- Feb 28, 2022
Three Books I'm Reading Now, 2/28/22 Edition
The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading Our Woman in Moscow, Beatriz Williams's story of Cold War espionage and family loyalty; I'm reading The Unsinkable Greta James, Jennifer E. Smith's light fiction about an emotionally distant father and daughter trying to find connection on a cruise to Alaska; and I'm listening to Nora Roberts's first book in The Dragon Heart Legacy series, The Awakening. That's right, draaaagons! What are you reading and enjoying these days, bookworms? 01
- Feb 25, 2022
Six More Fascinating Memoirs to Explore
More Memoirs I've Loved I find a good memoir irresistible, as evidenced by the bajillions of memoirs I seem to read. Here are six I thought were just lovely--more about each of them below. For more more more memoirs I've loved that you might want to try, check out these Greedy Reading Lists: Six Fascinating Memoirs to Explore Six Illuminating Memoirs to Dive Into Six Illuminating Memoirs I've Read This Year Six More Illuminating Memoirs to Lose Yourself In Six Foodie Memoirs
- Feb 24, 2022
Review of Nobody Will Tell You This But Me: A True (As Told to Me) Story by Bess Kalb
This is an irresistible tribute to Kalb's funny, opinionated, fiercely loving grandmother--a granddaughter's best friend and a wise and formidable character. I listened to Bess Kalb's irresistible love letter to her late grandmother, Nobody Will Tell You This But Me. The audiobook was wonderful and read by Kalb. The author saved every one of her grandmother's voicemails, and here she uses them--along with emails, letters, vividly recalled conversations, and her grandma Bobb
- Feb 23, 2022
Review of The Saints of Swallow Hill by Donna Everhart
This Depression-era-set historical fiction story tracks characters in intensely difficult situations as they successfully fight for justice, peace, love, and forgiveness in a satisfying story arc that captivated me. The Saints of Swallow Hill traces the paths of Rae Lynn and Del, disparate characters in Depression-era Georgia who have two important things in common: each of their searches for food, shelter, and survival is becoming more desperate; and each of them is running
- Feb 22, 2022
Review of The Last Legacy by Adrienne Young
In Young's story, loosely set in the world of her Fable series, strong young Bryn fights for her own autonomy in an appealing tale of craftiness, determination, and love. A letter from her uncle Henrik on her eighteenth birthday calls orphan Bryn back to the island of Bastion. It might be an understatement to say that she has mixed emotions about returning, but Henrik has plans for her that he's been building for ages. Situations on Bastion are complicated by longstanding riv
- Feb 21, 2022
Three Books I'm Reading Now, 2/21/22 Edition
The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading Honor, Thrity Umrigar's story of love, loyalty, oppressive tradition, and hope for change in India; I'm listening to Nobody Will Tell You This But Me, Bess Kalb's love letter to her late grandmother, based on voicemails from and exchanges with with the formidable, fiercely loving woman; and I'm reading All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days, Rebecca Donner's narrative nonfiction about her great-great-aunt, an American who led a powerful un
- Feb 18, 2022
Review of Sparks Like Stars by Nadia Hashimi
This peek into a childhood in Kabul and a lifetime of searching and yearning is luminous and vivid in Hashimi's hands. What will this change? I wonder. If I am no less alone than I was yesterday, what’s the difference? Will I feel released from this knotted grief? Will my dreams soften? Will I still be me? Young Sitara is living a comfortable life in Kabul in 1978. Her father has a prominent position in the government, and the family has plenty of love and laughter. But when
- Feb 17, 2022
Review of One Foot in Eden by Ron Rash
ICYMI: North Carolina author Rash offers a fascinating, Appalachian-set mystery told from various points of view with a Southern gothic feel. I recently included the wonderful Ron Rash short story collection Nothing Gold Can Stay in my Greedy Reading List Six Short Story Collections to Wow You, and I've been thinking about the Ron Rash books on my to-read list and the work of his that I've already read and loved. In One Foot in Eden, Will Alexander is a small-town-Appalachia
- Feb 16, 2022
Review of Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth
Hard work, interest, and commitment are essential to achievement, and Duckworth traces her research and offers interviews with various highfliers to illustrate the point. In researcher and professor Angela Duckworth's nonfiction work Grit, she explores the combination of passion and commitment that is a key component in success. Through mining past research and history on the matter as well as interviewing individuals who have reached elite levels of success, Duckworth explor
- Feb 15, 2022
Review of One Step Too Far (Frankie Elkin #2) by Lisa Gardner
The heart of the mystery the emotionally tortured Frankie uncovers in the wilds of Wyoming in One Step Too Far includes heart-stopping elements I won't soon be able to forget. Lisa Gardner's recent mystery One Step Too Far is the second in her Frankie Elkin series (the first was Before She Disappeared, which I thought was great). Frankie Elkin isn't a cop and she isn't a private investigator. She's an unassuming middle-aged woman and a recovering alcoholic who has a compulsio
