Welcome to my Monthly Book Round-Up! This month, I dive into a vibrant selection of ten reads that promise to spark your curiosity and stir your emotions. From the latest bestsellers to hidden gems waiting to be discovered, some were standouts and others were duds, but the list aims to cater to a wide array of tastes and preferences. Whether you’re in the mood for a thrilling mystery, a heartwarming romance, or a deep dive into historical intrigue, there’s something here for everyone. Grab your favorite beverage and let’s explore these enticing titles that are sure to keep your pages turning and your imaginations soaring. Happy reading! Drawn […]
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Panama Canal Coup
I just finished Command and Control, a thrilling addition to the Jack Ryan series that kept me turning pages well into the night. The legacy of Tom Clancy lives on, and this book is proof that the spirit of Jack Ryan continues to captivate readers with its intense political and military scenarios. This time, the drama unfolds around the Panama Canal, an essential artery of global trade. The plot kicks off when President Jack Ryan is caught in the middle of a coup while visiting Panama to support his friend, President Rafael Botero, against socialist threats. What was supposed to be a routine display of democratic solidarity spirals into chaos, […]
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Mixed Feelings About Violeta
Violeta by Isabel Allende, a nominee for the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Historical Fiction in 2022, is a bit of a mixed bag for me. It’s the life story of Violeta del Valle, a woman whose 100 years span the most tumultuous events of the twentieth century, told through letters to her grandson. This setup promises a lot—emotional depth, historical insights, and the personal touch that comes with such a narrative form. And while Allende is no slouch in the storytelling department, this journey felt uneven. Starting off in the stormy year of 1920, during the Spanish flu pandemic, Violeta’s life is undeniably epic. I could almost see the […]
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Haunting Mysteries and Historical Intrigue
“Right— we’re the good Orientals now. But I still can’t buy a house outside Chinatown. That’s ‘all men are created equal’ for you.”—Amy Chua, The Golden Gate. In 1944 Berkeley, California, presidential hopeful Walter Wilkinson is found dead in his room at the Claremont Hotel, launching an investigation by Homicide Detective Al Sullivan. Early evidence points to the three granddaughters of wealthy socialite Genevieve Hopkins Bainbridge and links to the 1930 murder of 7-year-old Iris Stafford, rumored to haunt the hotel. The Golden Gate, written by Yale law professor Amy Chua, is an old-fashioned detective novel rich with California history and real-life figures. The story alternates between Genevieve’s deposition and […]
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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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