Their Eyes Were Watching God

  First published in 1937, Their Eyes Were Watching God was out of print for almost thirty years—due largely to the initial audiences’ rejection of its strong black female protagonist. It was reissued in 1978 and has since become one of the most widely read and critically acclaimed works of African American literature. Their Eyes Were Watching God tells the story of Janie Starks, fair-skinned, long-legged, independent, and articulate, who sets out to be her own person—no easy feat for a black woman in the ‘30s. After three marriages, she journeys back to her roots, where her small southern black community buzzes with gossip about the outcome of her affair […]

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The It Girl

  Now I can see why this book was nominated by readers in the Goodreads Choice Award Best Mystery & Thriller category last year—it’s a killer psychological thriller! The It Girl is told in alternating before and after chapters beginning at Oxford University (did you know Oxford comprises 39 separate colleges?) when freshman Hannah Jones meets her new roommate. April Coutts-Cliveden is sophisticated, wealthy, the ultimate “it” girl. “She had the kind of beauty that hurt your eyes if you looked at her for too long but made it hard to tear your gaze away. It was, Hannah realized, as if a different kind of light were shining on her […]

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November 2022 Picks and Pans

  Another month of reading came and went, and so did my deadline for writing this post! Oh well, I hope you find something to love here.   Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid “We live in a world where exceptional women have to sit around waiting for mediocre men.”—Taylor Jenkins Reid, Carrie Soto is Back I’ve never been much of a tennis fan, although I took the obligatory tennis lessons at Wesley Park several summers through community ed and then married into a tennis crazed family of jocks. Despite my lack of athleticism, Carrie Soto is Back was engrossing from start to finish. When Carrie Soto retires […]

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The Madness of Crowd

  Louise Penny just keeps getting better. The Madness of Crowds is number seventeen in her Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series, and I am now just one book away from being caught up. So many books to read, too little time! As always, she’s composed a multilayered novel with the diverse, well-drawn characters I’ve come to love. It’s best to read her books in order, but she does a fine job referencing events from previous books to keep new readers in the loop. The Madness of Crowds is about man’s inhumanity to man (or woman’s inhumanity to woman, whatever the case may be). Chief Inspector Gamache’s winter holiday is interrupted […]

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Messenger of Truth

  Once again, Maisie Dobbs did not disappoint. I love historical mysteries, and author Jacqueline Winspear gets extra points for having the detective be a woman, which in 1931 would have been unprecedented. It was a 2006 Agatha Award Nominee for Best Novel—always a good sign. (Incidentally, Louise Penny has won the award seven times.) Nicholas Bassington-Hope was commissioned to paint war propaganda after sustaining injuries in combat. On the night before the opening of his exhibition at a celebrated Mayfair art gallery, he falls from a scaffolding to his death. The police rule it an accident, but the dead man’s twin sister suspects foul play. Where is the painting […]

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Fox Creek

  Another fabulous novel by Edgar winner William Kent Krueger! Fox Creek is the nineteenth installment of the Cork O’Connor series and my twenty-first book by this talented writer. Do I enjoy his work… you bet as we sat here in Minnesota! In Fox Creek, Cork races against time to save his wife Rainy, Ojibwe healer Henry Meloux, and a mysterious woman from violent mercenaries. Dolores Morriseau has come to Henry for guidance. When men fill the woods trying to capture her, Meloux leads them to safety deep in his beloved Boundary Waters Canoe Area. Well over 100 years old, he must do his best to outwit the mercenaries who […]

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Dark Intercept

  The day before Navy SEAL Jedidiah Johnson is set to retire, he receives a frantic call from his estranged childhood friend. David’s daughter, Sarah Beth, has been kidnapped off the streets of Nashville in broad daylight. The police have no suspects and no leads. The only clue: the body of a dead priest left behind at the scene. David and his wife, Rachel—Jed’s first love—are desperate for help. The police don’t appreciate Jed’s interference in their investigation, but he is determined to find Sarah Beth. Soon he experiences dark memories, voices in his head, nightmares, and visions, and someone tries to kill him. He’s saved by an ancient group […]

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The Mystery of Mrs. Christie

  In December 1926, novelist Agatha Christie and her husband Archie have a vicious argument about his unfaithfulness. On that frigid night, she vanishes. Investigators find her abandoned car on the edge of a deep pond, her fur coat still inside. Her daughter and unfaithful husband have no idea where she is. English officials unleash an unprecedented manhunt to find her and are joined by people all over the country. She reappears eleven days later, claiming amnesia. Marie Benedict wrote the book in a dual narrative: one story line is from Archie’s point-of-view as he contends with the media circus, the other from Agatha’s as she describes their relationship in […]

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The 6:20 Man

  I’ve read twenty-seven books written by David Baldacci, some I gave two stars, some earned five. I’m thinking four stars is just right for The 6:20 Man. Every day without fail, former Army Ranger Travis Devine boards the 6:20 commuter train to Manhattan, where he works as an entry-level analyst at Cowl and Comely, the city’s most prestigious investment firm. He gazes out the train window at the lavish homes of the uberwealthy, dreaming about joining their ranks. Then one morning Devine receives an anonymous, untraceable message which reads: “She is dead.” Sara Ewes, Devine’s coworker and former girlfriend, is found hanging in a storage room of his office […]

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Carrie Soto is Back

  I’ve never been much of a tennis fan, although I took the obligatory tennis lessons at Wesley Park several summers through community ed and then married into a tennis crazed family of jocks. Despite my lack of athleticism, Carrie Soto is Back was engrossing from start to finish. Author Taylor Jenkins Reid delivers another ace. When Carrie Soto retires from tennis, she is the best player the world has ever seen. She has shattered every record and claimed twenty Grand Slam titles. But six years later, she sits in the stands of the 1994 US Open as Nicki Chan ties her record. At thirty-seven years old, Carrie comes out […]

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