Man’s Search for Meaning Book Review

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” ― Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning is widely recognized as one of the most influential books of our time. It chronicles his experiences as a concentration camp inmate and describes his psychotherapeutic method of finding meaning in all forms of existence, even the most traumatic ones. Frankl was so precocious and intuitive that he first spoke publicly about the meaning of life when he was only 15 years old and began corresponding […]

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Little Souls Book Review

… It means the poor, the hopeless, the common people nobody ever notices. In truth, it applies to all of us. We are all lost little souls in our own way.—Sandra Dallas, Little Souls Sisters Helen and Lutie move to Denver from Iowa after their parents’ deaths. Helen, a nurse, and Lutie, a carefree advertising illustrator at a fashionable women’s store, share a small home and rent out the basement apartment. But the epidemic hits hard. Schools are converted into hospitals, churches and funeral homes are closed, and horse-drawn wagons collect corpses left in the street. When their tenant dies from the flu, the sisters care for the woman’s young […]

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The Woman in the Library Book Review

“I am a bricklayer without drawings, laying words in sentences, sentences into paragraphs, allowing my walls to twist and turn on whim…no framework…just bricks interlocked…no idea what I’m building or if it will stand…no symmetry, no plan, just the chaotic unplotted bustle of human life.” — Sulari Gentill, The Woman in the Library. The ornate reading room at the Boston Public Library is quiet until the tranquility is shattered by a woman’s terrified scream. Security guards take charge, instructing everyone inside to stay put until the threat is identified and contained. While they wait for the all-clear, four strangers, who are sitting at the same table, pass the time in […]

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Malibu Rising Book Review

“How were you supposed to change—in ways both big and small—when your family was always there to remind you of exactly the person you apparently signed an ironclad contract to be?” — Taylor Jenkins Reid, Malibu Rising The Rivas siblings are tightly knit. Nina, the eldest, is a supermodel; Jay is a championship surfer, Hud a renowned photographer, and Kit is their adored teenaged sister. They’re a source of fascination in Malibu and the world over, especially as the offspring of the legendary singer, Mick Riva. It’s August 1983, the day of Nina’s annual end-of-summer party. Everyone wants to be around the famous Rivas, movie stars, recording artists, authors, business […]

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Lights Out Book Review

“Choose fear or choose faith, but only one choice will bring peace.” — Natalie Walters, Lights Out As a CIA analyst, Brynn Taylor developed a new program to combat terrorism, and invited members of foreign intelligence agencies to America to foster cooperation between countries. Now one of them, Egyptian spy Remon Riad, is missing. Jack Hudson has been working for the Strategic Neutralization and Protection Agency (SNAP) for almost nine years and takes the lead in hunting down the missing spy. But he isn’t at all pleased to find out Brynn is involved. It’s hard to trust a woman who’s already betrayed you. Every lead they follow draws them dangerously […]

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The Recovery Agent Book Review

In this fast-paced series debut by the author of the wildly successful Stephanie Plum series, recovery agent Gabriela Rose must come up with a large sum of money to keep her family’s home from being wiped off the map after a powerful hurricane. As a recovery agent, she’s hired by individuals and companies seeking lost treasures, stolen heirlooms, or missing assets, and she’s hoping her new job will save them. Inspired by an old family legend, Gabriela sets off for the jungles of Peru in pursuit of the Ring of Solomon and the lost treasure of Cortez, long-lost treasure of her ancestor Blackbeard the Pirate. The problem is her ex-husband, […]

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The Lincoln Highway Book Review

“… in your time you shall do wrong unto others and others shall do wrong unto you. And these opposing wrongs will become your chains. The wrongs you have done unto others will be bound to you in the form of guilt, and the wrongs that others have done unto you in the form of indignation. The teachings of Jesus Christ Our Savior are there to free you from both. To free you from your guilt through atonement and from your indignation through forgiveness. Only once you have freed yourself from both of these chains may you begin to live your life with love in your heart and serenity in […]

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The Sanctuary Book Review

Sanctuary is the remarkable true story of how faith turned one lost man’s life around with the help of the rescue animals who loved him. In the small Irish village of Liscarroll, Patrick Barrett helped his family run a sanctuary for abandoned and abused donkeys. He did poorly in school and his headmaster beat him. Patrick only felt truly accepted in the presence of the donkeys and he could read their body language and communicate in ways they could understand. Falling prey to the cultural norms of life in an Irish village, Barrett had his first drink at age seven and came to depend on alcohol to numb his anxiety. At […]

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Bloomsbury Girls – Book Review

Bloomsbury Books is an old-fashioned new and rare bookstore that has resisted change for a hundred years. It is run by men and guided by the general manager’s unbreakable fifty-one rules, but in post-war 1950, the world is changing, especially the world of books and publishing. At Bloomsbury Books, the women who work in the shop have plans. Vivien Lowry: Brilliant and stylist, Vivien has been single since her aristocratic fiancé died fighting during World War II. A budding writer, she works in the shop’s fiction department. Grace Perkins: Married with two young sons, she’s been working to support the family following her husband’s mental breakdown in the war’s aftermath. […]

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Amy’s May 2022 Reads

Only one 5-star review this month, but once again, Ruta Sepetys takes the top spot. I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys Please remember that when adversity is drawn out of the shadows and recognized, we ensure that human beings living under oppression—past and present—know they are not forgotten. Together, we can shine a light in dark corners of the past. Together, we can give history a voice.—Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You. Ruta Sepetys’s latest novel is set in Romania in 1989. Communist regimes are crumbling across Europe, but tyrannical dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, who has been in power for twenty-four years, still governs by isolation and fear. Seventeen-year-old Cristian Florescu dreams […]

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