How to start? The Decadents is a bizarrely engaging book about ambition, what success looks like when you're the owner of seventeen "Fry Boy" franchises -- which is a lot in the mind of Phil Ochs, but not so much in the eyes of the local Chamber of Commerce that gives a prize he dearly … Continue reading The Decadents -MC Schmidt
An Island – Karen Jennings
Samuel is the lighthouse keeper on an island that is part of an unnamed African country. He has taken this desolate, hostile to human life place and created a home, where the invasive weeds are kept down, one cracked plate is enough, the red chicken requires protection from all the bully chickens anAnd a supply … Continue reading An Island – Karen Jennings
Time Shelter – Georgi Gospodinov
Meme after meme after meme- often referring back to my own baby boomer childhood - suggest that everything was perfect in the past, with well-behaved children who played outdoors and housewives and dinner together and church. You know what I mean. These memes don't mention Joseph McCarthy, the Korean or Vietnam wars, Jim Crow, the … Continue reading Time Shelter – Georgi Gospodinov
Overboard – Sara Paretsky
Overboard meets the high standards Sara Paretsky has set for this always engaging, well-plotted series with great characters… including as a character the windy city. This is the first time I read a V.I. Warshawski novel via audible and I definitely had some "driveway" moments where I sat to listen to the next ten, no-- … Continue reading Overboard – Sara Paretsky
You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey – Amber Ruffin and Lacey Lamar (Audible)
This is a series of anecdotes all horrifying, in fact, but written by a comedian and gifted writer and performed by both sisters, mostly Amber Ruffin. Most of the stories expose isolated incidents of or long periods of racism experienced within neighborhoods, rural/suburban communities, public school classrooms and church youth groups experienced by one person, … Continue reading You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey – Amber Ruffin and Lacey Lamar (Audible)
The Surgeon’s Daughter – Audrey Blake
The Surgeon's Daughter is set in the mid-1840s in London, England and Bologna, Italy. Eleanore "Nora" Beady was a small child when renowned English surgeon Horace Croft attended her family for a serious illness. Her parents and siblings died and he took Nora to his home so she could recover. She never left. Dr. Croft … Continue reading The Surgeon’s Daughter – Audrey Blake
Spare Parts – Paul Craddock
Spare Parts is a very readable history of the evolution of transplants of human body parts, from skin grafts through heart/lung and covering many centuries. Craddock gives us the science involved in an accessible manner. The entire book is my favorite kind of history, full of social, political and cultural context. From earliest times, we … Continue reading Spare Parts – Paul Craddock
The Murder of Mr. Wickham – Claudia Gray
Jane Austen enthusiasts will love this mystery and others will find it an entertaining late Regency period romp through a British house party gone terribly wrong (or right if you see it as many might). As the title and descriptions of this mystery suggest, all of the characters were first found in Jane Austin novels, … Continue reading The Murder of Mr. Wickham – Claudia Gray
Little Souls- Sandra Dallas
What a lovely book. I was drawn to Little Souls because it falls at a time when the Spanish Influenza and WWI were simultaneously taking thousands of lives. I thought a story written about this era would be fascinating. But this book is about so much more, although both of those realities of the time … Continue reading Little Souls- Sandra Dallas
The School for German Brides – Aimie K. Runyan
Fans of historical fiction, like me, have read lots of books about people in the resistance during WWII or about those who politically opposed Hitler or those who hid Jews. Any decent thinking person will ask from time to time, "why did so many people allow this to happen?" I've gotten cynical enough to say … Continue reading The School for German Brides – Aimie K. Runyan
They Called me Bookworm 