Need an excellent book for the long holiday weekend? Look below and you’ll find inspiration, thrills, chills, romances, and history. Something for everyone! These are in order by my favorites, top to bottom. Enjoy! The Women of Chateau Lafayette by Stephanie Dray “Glory is a bittersweet wreath of both flowers and thorns.” ~ Stephanie Dray, The Women of Chateau Lafayette A mysterious castle, a hero of the American Revolution, spies, what’s not to love? Stephanie Dray writes long, ambitious books. After reading and enjoying her historical novel America’s First Daughter (written with Laura Kamoie) about Thomas Jefferson’s eldest daughter, I was excited to receive an advance reader copy of her […]
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The Best Mystery Novels of all Time
The Best Mystery Novels of All Time Gumshoes, investigators, flatfoots, private eyes, sleuths, G-men. There are plenty of names for detectives and plenty of ways they catch crooks in the written word and on the screen. I much prefer a mystery novel because I can envision the characters and settings rather than having them imagined for me. If you love to read this genre, too, you’re in good company. Most critics and scholars agree that the first modern mystery was penned by Edgar Allan Poe. His short story, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, was first published in the April 1841 issue of Graham’s Magazine. Nearly twenty years after Poe’s […]
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May Reads
June is upon us, so it is time to post my reviews of the books I read in May, a smattering from the historical fiction, thriller, memoir, mystery, biography, and literary fiction genres. I use Goodreads to track and rate my reading. 5 stars is reserved for rare blew-my-socks-off reads, 4 stars means I enjoyed it and would absolutely recommend. 3 stars is good, but not great. I very rarely rate lower because I do not finish books I’m not enjoying. The Broken Way: A Daring Path into the Abundant Life by Ann Voskamp This book is for those in need of a renewed revelation of the grace of God. […]
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The Best Historical Fiction of All Time
I have 613 books on my Goodreads “Read” list, and at least a third of them fall into the historical fiction classification. So I guess you say this is my jam. Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the story takes place in the past. Historical novels capture the details of the time period as accurately as possible for authenticity, including social norms, manners, customs, and traditions. Many novels in this genre tell fictional stories that involve actual historical figures or historical events. To help you land on some reads you may not have considered, I’ve put together a list of the best historical novels of all time. Such […]
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The Best Thrillers of All Time
If you’re anything like me, you appreciate a lot of different types of books. To help you land on some reads you may not have considered, I’ve put together a list of the best books of all time from various genres. I did exhaustive research to come up with the best of the best. What you’ll see comes from several sources and my own opinions. Just so you know, an author makes only one appearance on the list no matter how many outstanding books he or she has written, and some obvious choices aren’t here because they are on another genre’s list. The following list is in alphabetical order (the […]
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April Reads
A new month is upon us, fellow bibliophiles, which means it’s time to post what I read in April. There weren’t any 5-star winners, but there were no real duds either. In all the years I’ve been rating books, I’ve only given two 2-stars reviews—one because of grammatical errors and the other because of objectionable content. As an author I know how hard it is to write a book, and I think most books deserve at least three stars (unless a book is self-published, and then it’s no holds barred). April turned out to be a wonderful mix of genres: mystery, thriller, historical fiction, and memoir. I laughed out loud, […]
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When Harry Met Minnie – Book Review
Martha Teichner is an excellent storyteller. She painted wonderful word pictures about New York City for this reader who has never been to the Big Apple. Despite the title, her memoir really wasn’t about Harry or Minnie, my big takeaway was the importance of adult friendship, or heart friends as I like to call them. New best friends aren’t only formed on the playground or in the classroom, they can be unexpected gifts even after “a certain age.” Friendship develops between people who have something in common… like their love of dogs, for example. There were some aspects of the book I didn’t care for, though. First, as a dog […]
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Dear Edward – Book Review
One summer morning, twelve-year-old Edward Adler, his beloved older brother, his parents, and 183 other passengers board a flight in Newark headed for Los Angeles. Among them is a Wall Street wunderkind, a young woman coming to terms with an unexpected pregnancy, an injured vet returning from Afghanistan, a septuagenarian business tycoon, and a free-spirited woman running away from her controlling husband. And then, tragically, the plane crashes. Edward is the sole survivor. Edward’s story captures the attention of the nation, but he struggles to find a place for himself in a world without his family. He continues to feel that a piece of him has been left in the […]
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The Nature of Fragile Things – Book Review
I normally take notes while I am reading an advance reader copy (ARC) to help facilitate my review. Susan Meissner’s historical novel, The Nature of Fragile Things, though, was so wonderful I didn’t want the interruption. Here’s a quick synopsis: Sophie Whalen is a young Irish immigrant so desperate to get out of a New York tenement that she answers a mail-order bride ad and moves to San Francisco. She quickly adjusts to her new life and develops a deep affection for Kat, her new stepdaughter, but something about her husband isn’t quite right. Then one spring evening, a stranger at the door sets in motion a chain of events. […]
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GREENLIGHTS- Book Review
The sooner we become less impressed with our life, our accomplishments, our career, our relationships, the prospects in front of us—the sooner we become less impressed and more involved with these things—the sooner we get better at them. We must be more than just happy to be here. Matthew McConaughey I read Greenlights in a day, not because I’m a particularly fast reader, but because it is short, and I also listened to the audiobook as I was cleaning the house (and it needed a lot of help). Because I write memoir, I also read it to see trends in the market, and this one was a pleasant […]
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