Angeline Boulley is a former co-worker of mine, and though I don’t know her well, I was excited for her first novel to come out, and even more excited to receive an advanced review copy. I hoped I wouldn’t be disappointed, and I wasn’t. In fact, this book was everything I could ask for, with…
As I began reading Eve Brown, I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to like it as much as Hibbert’s previous two books, which I loved so much I read twice (rare for me). Eve is an event planner who’s just finished a wedding where a few things went seriously wrong, so her latest career…
This book was recommended to me last year, when I raved about Code Name Helene, a fictionalized story about a real-life World War II hero, Nancy Wake. A Woman of No Importance is a biography of Virginia Hall, one of the first and most recognized female undercover agents in France during World War II. Her…
You’ll have heard of this book because of the awards it won in 2020, including the Booker Prize. This story of a young boy growing up with an alcoholic mother in 1980s Glasgow is worth the read. It’s dark, but once I finished it, I missed the characters. By the time you finish it, Shuggie…
Your first reaction to reading a book about the history of infectious diseases might be “why would I want to read that right now?” But this book was fascinating. It was published in 2017, well before COVID, yet it has so much to say about people react to the threat of infectious disease, and how we should…
The first time I heard about this book, I was struck by how much it sounded like my own family. Neumann grew up in Venezuela, but her father was born in Czechoslovakia. He survived the Holocaust but never talked about it, and she grew up not knowing any of his family, except for her father’s…
This week, we’re sharing our favorite books of 2020 for Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl). I found it hard this year to identify ten favorite books, maybe because I read more than usual or because I read a wider range of books. Or maybe just because it’s 2020. I found myself struggling…
I loved this book. I already thought Schwab was great, but this book combines so many things I love – history, travel, France – and it’s really character/relationship driven. The story is complicated, and there were lots of times I found myself trying to poke holes in the logistics of it all. But it’s worth…
These lists seem to come out earlier every year, but I guess that way people can add them to their wish lists and give them as gifts. And this year is a better time than ever to 1) support your local bookstore and 2) hunker down and read. You can find the New York Times…
I spent a lot of time this month participating in Nonfiction November, so I thought instead of the usual monthly wrap-up I’d post some mini-reviews instead. These three books address issues related to science, religion, and the intersection of the two. I recommend all three. The Story of More by Hope Jahren (audio by the author):…
This week’s Nonfiction November prompt comes from Julie @ Julz Reads: This week, pair up a nonfiction book with a fiction title. It can be a “If you loved this book, read this!” or just two titles that you think would go well together. Dopesick is an in-depth look at opioid addiction, particularly at how the…
This post is about some of my favorite new-to-me authors in 2020 (so far). I focused more on fiction than nonfiction, with a couple of exceptions. I’ve read some excellent nonfiction this year, like Rachel Louise Snyder’s No Visible Bruises and Garrett Graf’s The Only Plane in the Sky, but here I’ve chosen books that…
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