoiling it. My advice - read it soon before you hear too much. I had heard a bit about the book that had me guessing some things too early, but I'm glad I read it so soon after it was widely available. There are MANY ways that this book will have me thinking about it for a while. It got a lot of buzz and didn't disappoint.
This book is a steady read full of interesting characters, new beginnings, friendships and perspectives. Two women (Eve and Sally) find themselves at an inflection point in their lives, and come across a third woman (Anastasia) who needs their help. They sign on to spend a few months living on Anastasia's narrowboat and driving it through the locks and canals to a shop some km away to be refurbished. Along the way Eve and Sally have time to reflect on their own lives to this point and be honest with themselves about what they want and what might need to change. They meet many people in the narrowboat community who expand their perspectives and enrich their experience. I enjoyed reading this - many thanks to Bookbrowse and #Netgalley for the complimentary ebook.
This book has been on my radar since it was published last year, and I'm so glad it was! The story is about new beginnings at any age, the value of friendship, and the ways family can grow apart and then come back together as different people. There is plenty to laugh at, including 79-year-old spunky Eileen who is figuring out smartphones, London tubes, and online dating with a little help from friends. I listened to this book on audio, and it was great - the narrators did a great job! There were different voices for different characters, but it didn't distract from the story - it added to it. This was a fun fun read.
Thank you #netgalley and @macmillanaudio for an advance listening copy of #theswitch in exchange for an honest review.
I've been searching for a few feel-good books lately (it's been quite the year, hmmm?) and this fits that niche perfectly! Cricket is a woman starting over after her husband leaves her. She runs a fledgling senior-care business in her little town and is doing her best to make it successful. The story is full of great characters, a romantic interest, and the author gives you a great sense of community, quirky characters to love and root for, and hope. We could all use a little hope, I think! This book drew me right in, kept my interest, and made me laugh. I'm so happy that it is the first in a series about this little town. Highly recommend!
I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for a fair and honest review.
This is a novella with a premise that the Queen of England takes up reading, and was a really fun romp. She discovers that she has never been encourageed to have an opinion but quite likes it; her staff stumble to figure out what she is doing and even get rid of her reading valet behind her back. She becomes more empathetic and understanding of her people and is dismayed when others don't also have knowledge about books. Very fun very quick read - would make for a lively book club discussion about the power of the books we read, or don't read.
I enjoyed this end to the trilogy. I saw an interview with the author and she was clear that this was the last installment for these characters, and I felt like she did them justice. I picked up the first two books in this series after a recommendation by Modern Mrs Darcy and read them around Halloween a few years ago. The characters were likeable and the story drew me in for a quick read. This one did not disappoint. The author is very good at giving the reader a sense of place while highlighting the spooky/spectral aspects of that location, and New Orleans was the perfect place for this last book. Of course, now I'm craving a good Cafe du Monde beignet.
I saw an interview with this author when this book was first published and it has been on my TBR list ever since. I found it compelling how a family activity of walking the Richmond Slave Trail led her to the stories that inspired Yellow Wife. The author is a wondeful storyteller, and I devoured this book in a few days. It is difficult to learn about the history of the slave trade in the United States, but cannot compare to the suffering endured by so many. While this story is fictional, it is well researched and based on real places and real people.
This book will stay with me for a while. It presents itself as an interesting twist on life - someone who has a definitive life plan set out for them gets a glimpse into the future. The story takes twists and turns with characters that you come to know and cheer for. Themes of friendship, true love, family, and more make this a great read that I highly recommend.
I read this on a whim as it came up in my library browsing and I'd heard from a friend it was worth a read. It's interesting and sadly believable and tells her detailed story of her friendship with Melania Trump that became her association with the First Lady as an adviser. I think we may all have had people in our lives that were not who we thought they were, that hurt us in ways sometimes small and sometimes large, and that is a portion of the book that is relatable. As some other reviewers mentioned, I also got a little stuck on her comparing her trials with her grandparents' trials in the holocaust. For a person of such privilege to make such a comparison didn't feel right. Perhaps it was an unfortunate wording of that section, who knows? One portion toward the end of the book did strike me as so true in 2021: “I have learned that when it comes to politics, not knowing is not okay. For many years, I was apolitical. That was a mistake. I now know that is not an option—it's a luxury. And a luxury no one can afford. One's moral values and political beliefs clearly go hand in hand, and for me to have believed otherwise was naive and foolish”.
Very cute and enjoyable romance. While the setup is somewhat predictable - two people meet and immediately dislike each other, only they end up drawn to each other, the story is also about overcoming grief, facing change, being alone in a new place, misogyny in the workplace, honesty, and overcoming obstacles for something that is worth it.
