Midnight Drive by Kenneth Price is available for pre-order at Amazon, Kobo, and Barnes and Noble, and will be released on June 1st. It is a gripping crime story that I would recommend even if I were not Ken’s mom.
Tag: Reading
Life’s Mysteries, Real and Fictional
Fair Warning by Michael Connelly If you have ever had doubts about what happens to your DNA after you submit it to a genetic analytics company, this book will add to your concerns. It raises the fictional (I hope) possibility that DNA information might be sold on to multiple other companies to do with as […]
The Joy of Not Reading
Don’t get me wrong. I am still reading, but lately I’ve been abandoning some books. It all started when I thought I should work my way through some of the un-heard books in my audiobook files and unread books in my e-reader. Most of them have been there for many years, silently waiting for me […]
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow was published in 2008 and, although it discusses computer technology that is now dated, it still has relevance today. It is a book intended for young adults and has teenaged characters who find ways to challenge and disrupt their dystopian world. Marcus is a tech-savvy seventeen-year-old who has figured out […]
History, Hardship, and a Hoopoe
The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo This intriguing story is written in an unconventional manner, which I found bewildering at first. I’m glad I stuck with it, though, because it eventually becomes clear that the underlying message is about women who endure hardship and triumph over adversity. It is set in a […]
The Significance of Voice
When you hear a story read aloud, you can enjoy the emphasis and drama in the voice of the storyteller. Their expression of the people and events become yours, too. When you read a story, on the other hand, your imagination brings images to mind and so your own perceptions inform your understanding. That distinction […]
Caste by Isabel Wilkerson
After I had reviewed The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson, her book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents was recommended to me. It is another brilliant and very readable analysis of the social and racial issues facing the United States. Those same issues are facing other countries, too, but the circumstances Wilkerson describes […]
Staying Home and Moving About
These two books were both recommended to me, and I am happy to recommend them to you. They are both enjoyable and engaging, although they are very different in style and tone. One is about staying in a home town and the other is about travelling all over the country. Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout […]
Murder Clubs U.S. & U.K.
The 19th Christmas by James Patterson & Maxine Paetro This is one in a series of the Women’s Murder Club thrillers. I had not read any of the other books in this series, but it didn’t matter because the story stands alone. It mostly revolves around only one member of the club, although she draws […]
When Good Guys Go Bad (And Vice Versa)
Here are two books that I have recently finished. They are both well-written and engaging, but I am left wondering why I want to like the protagonists in the novels I read. The Last Trial by Scott Turow This is one in a series of books about defense lawyer Alejandro “Sandy” Stern. He is eighty-five […]
Cheap, Cheaper, Free
The three books I have for you to consider today came to me via my Kindle, a sale at the Indigo online bookstore, and my local library. It is fair to say that the cost of each is no indication of their worth. Out Of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper. This is a heart-rending […]
Three Books About Love and Loss
These three books are all very different and each is set in a different country, but all three have an understanding of women’s lives and women’s sorrows. Sweetness In The Belly by Camilla Gibb This story begins in Morocco, travels to Ethiopia during Emperor Heile Selassie’s reign, and continues to the London of Margaret Thatcher’s […]
I May Be A Bit Nutty
My eldest son recently met an older woman who shocked him by saying “Our Prime Minister should be hit by a car and run over.” She was deadly serious. Her information sources had led her to believe that Justin Trudeau was such a threat that he needed to be eliminated. My response was first shock, […]
Three Types of Mind Control
Here are three more books that I have recently read and my thoughts about each of them. They all involve some sort of mind control but in very different ways. End of Watch by Stephen King This is the third in a trilogy about police inspector Bill Hodges (retired), but it is a standalone story. […]
Three Books About Belonging
Here are three more books that I recommend. They all explore the complications around belonging in a variety of circumstances: in a new country; in a small community; as descendants of immigrants; as refugees; in unanticipated roles. Each of these books presents with sensitivity, concern, and brutal honesty the challenges experienced by people we might […]
Three Books Filled With Dread
If you like books that keep your stomach tied up in knots, then you will enjoy all of these. The Woman Outside My Door by Rachel Ryan. A young mother is repeatedly told she is overwrought when she worries about her son’s new granny. The problem is, both his grandmothers have died, and one of […]
Three Books About Family
Here are three more books you might like and my thoughts about them. Little Cruelties by Liz Nugent. Sometimes children fight for their parents’ affection and/or attention. This story is about what happens when that competition continues into adulthood. It involves three brothers, each of whom is not very likeable but each for different reasons. […]
Reading Thrillers During A Pandemic
Today I have three books ready to give away and before I do that I thought I would write a short review of each of them. Where I live, the libraries are currently closed as are most retail stores, but thankfully Indigo (aka Coles, aka Chapters) bookstore is available online. I sometimes also get books […]
Read And Return
While on a long layover in Toronto recently I discovered that the airport’s Paradies Lagardère stores have a Read and Return policy. You can buy a book and return it later at any of their airport stores (sometimes named Relay or Today) for a 50% refund. What a great deal! The only proviso is that […]
A Well-Travelled Gulliver
I recently reconnected with an old friend. We knew each other at college back in the early 1970s and I wrote a few blog posts about some memories I had of the ways in which she helped me through a difficult time. Subsequently, I wrote to tell her about the posts by finding an address […]
Snowbird of Paradise 