I love old fashioned murder mysteries, murder mysteries along the lines of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot or Ms Marple. The Maslow Murder Club is one such novel. Our protagonist is a charming septarian, Judith, Who loves to skinny dip in the river behind her old mansion. On one such excursion, Judith witnesses the murder of … Continue reading The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood
Tag: #bestbooks
The Book Eaters
by Sunyi Dean Devon is not human, she is a book eater. She does not get her nourishment from food but rather from eating the written word. With each text she consumes, Devon absorbs the knowledge each text possesses. And her blood runs black like ink. The chapters in this novel alternate between the past … Continue reading The Book Eaters
Alone
by Megan E. Freeman Twelve-year-old Maddie is a normal teenager who just wants to do normal things like having a party at her grandmother’s vacant house without her parents knowing. Maddie has it all arranged: she will tell her mother she is staying with her father and tell her father she is staying at her … Continue reading Alone
Escape from Chernobyl by Andy Marino
Escape from Chernobyl is a fictional account of the Chernobyl disaster, a global incident that most young people know nothing about. 16-year-old Yuri Formichev is an intern at the Chernobyl power plant in Pripyat Ukraine on the border of what was then the Soviet Union. Yuri’s dream is to be an engineer at the nuclear … Continue reading Escape from Chernobyl by Andy Marino
The Speed of Falling Objects
by Nancy Richardson Fischer Life hasn’t been easy for Danielle “Danny” Warren. When she was 7, her adventurous father leaves her and her mother to become a famous “Reality Star”. Danny believes her father abandoned her because she suffered a horrible accident and lost her eye, an accident that not only stole her sight but … Continue reading The Speed of Falling Objects
The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams
I’m a nerd. I love books. I especially love books about books, libraries, and words. I also gravitate towards feminist literature. Lucky for me, The Dictionary of Lost Words is a wonderful combination of both. Our protagonist Esme loves words as well, probably because she spends her childhood under the table in the scriptorium where … Continue reading The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams
2021-2022 Book Club Titles
I’m interested to know how other people are running book clubs during Covid. Is Zoom the “go to” platform for most? Or is there some other more intimate way to connect with our book people? In September we had the opportunity to host book club in person for the first time in close to two … Continue reading 2021-2022 Book Club Titles
All Things Cease to Appear by Elizabeth Brundage
Over the last year, I have been attracted to gothic mysteries and crime novels. Sometimes I google the genres I’m interested in to see what pops up on the screen. So when I typed “mystery gothic crime novels”, Elizabeth Brundage’s novel came up. What I thought would be an easy, quick, pulp fiction read turned … Continue reading All Things Cease to Appear by Elizabeth Brundage
Reflecting on 2020 and setting goals for 2021
Welcome, 2021! Last week I reflected on my year of reading. The titles, the genres, the authors. Around March last year, I had to take the reality of my “COVID mindset” and my inability to focus into consideration and set a milestone much lower than I usually do at 50 books. As an English teacher … Continue reading Reflecting on 2020 and setting goals for 2021
A Meditation on Thornton Wilder
“There arose a perfume of tenderness, that ghost of passion which, in the most unexpected relationship, can make a whole lifetime devoted to irksome duty pass like a gracious dream” (pg. 74) The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder. I have fallen in love with Thorton Wilder because of this quote. How wonderful … Continue reading A Meditation on Thornton Wilder