Favorite Authors in Order

Sunday, October 31, 2021

What Lies Between Us

 Fiction by John Marrs

Maggie and Nina share a house... and a lot of secrets. What lies between them unfolds slowly over the course of the novel and the ending is a surprise.

This book was okay but I didn't like it nearly as much as the others I've read by this author. I think it was that I found the characters kind of unpleasant. Still, that ending twist was good!

I also read by this author: Her Last Move


Saturday, October 30, 2021

Pretty as a Picture

 Fiction by Elizabeth Little


Marissa is an awkward sort of young woman who has trouble relating to people and navigating the world in general. However, she has a real talent for film editing and has had quite a bit of success collaborating with her (best) (only) friend Amy who is a film director. But now Marissa is trying to find work on her own, without Amy, and she finds herself in a bit over her head.

This was a really good story with believable and memorable characters. Also there were several surprises!

I also read by this author: Dear Daughter

Tuesday, October 26, 2021

A Long Way From Home

 Nonfiction by Cathy Glass


This story begins in an orphanage in an unnamed country where the British couple Elaine and Ian travel to adopt a baby. The conditions in the orphanage are terrible, and the reader can guess that the child they adopt will be emotionally scarred. The first part of the book closes when they bring little Anna home, but their problems have just begun.

Since this is a Cathy Glass nonfiction book, it's obvious that this kid will have enough problems to come into foster care at some point. Enter the second part of the story: What is really wrong with Anna? Why couldn't Elaine and Ian cope with her? Can Cathy help?


I also read recently by this author: Innocent


Thursday, October 21, 2021

Borders of the Heart

 Fiction by Chris Fabry


J.D. is living on a remote farm in Arizona, trying to escape his past and stay disconnected from people in general. Then he finds a beautiful Mexican woman in the desert, half-dead from crossing the border, and he has to decide if he wants to get involved.

This was a good-enough romantic suspense story, but not as good as most I've read by Chris Fabry. I felt like it was a little too formulaic.

I also read recently by this author: Under a Cloudless Sky


Tuesday, October 19, 2021

Innocent

 Nonfiction by Cathy Glass


Molly and Kit are three years old and eighteen months old, respectively, when they are removed from their parents by Social Services and placed in Cathy Glass's care. The precipitating event is little Kit's broken arm, which the doctor suspects to be non-accidental. Also, in his short year and a half of life, Kit has visited the emergency room almost seventy times.

But a broken arm is not inconsistent with falling down the stairs, as his mother claimed had happened. Cathy isn't sure if the social workers have done the right thing in removing these children. After all, their mother seems so very devoted to them, even if their father seems overworked and a bit checked out. And both children are awfully sickly...

This was a good story with a surprising ending! 

(And, yes, this story did seem to merit all those italics in my descriptors.)


I also read recently by this author: Where Has Mummy Gone?

Sunday, October 17, 2021

Jumpstart the World

 Fiction by Catherine Ryan Hyde 


Elle's mother is helping her move into her own apartment in New York City. Her mother tells Frank, Elle's friendly next-door-neighbor, that she's a little nervous at leaving her just-turned-eighteen-year-old only child there alone with just a cat from the animal shelter as a companion. Elle doesn't say it, but this is a lie.

There IS a cat, Mother IS nervous, and Elle IS alone. But she hasn't just turned eighteen. Elle's birthday is coming up in a few days, but it's her sixteenth birthday. Mother has a new boyfriend who "doesn't do teenagers," and Elle is being moved out of the way. Plus Elle is starting a new high school where she knows no one and doesn't know how to fit in.

Frank the neighbor and his wife Molly take Elle under their wing and try to look after her, but it turns out that they have a few problems of their own. This was a lovely little story with great characters.



I also read recently by this author: The Day I Killed James

Saturday, October 16, 2021

The Other Emily

 Fiction by Dean Koontz


Emily disappeared ten years ago and has been presumed dead, likely murdered by a convicted serial killer. Her fiancĂ© David has long been torturing himself over her memory, visiting the killer in prison and trying to get the creep to admit where he'd hidden the rest of his victims’ bodies. Then David meets a woman who looks just like Emily. But she can't BE Emily... can she?

This story was a little slower-moving than I've usually seen from Dean Koontz, but it definitely had the weird twist at the end that you'd expect!


