4 Stars. It’s been quite a while since I read any books in this series because I somehow missed that a fourth one existed! I can’t say that there was a whole lot going on here, plot-wise. There were a few things but they felt and largely turned out to be low-stakes. Mostly I just enjoyed re-visiting Weezie […]
4 Stars. I listened to Connie Willis’s collection of her own Christmas stories (A Lot Like Christmas) last year and went searching for more of her work. I stumbled on this anthology that she edited and decided to give it a try. The quality of the stories was remarkably consistent! The stories are arranged […]
3 Stars. The book was a little bit of a slog but that’s partly on me. I can only remember one scene from the movie and it’s a sad one. I don’t particularly like sad books so I kept avoiding it. The writing is also an odd mix of a lot of action buried under very dense sentence structure. I had to take my time […]
4.5 Stars. How can you not love a character named Mika Moon? And the found family that surrounds her new young charges is absolutely delightful. Quirky, caring, funny, interfering, determined, mischievous… I could go on but I won’t. I love stories of found families and what a family this one is […]
5 Stars. Sometimes it feels that everyone has strong opinions about Israel and the Middle East. Given the current war, I found myself forming my own strong opinions even though I knew practically nothing about the modern history of Israel and its relations with the Palestinians and surrounding […]
3 Stars. First of all, this is a disturbingly violent book. I didn’t have nightmares or anything but it is graphic. Horrific domestic abuse, very violent death, and a brief mention of rape. Sensitive readers should steer clear. That out of the way, there’s a lot of potential here. I really didn’t know who […]
3 Stars. When I realized this short story is a prequel to Legends & Lattes, I knew exactly which incident from Viv’s earlier life that I hope it addressed and that’s exactly what I got. Yay! It’s so strongly related to the book, that I really think it could have been edited a bit more and turned […]
4.5 Stars. To me, the plot of this book took a back seat to the characters, but that’s why I liked it. I am a very character-driven reader and Legends & Lattes gave me a whole book in which to watch a group of diverse characters develop, become friends, build a supportive community, and cheer each […]
4 Stars. In this atmospheric mystery, I wasn’t even entirely sure who had been murdered until the end, much less who did it. I feel like I should have guessed the culprit because the clues were all there but I didn’t. The characters are largely unlikeable, even to each other. They’re that group of […]
4 Stars. I loved Jennifer Wright’s book, Get Well Soon: History’s Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them. I loved her humor in tackling a pretty grim subject. She brings the same humor to this examination of some spectacular break-ups. She shines a light on the following couples: 1. Nero […]
4 Stars. The last time I was in Charleston, SC, one or two tours that I went on mentioned Eliza Lucas. Her father left her in charge of his plantations near Charleston in the 1740s while he went to war with the Spanish in the Caribbean. That really caught my attention. A woman running plantations?
At that […]