Sparring Partners

If you’re into John Grisham’s legal thrillers like I am, you might be curious about his first collection of novellas, “Sparring Partners.” I’ve been a fan of Grisham’s work for a while now, having read over a dozen of his books, but this collection didn’t quite hit the mark for me. The novellas in Sparring Partners all revolve around the theme of law, which is a common thread in Grisham’s writing and something I usually enjoy. In “Homecoming,” we follow Jake Brigance, a familiar character from Grisham’s previous novels, as he’s called upon to help his old friend Mack Stafford, a disgraced former attorney who disappeared with his clients’ money, […]

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The Bucharest Dossier

As a book reviewer, one of the best parts of my job is discovering new authors. William Maz was an unknown name to me until The Bucharest Dossier landed in my hands, and I can now say I am a fan. This international espionage thriller follows Bill Hefflin, a Romanian expat who’s parents brought him to America as a child during the Cold War. After graduating from Harvard, he’s recruited by the CIA as an analyst. His skills are put to the test when he’s asked to return to Bucharest. It’s the start of the bloody 1989 uprising against Nicolae Ceaușescu, the Communist leader of the country. What unfolds is […]

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The Lake Pagoda

The Lake Pagoda takes readers on a journey to French Indochina in the mid-1940s, a period rarely explored in WWII historical fiction. The protagonist, Arielle, is of mixed French and Vietnamese heritage working as a secretary for the French colonial government. When the Japanese invade Hanoi, her native blood spares her from imprisonment, but she is forced to work for the enemy. Ariel’s life takes a dramatic turn when she is approached by the Viet Minh, a Communist organization led by Ho Chi Minh. The agent threatens to expose dark secrets from her past if she doesn’t pass them information from the Japanese. She must navigate the dangerous path of […]

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Simply Lies

Hooray for a new standalone by one of my all-time favorite authors! David Baldacci, a master storyteller with 150 million copies sold worldwide, is back with Simply Lies, a psychological thriller that pits two formidable women against each other. In this gripping tale, we meet Mickey Gibson, a single mother and former police detective who now works for ProEye, a global investigation company specializing in tracking down the financial assets of tax-evading elites. When Mickey receives a phone call from a colleague asking her to inventory the home of an arms dealer who has disappeared, she thinks it’s just another routine assignment. However, things take a dark turn when she […]

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Symphony of Secrets

With his background as a music educator and performer, Brendan Slocumb brings a unique authenticity to his storytelling that shines through in this novel. Bern Hendricks, a musicology professor, is asked to authenticate a newly discovered piece by Frederick Delaney, a renowned 20th-century composer. Little does he know; this assignment will lead him down a rabbit hole of secrets and lies. With the help of a computer whiz, he uncovers evidence suggesting Delaney may have stolen his most famous work from a young Black composer named Josephine Reed. Determined to right this wrong, Bern finds himself in the crosshairs of a powerful organization that will stop at nothing to protect […]

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Remarkably Bright Creatures

“Humans. For the most part, you are dull and blundering. But occasionally, you can be remarkably bright creatures.”― Shelby Van Pelt, Remarkably Bright Creatures. So, picture this: a novel about a talking octopus who’s also an escape artist. Sounds pretty out there, right? Well, that’s what I thought too until I read Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. This book has been making waves (pun intended) as a 2022 Goodreads Choice Award nominee for Best Fiction and Best Debut Novel, and let me tell you, it’s now firmly planted among my all-time favorites. Here’s why: The story follows Tova Sullivan, who’s been working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium […]

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A History of Burning

The story begins at the turn of the twentieth century, when 13-year-old Pirbhai, the eldest son of a poor family, is conscripted British to work on the East African Railway in Kenya. The hardship the workers experienced was unimaginable. Then one day, Pirbhai commits an act so heinous it will haunt him forever and reverberate across his family’s future for generations to come. Pirbhai’s children are born and raised under the searing sun of Kampala during the waning days of British colonial rule. As Uganda moves towards independence and military dictatorship, Pirbhai’s granddaughters, Latika, Mayuri, and Kiya, are coming of age in a divided nation. Then, in 1972, under Idi […]

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We Hope for Better Things

“How do you put into words the feeling that you’re an adult and yet you are utterly lost and confused? How do you say that you don’t know what to do with your life? That it feels like everything you’ve worked for is worthless and yet you don’t know what else to do but more of the same? How do you explain the feeling that your life is over when there’s nothing wrong beyond the fact that you lost a job? How do you say that out loud when innocent people are shot and killers go free and it feels like the very fabric of society is unraveling?” — Erin […]

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The Reading List

“It was strange, the idea that this book wasn’t just for him, it was for everyone. All these people who had taken it out before him, people who would take it out after him. They might have read it on a beach, on the train, on the bus, in the park, in their living room. On the toilet? He hoped not! Every reader, unknowingly connected in some small way. He was about to be a part of this too.”—Sara Nisha Adams, The Reading List.   Aleisha, a teenager working as a library clerk in Wembley, North London, stumbles upon a life-changing discovery—a list of eight classic novels titled “Just in […]

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The River We Remember

“Our lives and the lives of those we love merge to create a river whose current carries us forward from our beginning to our end. Because we are only one part of the whole, the river each of us remembers is different, and there are many versions of the stories we tell about our past.”–William Kent Krueger, The River We Remember. William Kent Krueger has done it again with The River We Remember, a captivating mystery set in the heart of small-town Minnesota. Set on Memorial Day 1958, the story opens with the discovery of the half-clothed body of wealthy landowner Jimmy Quinn in the Alabaster River, dead from a […]

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