Just Once

“But it was another reminder to hold tight to today. The gift of this one sunrise and sunset. God alone knows what the future holds for any of us, but He has called us to appreciate this life, and to thank Him daily for it. While we still can.”—Karen Kingsbury, Just Once. Just Once begins when Irvel Holland Myers receives an Alzheimer’s diagnosis. Knowing she has just six months before the disease ravages her brain so badly that she forgets everything, her husband records her memories, including those of her time serving as a code breaker, a secret she has kept from her entire family. Set against the backdrop of […]

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The Woman with the Cure

At its peak in the 1940s and 1950s, polio paralyzed or killed over half a million people worldwide every year. The Woman with the Cure delves into the intense race to find a cure for the disease. Jonas Salk gets the credit for the polio vaccine, but there was a team of medical researchers around the globe racing to find a cure. Dorothy Horstmann was one of them. An American epidemiologist, virologist, and pediatrician and the first woman appointed as a professor at the Yale School of Medicine, her research showed how the poliovirus circulated in the body, setting the stage for the development of the vaccine. Jonas Salk and […]

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Maria’s Scarf

“The world said I would never amount to anything. My mother said all things are possible to those who believe. I believed my mother.” ~ Zoro Maria’s Scarf is a beautiful memoir about the unbreakable bond between a mother and son, a family’s struggle to survive in the face of desperate circumstances, and a starry-eyed boy’s quest to live out his dream. From the very first page, Zoro’s journey pulls you in, tugging at your heartstrings with every twist and turn of his life story. Raised in abject poverty, Zoro defied the odds stacked against him. Before the age of nine, his single mother, a Mexican immigrant, had moved her […]

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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 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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Amy’s Picks and Pans, Issue 24

Such a month of great reading! It’s rare I have three 5-star ratings. Demon Copperhead, Hinds’ Feet on High Places, and Go as a River were so spectacular and so different. I found a couple of new authors to follow, but I was also disappointed by two of my favorite authors—William Kent Krueger and Daniel Silver. Don’t worry… I’m not counting them out! See if you can find something to add to your TBR list this month. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver “The wonder is that you could start life with nothing, end with nothing, and lose so much in between.”—Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead. This is my third book by […]

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Overkill

Former Super Bowl MVP quarterback Zach Bridger is shocked to receive a call from the hospital about his ex-wife, Rebecca Pratt, who is on life-support following a violent assault. He hasn’t seen her since their volatile marriage fell apart five years earlier—why does he still have medical power-of-attorney? Zach must make an impossible choice: keep her on life support or pull the plug. Unable to decide, he walks away, and her vegetative state continues. Two years later, Rebecca’s attacker gets an early release from prison. State prosecutor Kate Lennon is determined to put him back behind bars. But that would take a murder charge, and the only way to do […]

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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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Run, Rose, Run – Book Review

Written collaboratively by the bestselling author in the world and one of music most beloved entertainers, Run Rose Run is a contemporary thriller about a singer-songwriter, AnnieLee, on the rise and on the run and determined to do whatever it takes to survive. Nashville is where she’s come to claim her destiny. It’s also where the darkness she’s fled might find her. There, she encounters ruthless, predatory agents and managers, but she is also taken under the wing of one of the successful artists in country music. Dolly Parton wrote and recorded twelve songs to complement the book. You have to say one thing about James Patterson. He is prolific! According […]

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