"In the Face of the Sun" is a portrait of several generations of a Los Angeles family, initially living in a Sears Roebuck home, built from a kit, living a fairly middle class/working class life. In 1928, Daisy and Henrietta still live at home with their parents, but their mother is seriously ill. She suffered … Continue reading In the Face of the Sun – Denny S. Bryce
Author: Emily Leader
I have been an avid reader since Dick and Jane met Sally. At age 7, I read my parents' first edition of "To Kill a Mockingbird." I am a retired lawyer and so read almost only fiction for pleasure. I'm adding in nonfiction these days, largely on social justice matters but also history, biography, and weird topics that catch my imagination. I used to read only serially, one book at a time. Presently, I read paperbacks, hardcovers, listen to audible, listen to CDs and read online through Net Galley. Covid-19 has caused me to read a lot so I have re-upped my Goodreads challenge for 2021 and am starting to review at least my favorite finds annd, perhaps, some stinkers.
Dream Town – David Baldacci
I'm loving the Archer series, with the third entry confirming that David Baldacci has successfully nailed the hard boiled detective genre. When visiting his friend and aspiring star Liberty Callahan on New Years Eve 1953, Archer is drawn into a case when Liberty's friend, Ellie Lamb runs into them at dinner. Ellie is afraid someone … Continue reading Dream Town – David Baldacci
The Book Woman’s Daughter – Kim Michele Richardson
There's background to this story that is relayed in The Book Woman's Daughter such that this can be read as a stand alone book or the two books can be read out of order. If you asked me which I'd prefer, I'm glad I read the earlier book first. The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek. … Continue reading The Book Woman’s Daughter – Kim Michele Richardson
Unlikely Animals – Annie Hartnett
This is, and will stay, a favorite book for me. One of my Goodreads categories is "quirky" and only the best are recognized, because quirky can easily fall into "dorky" or "jerky" or "malarky." Only the finest of writers can pull off quirky and Hartnett is one. Emma is coming home because her father has … Continue reading Unlikely Animals – Annie Hartnett
The Lost Book of Eleanor Dare -Kimberly Brock
When I was around 9, my family's summer road trip (always ten days, meticulously planned by my father) took us to Roanoke Island and we saw the play about the lost colony. 1587! I didn't understand in 1963 or so how old that was. At that age, the U.S. Colonial times melted together with Columbus … Continue reading The Lost Book of Eleanor Dare -Kimberly Brock
Yellow Wife -Sadeqa Johnson
Yellow Wife tells a tale of Pheby Delores Brown, an enslaved woman whose life we follow from a fairly privileged position on a plantation to serving as the concubine of a cruel man who runs a jail/breaking house/auction service for enslaved people in Richmond, Virginia. The novel has been around for awhile now and the … Continue reading Yellow Wife -Sadeqa Johnson
Greetings From Asbury Park – Daniel H. Turtel
Casey Larken's father is dead and his half brother Davey inherited dad Joseph's multimillion dollar fortune. Davey was the only "legitimate" child. Joseph was a pretty awful guy, as we learn when the book opens with his sparsely attended funeral. Casey- well, he got a house and $50,000 and the house turns out to be … Continue reading Greetings From Asbury Park – Daniel H. Turtel
The Candy House – Jennifer Egan
In the near future, we can all externalize our unconsciousness and store it in a cube, retrieving all our memories/life experiences from our brain only to watch them again. Naturally, people decide to turn this into a collective consciousness, allowing anyone to watch, say, hundreds of individual experiences of a concert from 1965. And woven … Continue reading The Candy House – Jennifer Egan
Shadows of Berlin – David R. Gilliam
Rachel Perlman is married to Aaron, a "Flatbush Jew." It is the early/mid- 1950s. She is a displaced person from Berlin, Germany, a Jew who survived the Holocaust and is left with the knowledge her mother perished in a gas chamber. Rachel has suffered deep trauma over part of what she did to survive. Rachel's … Continue reading Shadows of Berlin – David R. Gilliam
148 Charles Street – Tracy Daugherty
148 Charles Street is a truly interesting piece of historical fiction that covers periods in the lives of Willa Cather and Elizabeth "Elsie" Sergeant. It is less a day to day description of their long friendship and more a study of how they influenced one another, despite their significantly different world views and life choices. … Continue reading 148 Charles Street – Tracy Daugherty
They Called me Bookworm 