Updates

"Written from the point if view of a dead person. Was interesting. Found it slow at times. different perspectives of each character were intertwined." - M. Blatt

2/4 stars.

"Couldn’t put it down. Learned a lot. Had no idea this was happening. Eye opening." - M. Blatt

4/4 stars.

"Love all characters in this series. Must visit Nantucket after reading about this quaint town. Looking forward to the next one." - M. Blatt

4/4 stars.

"While each of these four books can be read as stand alone novels, reading them from Book 1 through Book 4 enriches the story of the Bennet sisters, all lawyers but each with different personalities, strengths, and weaknesses. The lives of Merle Bennet, her son Triston and Pascal, a French undercover policeman with the wine fraud unit, are central to each story. Recently widowed, Merle inherited a run-down house in a rural French town. When the inhabitant of the house refuses to leave and is subsequently murdered, Merle becomes the prime suspect.

"This is book #1 in the Fiona Fleming mystery series. Fiona (Fee) inherits the Petunia Bed and Breakfast from her grandmother, Iris, only to find that just before her death, Iris deeded the B and B to Pete Wilkins. Shortly thereafter, Pete Wilkins shows up dead in Fee’s koi pond. Fee is the prime suspect, but she is worried that her father, the retired sheriff, might have murdered Wilkins. Humor is injected by Fee’s pungent, flatulent pug, Petunia, and her ditsy best friend, Daisy. A fast and enjoyable read with many red herrings and twists." - E. Pasquali

3/4 stars.

"Still reading this cozy mystery series. Changes in the characters as Hayley’s children are now out of the house. I do miss that interaction. In this book her mother comes to visit from Florida and it looks like she will be featured again. The funny part for me was when I realized her mother was my contemporary. Loved the recipes, very timely for blueberry season." - F. Schwarz

3/4 stars.

"A lesbian woman agrees to marriage her gay best male friend in a marriage of convenience. Lucky is living a life full of lies that slowly unfold as the story moves forward. She wants to fit in and be loved by her family and her community, but the more she explores her true self, the more she has to reject her community… particularly her mom. Lucky is torn between familial commitment and her own happiness. What will she choose?" - L. Ngo

3/4 stars.

"It was the beginning of our national story and the brave and mighty who gave forth the dream we share today. Over every waterway, through each turn of weather traveling the field, beyond enduring physical pain of the mind and body, there is the elation of putting one foot forward, there on the battlefield we read how the story of the Continental Congress comes alive." - C. Lucas

4/4 stars.

"How can so many people live in such a small place with so many opposing views on living in a color bound world while human joy and heart aches permeates the lines? A story set in South Africa at the onset of Apartheid laws solves a mystery and opens up more than who did it but the bitter truth about why it could happen." - C. Lucas

4/4 stars.

"Lisa See's fans will enjoy this story of friendship set in a Korean village on the island of Jeju in the 1930s and beyond. Having no previous knowledge of the haenyeo, I learned about their matrifocal society with women doing the dangerous work as female divers to support the family, while men stayed home with the little children. The message of getting past your own viewpoint and learning what's behind another's actions is well-summarized in the quote, 'To understand everything is to forgive.'" - D. Zelamsky

3/4 stars.

"This book is exceptionally well-written & an amazingly engrossing story about the time period of the Great Depression & how it affected those living in the Dust Bowl. It tells the story of the push for people to go west to get jobs that were supposedly available in California picking fruit but turned out to be very hard to obtain for very little money, and living in refuge camps that were barely better than living outdoors, with limited amenities.

"Fun comedic book about a college student taking time off school to work as live-in nanny in London in order to save money to finish her last year of grad school. The family is rich, with 4 children: a 19yo boy about to start at uni, a 15yo anorexic girl, and 2 identical twin 6yo boys. The nanny is only 24yo herself and comes from a working class family in a southern coastal village, where her father is a fisherman.

"I really enjoyed this WWII Era book. I enjoyed the growth in the protagonist Eva. She started off seeming selfish but her true heart showed as the story went on." - D. McCrory

4/4 stars.

"With the smarts of a test pilot and engineer and with the soul of a poet, Apollo astronaut Michael Collins lets us hear the voice that was, by many accounts, the most muted among the three on our nation's first moon mission. He spares little detail in tracing his journey to his solo role in the command module as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin left their footprints on historic new turf — and he is honest in his anxieties, his fears and his humanity. I believe he must have been as grounded as any space traveler could be. He was clearly likeable and without guile, just like this book." - C.

"The book is a painful study of how political upheaval (in this case in Tehran in the 1950s) disrupts lives and cultural traditions. There are some wonderfully poignant moments and the characters who drive the intense action of this novel forward are fairly well-developed and as three-dimensional as anyone in fiction can be. If they are vivid enough to love (or to despise) the author has done their job. There are some moments here and there that seem contrived, but all in all, not enough to spoil a pleasurable and well-spent time reading." - C. Murray

3/4 stars.