James Patterson is hit or miss with me. This one was a hit in my book. Imagine this: the president of the United States is brilliant but has also lost his mind. Farfetched? Clearly not! President Keegan Barrett, the former director of the CIA, has a dangerous skill set. Six months into his first term, he devises a clandestine power grab to get revenge. He orders Special Agents Liam Grey and Noa Himel to execute his plan, even though the Central Intelligence Agency is forbidden to operate on American soil. As CIA agents, they’ve sworn to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all threats, foreign […]
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The Ways We Hide
This wonderful novel maintained my interest from the first sentence. Unlike so many WWII novels I’ve read, The Ways We Hide one isn’t about the British who served as intelligence agents. it’s about an American woman’s involvement with MI9 (which I knew nothing about). MI9, the British Directorate of Military Intelligence Section 9, was a highly secret department of the War Office between 1939 and 1945. Their function was two-fold: to help Allied POWs escape Nazi Germany, and help downed airmen evade capture after being shot down. Fenna Vos grew up on Michigan’s harsh Upper Peninsula. On Christmas Eve, 1913, the union holds a party at the Italian Hall in […]
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The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks
I’ve always wanted to own a bookstore, so this novel was inspiring. It was not at all what I expected. I worried it would be a political rant about banning “controversial” books, but that wasn’t it at all. When Maggie Banks arrives in tiny Bell River to run her best friend’s struggling bookstore, Maggie expects to sell bestsellers to her small-town clientele. That’s now how things work, though. The town revolves around the legacy of famed writer Edward Bell, and the Bell River literary society bans her from selling anything written after his death in 1968. So, when a series of mishaps spell disaster for the shop, Maggie must […]
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Our Little World
“A missing child brings together parents and neighbors and search parties and hot casseroles. It’s an ongoing story, with characters and plots and subplots, grief and faith in equal proportions.” ~ Karen Winn, Our Little World. I was glued to the pages of the wonderful coming-of-age book set in the mid-80s. I remember being in seventh grade hanging out at the beach with my friends a decade earlier (even more likely at the Brookview Golf Course pool) and it was a time of fun and innocence. Not so much for Bee and Max. July 1985. It’s a normal, sweltering New Jersey summer for soon-to-be seventh grader Bee Kocsis when […]
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The Unlocked Path
The Unlocked Path is a historical novel about a “New Woman” of the early twentieth century: educated, career-minded, independent. In 1897 Philadelphia, after experiencing her aunt’s suicide, Eliza Edwards vows to help and heal. In her social circle, a young woman’s chief goal was to debut in society, but Eliza isn’t interested in such a traditional role. Instead, she enters medical college when only five percent of doctors are female. With the support of a team of women and driven by a determination to conquer curriculum demands, battle sexism, and overcome doubts, Eliza charts her life’s trajectory. Author Janis Robinson Daly was inspired to write her debut novel after conducting […]
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Us Against You
“Everyone is a hundred different things, but in other people’s eyes we usually get the chance to be only one of them.” Fredrik Backman, Us Against You. The citizens of Beartown are about to lose their beloved hockey team (introduced in the 2016 bestseller, Beartown) and their rivals in Hed—where many former Beartown players now carry stick—could not be happier. A new coach is appointed, a woman, and teenagers fill out the roster. Amat, the fastest player you’ll ever see; Benji, the intense lone wolf; and Vidar, a born-to-be-bad troublemaker, have heart, but is that enough to win? I’m a huge fan of Fredrik Backman. A Man Called Ove […]
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Rising Danger Review
An environmental terrorist is planting explosives on dams in the Twin Cities, and Bristol Bachmann and her bomb-sniffing dog must hurry to find them before everything ends up underwater. That means teaming up with the dams’ supervisor—an ex-boyfriend she never thought she’d see again. When the bomber sets his sights on Bristol and her K-9, it becomes a lethal game of cat and mouse. I appreciated that Rising Danger is set in the Twin Cities where I have lived my whole life. Reading about familiar places is always fun. The author did a good job setting the stage, and she certainly knows a thing or two about dogs! The plot […]
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September 2022 Picks and Pans
No five-star reads this month, but The Happiest Man on Earth was definitely life-changing. I gave one novel a 2-star rating, which is rare for me. I read two books set in the Philippines, which is totally random. I’ll be curious to hear what you have to say. Circle back to Facebook and let me know! The Happiest Man on Earth By Eddie Jaku “Life can be beautiful if you make it beautiful. It is up to you.” Eddie Jaku, The Happiest Man on Earth. In this uplifting memoir in the vein of The Last Lecture and Man’s Search for Meaning, a Holocaust survivor pays tribute to those who […]
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The Twilight World Review
“Our tasks are to remain invisible, to deceive the enemy, to be ready to do seemingly dishonorable things while keeping safe in our hearts the warrior’s honor.” ~ Werner Herzog, The Twilight World. Although German filmmaker Werner Herzog has produced, written, and directed over sixty feature- and documentary films, The Twilight World is Werner Herzog’s debut as a novelist. As the Imperial Army prepares to withdraw from Lubang Island, Philippines in December 1944, Japanese intelligence officer, Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda, is ordered to hold the island until the army returns. At first, he is with three other soldiers, but one-by-one they succumb to the jungle. They ignore leaflets announcing the Japanese […]
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Woman of Light Review
“Every sigh is breath stolen from life.” ~ Kali Fajardo-Anstine, Woman of Light Woman of Light is a multigenerational western saga of an Indigenous Chicano family. The book opens in the Lost Territory of New Mexico where Pidre Lopez, a Puebloan Indigenous person, settles in Animas, Colorado, where he runs a Wild West Show. The author the moves to 1930s Denver, where Luz “Little Light” Lopez, discovers she has clairvoyant gifts and reads tea leaves to help her aunt, Maria Jose and brother, Diego, a snake oil salesman and womanizer pay the rent. When her brother is run out of town by a white mob for dating a white […]
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