Growing with gratitude for life's challenges
Charlie’s cousin Rose has disappeared, and refusing to believe she is dead, Charlie sets out to retrace Rose’s steps. Her investigation brings her to the door of Eve Gardner, a cranky woman, with deformed hands, a clear drinking problem, and a luger. Together, with the help of a Scotsman, with a shady past, the three […]
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It’s World War II, and the denizens of Chilbury are faced with the loss of their church choir as their men leave to fight for the cause. Enter Prim, an upbeat teacher, with a fresh outlook, who encourages the women to defy protocols and create their own chorus. Jennifer Ryan’s novel about the life of […]
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie weaves an intricate tale, with well-developed characters and relationships, and just when the reader wonders where it is all headed, the unthinkable happens. “Half of a Yellow Sun” is not a symbol I would have recognized before reading Adichie’s work. Now I know that it is integral to the Biafran war, and […]
Read MoreOne Step Too Far is a captivating story of one woman’s decision to walk away from her life and begin anew. Author Tina Seskis weaves an intricate story of love, unbearable pain, and redemption. As usual, I listened to the audio version expertly narrated by Lucy Gaskell and Nigel Pilkington, which helped delineate between passages […]
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There are some issues affecting our society today that feel too hot to handle, but not for author Angie Thomas. In her novel, The Hate U Give, Thomas bravely inserts her main character and narrator into the brutal drama of a black teen being shot by a white police officer. Still a child herself, sixteen […]
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Jacob is a typical, somewhat difficult teenager, according to his father, but when a classmate of Jacob’s is found dead, Andy Barber is forced to take a closer look at his son’s behaviour and determine if he could be housing a killer. William Landay’s suspense novel is told through the perspective of Andy Barber, a […]
Read MoreWhat an incredible story! Claire Fuller creates characters who are flawed and yet sympathetic. Meet Gil, an aging writer and incorrigible Lothario, who sudden obsession with books leads his daughters to be concerned about his state of mind. Meet Ingrid, his wife who has been missing for eleven years, presumed dead, and whose voice haunts […]
Read MoreA baby dies and the mother is found guilty and imprisoned. It is a heart-wrenching scenario, and begs the question: what happens to the family who have been torn apart by such tragedy? In With Love From the Inside, author Angela Pisel attempts to answer that question through the viewpoint of the mother, and the […]
Read MoreThe riddle closes in. I can hear its heavy footsteps, echoing in my ears. The dark brings out that which the day hides. (Excerpt from Beautiful Affliction) Lene Fogelberg knows what it is like to live with an undiagnosed medical condition and to be turned away time and again from doctors. In Beautiful Affliction she […]
Read MoreKaren White’s The Sound of Glass is an entertaining read, or in my case, listen. While many of the messages put forth are cliché, the storyline provides adequate twists to keep the reader engaged. A recently widowed Merritt finds herself inheriting a stately Southern home from a Grandmother she never knew existed. The draw to […]
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One Woman's Quest II 