Fiction by Patti Callahan Henry
Fiction by Walter Tevis
This book was recently turned into a Netflix series with a very beautiful actress, so it has surged back into popularity even though it was published in 1983.
Beth is a young female chess prodigy growing up in the sixties and seventies. The book follows her journey from penniless orphan to chess grand master.
It's worth noting that I do not play chess (literally, I don't know how), so I didn't really understand the long descriptions of chess games. Still I felt that could enjoy the story and the characters without that element. I treated this book like a sports book: skim over the parts I don't understand and find out if the person won or lost and how they felt about it.
I really loved the characters and enjoyed the story.
Fiction by Kat Rosenfield
At the beginning of this story, Miriam Caravasios wanders out of her home in the middle of a Maine winter and dies. Miriam was 85, and suffering from dementia, so her death wasn't unexpected. Still, the way she died was strange. Did she walk out there alone, or did someone encourage her? After all, she had a great deal of money to leave behind.
Miriam's grand-daughter Delphine tries to get to the bottom of this. But Delphine doesn't know who to trust in a family that stood to gain so much from her grandmother's death.
I enjoyed the book and it had a real surprise at the end. I didn't love it.
Fiction by Jennifer Hiller
This story starts out with a child abduction. A woman called Marin is Christmas shopping in a busy market with her son Sebastian when he disappears. I had to skim that part, because the whole idea terrifies me. But the main part of the story is about Marin's life a year later, after she has outwardly "moved on" from the tragedy.
Of course, Marin couldn't really move on from losing Sebastian. Although the police gave up a long time ago, she still has a private investigator on the case. Still, what new things could possibly be uncovered after so long? Oh, there's something!
This was an interesting story with a surprise ending that just skated towards unbelievable. I liked but didn't love it.
The Knife of Never Letting Go, The Ask and the Answer, and Monsters of Men
Fiction by Patrick Ness.
Todd Hewitt lives in a world where dogs talk. (Although, as he points out, the problem with that is that dogs don't really have much to say.) In fact, every animal talks: sheep, frogs, even bugs! Or, more accurately, all the animals broadcast their thoughts out loud. Unfortunately, this means the thoughts of men are also audible, and that makes for constant Noise in Todd's village of Prentisstown that is hard to endure.
I say "the thoughts of men" because, in Prentisstown, there are no women. Todd's mother, along with every other woman, was killed by a plague twelve years ago that also wiped out half of the men. It was this same sickness, a result of a germ released during the Great War, that caused everyone's thoughts to manifest themselves aloud.
Or at least, that's what Todd has been taught. But is all of it true? As Todd approaches his thirteenth birthday, the date when he, the last boy in Prentisstown, will become a man, he begins to learn that things may not be the way he has always thought they were.
This was an exciting book series that held a lot of surprises.
Amazon Prime Fiction by Douglas Richards.
In a not so distant future, Noah and Ashley are working undercover for an elite law enforcement team designed to use the latest technology to take down big crime. As they meet challenge after challenge things get more and more complicated, and Noah in particular has his skills and expertise stretched to the limit, not to mention there's an upending of his entire worldview.
Also Noah and Ashley are both very attractive and in love with each other.
This book started out good, with an exciting opening scene. Then it just kept escalating until it slipped into unbelievable. Plus I didn’t love the characters. Still it WAS free...
Fiction by Laura Nowlin
This story is about Autumn and Finn, a pair of same-aged teenagers born to best-friend-moms who have grown up almost as brother and sister.
Almost.
At the beginning, there is an accident, involving Finn and his girlfriend Sylvie. Autumn is lamenting that it would never have happened if Finn had been with her instead. Then the story goes back in time to let the reader know just why she and Finn were not together.
This was a good story with a few surprises. I liked it a lot but didn’t love the characters as much as I should have.
Fiction by Sadequa Johnson
Pheby Delores Brown is born a slave on a Virginia plantation, but her mother Ruth dreams of launching her to freedom. Ruth keeps carefully on Master Jacob's good side, because he has promised that he'll give Pheby her freedom papers when she's eighteen. But a slave master's promises are not always kept.
Master Jacob's wife is jealous of Ruth and resents Pheby greatly. While he is on an extended trip, the Missus takes the opportunity and sells seventeen-year-old Pheby, sending her to the worst place a young woman can go: the slave market in Richmond.
This story was very good; it was both exciting and moving.
I also read by this author: House of Eve
Fiction by Ann Napolitano.
This book begins with William Waters, a boy born to damaged parents who cannot seem to connect with him. He grows up tall and latches onto basketball like a lifeline; later it's observed that basketball was the first thing that ever loved him back.
But really the story is about the four Padavano sisters. Julia Padavano meets William on his first day of college and almost immediately absorbs him into her loving and chaotic family. Julia is a girl with big plans --her father Charlie calls her his rocket-- and she has the future mapped out for herself, William, and all of her sisters. But life doesn't always conform to Julia's plans.
This was a really good story. I enjoyed the characters a lot!
I also read by this author: Dear Edward
Fiction by V. E. Schwab
This story has an interesting premise. What if you had immortality and eternal youth BUT —there’s always a but— you could never form a relationship with another human being? How long could a person live like that?
Addie LaRue has been this way for over three hundred years. She remains healthy beautiful 23-year-old, but no one can ever recognize or remember her. As soon as her conversation with another person ends, they have forgotten her. She cannot even keep possessions or a home; everything slips away. How can this have happened? How can Addie keep living with it?
The book is about the answers to all of those questions. It’s really good!! I enjoy a good “what if this crazy impossible thing” story when the author really works out the details. I recommend it!
Fiction by David Baldacci.
Every day Travis Devine catches the 6:20 train into the city for his soul-crushingly difficult job at an investment firm. On the way there he always sees the same palatial home with a pool, one that belongs to the big boss of his firm, an unattainable goal. Travis seems to be serving penance with this terrible job for some reason, working twelve and fourteen hour days since he'd left the Army. But what is he punishing himself for? Then a woman at his firm is murdered, and Travis is investigating...
This story had an an exciting plot and some surprises, but I really had trouble connecting with the characters. It was just and okay thriller.
I also read by this author: The Last Mile
Fiction by Laila Ibrahim.