- Feb 14, 2022
Three Books I'm Reading Now, 2/14/22 Edition
The Books I'm Reading Now I'm listening to Nadia Hashimi's story of a young woman in Afghanistan during the communist coup of 1978, Sparks Like Stars; I'm reading Lisa Gardner's recently published mystery set in the forest, One Step Too Far; and I'm reading Donna Everhart's recent historical fiction novel set during the Depression, The Saints of Swallow Hill. What are you reading and enjoying these days, bookworms? 01 Sparks Like Stars by Nadia Hashimi Young Sitara is living
- Feb 11, 2022
Review of Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
Andy Weir offers the fascinating story of a desperate space mission, creative innovation, and enduring optimism, with an enormous amount of heart that surprised me. It's time to learn Eridianese. Yes, I just made up that word. No, I don't feel bad about it. I'm doing a lot of things for the first time in human history out here and there's a lot of stuff that needs naming. Just be glad I don't name stuff after myself. Ryland Grace wakes up as the sole survivor of a last-chance
- Feb 10, 2022
Review of Out of Love by Hazel Hayes
I loved the idea of a relationship story told in reverse, but Out of Love touched on weighty topics that seemed to warrant deeper exploration than was possible within the structure. He stopped loving me a long time ago but wasn't brave enough to tell me. Out of Love is a love story told in reverse. The beginning of Hazel Hayes's Out of Love lays bare the painful end of a couple's relationship, and each subsequent chapter shifts backward in time to an earlier point in the coup
- Feb 9, 2022
Review of Greenwich Park by Katherine Faulkner
Faulkner's debut mystery is twisty and turny, with various potential bad seeds and complications--and it ends in a satisfying whirl of revelation and resolution. Trying to work out where it all began, where it all started going wrong. And I suppose the real answer is it started years before you could have ever imagined it did. Helen lives in her dream home, an old Victorian beauty where she grew up, with her architect husband, who has masterminded plans to change the house an
- Feb 8, 2022
Review of My Heart Went Walking by Sally Hanan
Hanan's 1980s Irish coming-of-age story is full of angst, secrets, life-and-death danger, youthful determination--and the feeling that everything is going to work out in the end. You can't keep a secret in this town unless you leave with it. Young Una has only ever loved one man, her best friend Cullen. But now Una has abruptly left town, left her family, left Cullen--she's left behind everything she knows in a desperate attempt to make things right by keeping her mysterious
- Feb 7, 2022
Three Books I'm Reading Now, 2/7/22 Edition
The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading Sequoia Nagamatsu's recently published science fiction How High We Go in the Dark; listening to Angela Duckworth's nonfiction book Grit; and reading Katherine Faulkner's new mystery Greenwich Park. What are you reading and enjoying these days, bookworms? 01 How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu It's 2030, and an archaeologist in the Arctic Circle discovers a body perfectly preserved in the permafrost. His personal situation is c
- Feb 4, 2022
Six More Wonderfully Witchy Stories to Charm You
Witchy Book Love Last year I published a Greedy Reading List of Six Wonderfully Witchy Stories to Charm You, and because I do love a witchy book, I'm back with more more more witchy titles. Even more witchy books are on my to-read list, including: Corrag by Susan Fletcher; The Witch’s Heart by Genevieve Gornichec; A Witch in Time by Constance Sayers; and Nora Roberts's witchy Cousins O'Dwyer trilogy and Chronicles of the One series. What are your favorite witchy stories? 01 H
- Feb 3, 2022
Review of The Body: A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson
Bryson's examination of the human body, its processes, its wonders, and its limitations is surprising, illuminating, and wonderful. “We pass our existence within this wobble of flesh and yet take it almost entirely for granted.” The Body: A Guide for Occupants is made up of fascinating, funny, odd, and often unexpected information about the complicated corporeal shell we each inhabit. With his signature wit and curiosity, Bryson delves into everything you didn't know that you
- Feb 2, 2022
January Wrap-Up: My Favorite Reads of the Month
My very favorite books from January! Aaaaaand here we are in February! It's fair to say that January somehow both lasted ten years and got away from me. My favorite reads of the past month include, in no particular order: The Maid, Nita Prose's recently published mystery with an intriguing main protagonist and lots of sweetness; The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, the first in Becky Chambers's science fiction series about a big-hearted, ragtag space crew's adventures; Fest
- Feb 1, 2022
Review of No Cure for Being Human (And Other Truths I Need to Hear) by Kate Bowler
Touching, honest, raw, funny, and full of gritty reflections about life and faith, this was a read that I absolutely adored and gave five Bossy stars. It takes great courage to live. Period. There are fears and disappointments and failures every day, and, in the end, the hero dies. It must be cinematic to watch us from above. THIS BOOK! My friend James's Pastor's Book Club pick for this month was No Cure for Being Human, which I found out the same day my library hold of the b