We read this as part of book club, and I'm glad I read it, though I'm not sure I would have picked it up otherwise. This author has been on my radar for a while and the acclaim made me want to read something of hers. This book is well written, but may not have been for me right now with the world feeling so heavy. I had to take my time reading it and can appreciate the author's craft and ability to bring you right into the thoughts of the main character. It's gritty and thought-provoking and uncomfortable and very well done. It also impresses me that a book in translation still reads so well. This may be one of the book club choices I look back on and I'm glad it was chosen because it took me out of my comfort zone.
Another solid Stephanie Plum novel with her family and side-kicks and love interests. Realized I missed #26 but this story stood on its own. A new character is introduced in this book that the author is writing about this year. I think my favorite character is still after all these books Grandma Mazur. She makes me laugh out loud every time.
An adorable love story about a girl who saves up for an incredible Alaskan vacation and finds more than she thought she would in the little town of Moose Springs. It's also a story about a small town that is struggling to stay afloat without tourism, and finding a way to come to terms with changes that the town may need. There is even an adorable dog and (of course) a love-sick moose. Perfect read to distract me from world events right now.
I was excited to get this book from the library to read and dug right in. This college admissions scandal story is told from the perspective of the student whose parents cheat to get them into the college of their choice. While this sounded to me like a juicy ‘ripped from the headlines' story, it is more accurate to say it's a coming of age story of sorts. The author does a good job of bringing the reader along with the young woman who experiences shock, denial, anger, and eventually grows as a person to understand all the many layers of wrong that happened. She loses so much and finds her real self at the end.
I loved this book. The premise is interesting - what if there was a cafe that enabled you to travel through time, but only until your coffee gets cold? The book delivered on the premise, and so much more. What the characters find in their travels and learn about themselves make this a story that will stick with me and that I will think about for a while. Highly recommend!
This graphic novel/foodie memoir was a delight. It is amazing how a feeling or setting can be described so fully without many words. This story of how the author's childhood and early adulthood was shaped by people around her and the environment she was in that was full of food and culinary exploration and understanding is well done and wonderful. I can't wait to try the recipes included, and it makes me want to cook more, explore more and be someone that can bring people together around a table.
This book was one of the monthly picks for the Modern Mrs Darcy book club, and I'm very grateful for it. Not sure I would have found this story otherwise. The flight pick is Mastering the Art of French Eating by Ann Mah, and I'll have to add that to my reading list soon!
We picked this book for book club and WOW is there a lot to talk about! Now that I've finished it, I need to re-read it knowing what I know now. If you are someone who likes plot twists you didn't see coming, this is for you! If you like twisty mysteries where you can't trust what you assume, this is for you!
While I was reading this I kept feeling like I was reading the book equivalent of a Jordan Peele movie - What is going on? Are these good people or bad people? What is going on? Now that I've finished it, I'm not sure I got my answers, but I certainly have a LOT to think about. It is amazing to know this was written BEFORE 2020 threw all it has at us. Themes about family, parenting, climate change, politics, youth, technology, and more out of a quick read that I can't wait to see brought to the big screen by Netflix with Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington. If the author's purpose was to show the reader a slice of life in the midst of mysterious events, he succeeded. This one is worth reading and thinking about.
I got hooked on this trilogy last fall, and was so excited for the final installment that I preordered it to be delivered to my kindle on release day. :) It did not disappoint. The characters all found their paths in a way that made sense to me, without being overly cheesy or implausible. The story of St. John and the community there made me reminisce about a small community I used to live in outside of Boston, and the challenges but also the benefits of such. The author also ties up the series with the devastation that the island endured from a hurricane, but also with hope from a community that is ever resilient. This trilogy is a quick read, and I highly recommend it. You will enjoy it more and get more from it by reading all three of the books in order. It provided a respite from all things political and Covid for a few days. It was also interesting to note that the author quarantined in St. John this spring during the Covid shut-downs.
I suspect I read this at the wrong time. This was well-written, with characters I came to know and understand, if not like (duh- it's Jane Austen), but it was a challenge to read at this stressful time. This was our classic choice for book club this year, and I am looking forward to the discussion. I will re-read this in the future, and suspect I will appreciate it much more when I do. :)
This is one of the better romances I've read in a while. I went in expecting a typical light read romance, where the two characters (who inevitably fall in love) start out hating each other, etc etc - follow formula here. What I found instead in this story was more. There is still the romance, and the two characters finding their way toward each other, but there was also a lot of good stuff in here about family, forgiveness, secrets, and all the baggage we all carry into our relationships with everyone around us. More than once the line “people aren't math problems” is used - there is so much complexity to all of our lives that nothing is quite as simple as it often seems. This reads like a light ‘beach read' but includes enough ‘real' stuff to make it appeal even to those who don't normally like romance novels. This will definitely be on my list to suggest for book club in the future - something to appeal to everyone and LOTS to discuss!