Growing with gratitude for life's challenges
Fellow blogger, Leslie Noyes (Praying for Eyebrowz) has a quirky style that often brings a smile, so I was curious when she published a book to know if I’d have the same response. I put Mayhem at the Happy Valley Motor Inn and Resort on my Amazon wish list and was excited when the 490 […]
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In 1958, Cuba is experiencing political unrest. The Perez sisters, sheltered from the uprising by their social standing, look for opportunities to sneak out of the house. During one of these outings, nineteen-year-old Elisa meets a man who steals her heart. He is a revolutionary. Their forbidden romance heats up as the plots against the […]
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Some books hook you right from the beginning and won’t let you go until you’ve drained every last word out of them. A Land More Kind Than Home is such a novel. Told through the perspective of three narrators, Wiley Cash’s tale of fanaticism in the south is a coming of age story, a murder […]
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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 […]
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Writing fiction is a stretch for me. I have experience with technical and instructional writing, poetry, and memoir, but seldom do I venture into the realm of fiction. So, when I signed up for an online writing class, I decided this would be my opportunity to take a risk. (The story referenced here was yesterday’s […]
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 […]
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 MoreI picked up the audio version for free; downloaded it ages ago, thinking one day I’d give it a listen, but was hesitant. I knew a movie had been made of Pat Conroy’s novel, but I hadn’t seen that either. Then I visited South Carolina, and it’s peculiar landscape intrigued me, and when a friend […]
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 […]
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One Woman's Quest II 