The Secret, Book & Scone Society by Ellery Adams: Book Review
I’m classifying this as a cozy mystery simply because the murder and investigation fit that genre. But it’s way darker than I expected. The four main characters have some very troubling secrets in their pasts. It was nice to watch them share their stories and start to heal together though. I didn’t […]
What You Are Looking For Is in the Library by Michiko Ayoama: Book Review
4.5 Stars. This was just the sort of soothing, hopeful book I needed right now. In a series of connected stories, the author explores different scenarios most of us can relate to. The young woman fresh out of college who feels stuck. The woman with an established career who finds herself struggling […]
Book Lovers by Emily Henry: Book Review
4 Stars. I usually like to read “fluffy” books when the weather is warm but somehow I’ve been reading some pretty heavy titles lately. I asked for recommendations and Shelleyrae at Book’d Out suggested Book Lovers. It was just what I needed. I’m not a huge romance reader, but I do enjoy the occasional romantic comedy and this […]
The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George: Book Review
Jean Perdu is a broken man, not really living his life but only existing. His one great love left him twenty years ago and he’s never moved on. He puts together gigantic puzzles in his spartan apartment and sells books on his book barge, The Literary Apothecary. He knows exactly the right book to sell […]
Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan: Book Review
After the recession hits, Clay Jannon finds himself out of a job. He spends hours walking the streets of San Francisco, trying to find something, anything. He wanders into Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore and finds himself working as a bookstore clerk. But there aren’t really very many customers. Well, there are a few impassioned, odd […]
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie: Book Review
Two young men, children of parents that the Communist government in China deems enemies of the state, are basically exiled to a remote mountain for “re-education.” Their parents’ “crimes” don’t even warrant the word; they’re basically just too educated for the government’s comfort. The teens find a harsh life waiting for them on the mountain. […]
The Oracle of Stamboul by Michael David Lukas: Book Review
Eleanora Cohen’s birth is full of omens. The town where she was born was under siege, her mother died in childbirth, and a flock of exotic hoopoes come to roost at the house and just stay. Otherwise, her very early years were fairly normal. Her father married his dead wife’s sister, who did her duty […]
The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafón: Book Review
Fermín Romero de Torres is finally getting married. He’s got one problem though–he’s living under an assumed name. He has absolutely no proof that he legally exists. How is he supposed to get married without all the paperwork to prove that he is whom he says he is? As he explains this to Daniel Sempere, […]
The Night Bookmobile by Audrey Niffenegger: Book Review
A young woman, out wandering the streets after a fight with her boyfriend, stumbles upon The Night Bookmobile. The books inside are strangely familiar. The librarian tells her that the library contains everything she’s ever read in her lifetime. All too soon, dawn comes, the librarian escorts her out the door, and the young woman […]
Inkheart by Cornelia Funke: Book Review
Meggie Folchart and her father, Mo, find themselves on the run from a mysterious man that Meggie knows only as “Capricorn.” Capricorn is chasing after them, trying to steal a book that they own, and he won’t stop at anything to get it. First off, let me say that I’m about 20 years older than […]
People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks: Book Review
Hanna Heath studies and restores rare books. She is offered the chance of a lifetime when she is contacted by the United Nations to restore a rare illuminated Haggadah at the end of the Bosnian War. Hanna manages to pull out a few clues to the book’s history. As she follows up on the clues, […]