I also read recently by this author: Elsewhere

Thursday, October 14, 2021

The Day I Killed James

Fiction by Catherine Ryan Hyde 

Eighteen-year-old Theresa has been forbidden by her counselor to say the phrase, The day I killed James, even though it's all she can think about. The counselor's point is, she didn't kill James. James killed himself. Still, Theresa feels responsible and she's having a super hard time getting over it.

This was a really touching story with believable characters.


I also read recently by this author: Chasing Windmills


Wednesday, October 13, 2021

Finlay Donovan Is Killing It

 Fiction by Elle Cosimano


This story begins with Finlay Donovan. a recently-divorced romantic-suspense writer, having a lunch meeting with her agent. Their conversation, a fractured discussion of a murder plotline, is overheard by a woman at a nearby table and misunderstood. She thinks Finlay is an actual killer! Also... this woman has an abusive husband, and she wants him to disappear...

This a fun little set-up, and I'd call it more of a caper story, although the author did perform a bit of a stretch to make it into a mystery. 



Tuesday, October 12, 2021

Joyland

 Fiction by Stephen King. 


Devin Jones spent the summer of 1973 working at an amusement park called Joyland on the Carolina coast. That year he was fated to have his heart broken and his life threatened, to save a kid's life and fail to see a ghost.

This was a good story, and it's a short one by Stephen King standards.



I also read recently by this author: Later

Sunday, October 10, 2021

Malibu Rising

 Fiction by Taylor Jenkins Reid


At the end of every summer in late-70's-early-80's Malibu, the fabulous Nina Riva holds a party, and everyone who is anyone is there. But August 27th, 1983, may very well be the last time. That night, the Riva party will go out of control and start a fire on Malibu beach.

This story is about that party and all the events leading up to it. It's a great character story about celebrities real and imagined.


I also read recently by this author: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo


Wednesday, October 6, 2021

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

 Fiction by Jesse Andrews 

This is the funniest book you’ll ever read about death.
That's a pretty good description, I think. 

Greg Gaines is beginning his senior year of high school, and he's trying to maintain a position as everyone's non-adversarial acquaintance but no one's actual friend. Earl could be called his best friend, but really Earl is more like a co-worker. In this no-friend zone is where Greg has been semi-comfortably placed for the past few years, safe but a bit lonely.

Then Greg learns that Rachel Kushner is dying of leukemia, and his mother insists that he should befriend her. 

This was a good book, funny and very different than I expected. It is NOT like The Fault in Our Starsalthough both are good books.

A Grownup Kind of Pretty

Fiction by Joshilyn Jackson. 


Ginny Slocumb says that her family has a fifteen-year curse, because she gave birth to her daughter Liza at age 15 and Liza's own daughter Mosey came fifteen years later. Needless to say, Ginny is watching fifteen-year old Mosey like a hawk the year that Ginny turns 45. But the trouble in that year comes from a different quarter.

This was a really good book! I recently rediscovered Joshilyn Jackson (I first read gods in Alabama years ago; it's a very good book with an unfortunately troublesome title published in 2006). Now I am planning to read all of her books that I can find!

I also read recently by this author: Never Have I Ever

Tuesday, October 5, 2021

Where Has Mummy Gone?

 Nonfiction by Cathy Glass


This was another interesting story by British foster carer Cathy Glass. I'm working on reading all her books.

In this story, an eight-year-old girl called Melody is removed from her mother's care because of severe neglect, and to Cathy Glass it seems a typical story of a drug-addicted parent who can't care for her child. But after getting to know Melody and her mother Amanda, it becomes obvious that there is more to their story.

This was a good book!

I also read recently by this author: An Innocent Baby

Sunday, October 3, 2021

The Quiet Boy

 Fiction by Ben Winters


I categorized this novel as a sci-fi legal thriller, which sounds like a weird combination. And indeed it was…

There’s the family of a boy who has had a freak accident —or maybe he’s possessed, or something— and an ambulance-chasing lawyer who brings his fourteen-year-old son to work. And there’s the same people around ten years later, as a fresh tragedy brings them together again. 

I really liked the characters and the the story was good in general, but I had some trouble with the ending. It didn’t seem to resolve the main plot points completely. 


I also read by this author: Inside Jobs

Friday, October 1, 2021

An Innocent Baby

 Nonfiction by Cathy Glass


The newest book by Cathy Glass, An Innocent Baby just came out in September. I literally preordered it, which I don't usually do, preferring to wait for the library to get a copy.

The story was as good as I expected.

I also read recently by this author: The Saddest Girl in the World