Review

feature: Life Stories in Literature

Review: “The Rose Code” by Kate Quinn

“ The year 1940. As England prepares to fight the Nazis, three very different women answer the call to mysterious country estate Bletchley Park, where the best minds in Britain train to break German military codes. Vivacious debutante Osla is the girl who has everything – beauty, wealth, and the dashing Prince Philip of Greece […]

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2 Recent Audio Reviews

I’m a fair-weather walker. Here in the Pacific Northwest of the U.S. we finally started having what I consider to be fair enough weather to walk in around the first of April. And walking means audiobooks. Here are reviews of two that I completed recently. “ An innocent father serving life for the murder of

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“The Violin Conspiracy”

“ Ray McMillian loves playing the violin more than anything, and nothing will stop him from pursuing his dream of becoming a professional musician. Not his mother, who thinks he should get a real job, not the fact that he can’t afford a high-caliber violin, not the racism inherent in the classical music world. And

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Discussion

Audio or Print Book? Sometimes One, Sometimes the Other

No, I’m not going to rehash the issue of whether audiobooks “count.” As long as the audiobook you listen to is unabridged, it counts as having read the book, just as does reading an ebook. However, I recently listened to two audiobooks that reminded me that sometimes I prefer to listen and sometimes I prefer

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Review: “The Last Thing He Told Me”

“How well can you know anyone?” Hannah Hall, age 38, has been married to Owen Michaels for a little over a year. Hannah’s relationship with Owen’s 16-year-old daughter, Bailey, is still strained—after all, it had been just Owen and Bailey since her mother died when Bailey was about four—but Owen keeps assuring Hannah that things

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Discussion

My Most Surprising Read of 2022

When I was going through all the “best books of 2022” prompts and lists, somewhere—and I can’t remember exactly where—I came across the question “What was your most surprising read of 2022?” Any other year that question probably wouldn’t have stuck with me because I read a lot of mysteries and thrillers and am therefore

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book review

“The Hidden Machinery” by Margot Livesey

“I am using the phrase ‘the hidden machinery’ to refer to two different aspects of novel making: on the one hand how certain elements of the text—characters, plot, imagery—work together to make an overarching argument; on the other how the secret psychic life of the author, and the larger events of his or her time

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“What About the Baby?” by Alice McDermott

I don’t write fiction, but I do enjoy reading it. I also enjoy reading about the writing of fiction, because understanding the issues that writers consider about their writing process makes me a more competent reader and critic.  I grabbed this book when I saw it on the “Featured” shelf at the library. I was

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Stack of books on left; notebook open to blank page with pen lying on top on the right

#TopTenTuesday 20 Pandemic Reviews I Have Yet to Write

(Feature photo by Debby Hudson on Unsplash) Today’s assigned topic is Books I Loved So Much I Had to Get a Copy for My Personal Library. But I don’t work that way. If I’m reading a library book, I take the notes I’ll need from the book before I return it. I don’t think just

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Review: “The Darkest Child” by Delores Phillips

Review The Darkest Child is a powerful novel you’ve probably never heard of, but it’s not for everyone. Set in the early 1950s in rural Georgia in the U.S., this novel presents a picture of life during the Jim Crow era, when formal laws and societal conventions reinforced racial segregation in the South. The story

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