Molly Gray is not like everyone else. She struggles with social skills and misreads the intentions of others. Her gran used to interpret the world for her, codifying it into simple rules that Molly could live by. Then Gran dies, and twenty-five-year-old Molly has been navigating life’s complexities all by herself. She throws herself into her gratifying work as a maid at a posh hotel. She delights in donning her crisp uniform each morning, stocking her cart with miniature soaps and bottles, and returning guest rooms to a state of perfection. But Molly’s orderly life is upended the day she enters the Black suite and finds Charles Black dead. Before long, she […]
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The Saints of Swallow Hill – Book Review
So here’s why I read so much historical fiction… I learn stuff! How else would a woman from the plains of Minnesota find out about the turpentine camps of the American South during the Great Depression? Before I read The Saints of Swallow Hill, I didn’t know how turpentine was made or why North Carolina is called the Tar Heel State. Now I do, and I had the pleasure of following some fascinating characters along the way. Rae Lynn Cobb and her husband, Warren, run a small turpentine farm together during the Great Depression. Though the work is hard and often dangerous, Rae Lynn, who spent her childhood in an […]
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The Magnolia Palace – Book Review
Lillian “Angelica” Carter was one of the most sought-after artists’ models in New York City, with hundreds of statues based on her figure gracing landmarks all over the city. But when her mother dies in the Spanish flu outbreak of 1919, Lillian is rudderless and desperate—the work has dried up and she is suspected of murder. So when she is hired to be the personal secretary to Helen Frick, the imperious and demanding daughter of industrialist and art patron Henry Clay Frick, the more deeply her life gets intertwined with that of the family. Nearly fifty years later, English model Veronica Weber has her own chance to make her career—and […]
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Made in China – Book Review
Like many of you, the last few years I’ve tried extra hard to avoid buying products made in China. It’s quite a challenge. Most websites hide the country of origin and the only way to get that information is to dig through consumer questions or call the company. After reading Made in China: A Prisoner, an SOS Letter, and the Hidden Cost of America’s Cheap Goods, I’ve become even more zealous in doing my due diligence before handing over my greenbacks. In 2012, a woman in Oregon purchased a package of cheap foam headstones at Kmart. When she opened the box, an SOS note written in broken English fell out: […]
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Hostage – Book Review
First off, let’s be clear about one thing. I’m no fan of flying–-the smell, the noise, the claustrophobia of being locked in a sardine can with strangers. I do, however, love the Biscoff cookies Delta Airlines hands out by the millions on their flights. Since I can buy those, it’s not much of a draw. But I digress… As someone who suffers from aerophobia, I was a wee bit concerned about reading a novel set over twenty hours on an airplane. Here’s what Hostage is about. Flight attendant Mina Holbrook trades shifts to join the crew of World Airways inaugural 20-hour flight from London to Sydney to escape the tension […]
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The Caretakers – Book Review
When our kids were small, I had a demanding corporate career, and my husband worked all hours starting his own company. Getting them to and from daycare was stressful, and we couldn’t stay home with them when they were sick. Like most young parents, we couldn’t afford a nanny, so we got the next best thing, an au pair. We had five different au pairs from five different countries: Denmark, Norway, England, Germany, and Slovakia. The experiences were overwhelming positive, although our first one should have been sent packing after wrecking our car twice and several of her friends expelled licorice-flavored liqueur on our family room rug. Oh, and then […]
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Amy’s February 2022 Book Reviews
I love it when literary luck has me reading several genres in any given month. In February, I enjoyed historical fiction, contemporary fiction, memoir. My absolute favorite was The World Played Chess. Read on to see my reviews: The World Played Chess By Robert Dugoni In 1979, Vincent Bianco has just graduated from high school. His only desire: collect a little beer money and enjoy his last summer before college. So he lands a job as a laborer on a construction crew. Working alongside two Vietnam vets, one suffering from PTSD, Vincent gets the education of a lifetime. Now forty years later, with his own son leaving for college, the […]
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The Woman at the Front – Book Review
When Eleanor Atherton graduates from medical school at the University of Edinburgh near the top of her class in 1917, she dreams of going overseas to help the wounded, but her parents thwart her ambition at every turn. Women are supposed to find husbands and support the war effort by knitting for the troops, not sewing them back together. When an unexpected twist of fate sends Eleanor to the battlefields of France as a private doctor, she seizes the opportunity. At the casualty clearing station near the front lines, the skeptical commander forbids her from treating the wounded, but when the station is overrun, she breaks protocol and helps the […]
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Proof of Life – Book Review
The devil’s finest trick is to persuade you that he does not exist. ~ Daniel Levin, Proof of Life Daniel Levin, a board member of the Liechtenstein Foundation for State Governance, was at his office one day when he got a call from an acquaintance with an urgent, cryptic request to meet in Paris. A young man who had set out for Aleppo, Syria to assist a group of volunteer doctors had gone missing and no government, embassy, or intelligence agency would help. So begins the story of one man’s search to find a missing person in Syria over eighteen tense days. Levin, a lawyer turned armed conflict negotiator, uses […]
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Edge Case – Book Review
“It wasn’t the first time I’d hoped for psychic transformation and ended with diarrhea…” ~ YZ Chin, Edge Case After another taxing day as the sole female employee at her New York City tech startup, where she works on joke-telling robots. Edwina comes home to find that her husband, Marlin, has packed a suitcase and left. The only question now is why. Did he give up on their increasingly hopeless quest to secure their green cards and decide to return to Malaysia? Was it the death of his father that sent him into a tailspin? Or has his strange, sudden change in personality finally made Marlin and Edwina strangers to […]
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