Smith's historical fiction story in two timelines equally powerfully evokes the bleak Dutch winters of

somewhat (for some of the characters, more than they realize) come together for their annual getaway, this time are not sympathetic, and the environment is claustrophobic—but all of it is essential to making the story

The stories in her book Buried Deep revisit some favorite Novik worlds as well as introducing the world

I wished for more of a focus on the character of Tess and her personal story--and less on political strategies We're reintroduced to the story with an introductory poem written in verse that is funny, poignant--and The sharing of stories and folklore through generations and cultures was a small-scale highlight. distraction from the character I love, and ultimately I wasn't particularly engaged with the broader story

Where I come from, we keep these stories to ourselves. The dark basement where a main character spends most of her time adds to the claustrophobic feel of that story line. The story is built around the women's constant pain, with wives being beaten almost universally within the story.

Reading Now The books I've got on my nightstand and on my Kindle at the moment: a turn-of-the century story But when time goes by and she doesn't conceive a child, she is labeled "barren" and suspected of witchcraft Boulley's story is soon to be adapted at Netflix for TV with the Obamas' production company, Higher Ground

The pacing of The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven is measured, as befits a story that is largely about daily

Here are the six books I most loved reading this past month: two historical fiction stories, gothic magical I 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 loved his novel One Foot in Eden. Harrow Starling House is another wonderful, dark, twisty story from Alix E. A Murderous Relation also explores class and privilege: the story revisits a working-class character

As they mastermind a plan to bring the exes together in Rachel Lynn Solomon’s light fiction story, Russell The story is largely about accepting yourself and loving yourself--and treasuring someone who delights You might also like the books on the Greedy Reading Lists Six Great Light Fiction Stories Perfect for Summer Reading and Six More Great Light Fiction Stories.

Francisco, illustrates the words of kindness, thoughtful approaches, and wisdom she gained by spending time Focusing on respect, love, and closure, MacNaughton offers a guide to creating a path through the precious time

Schwab's stories take place within her detailed fantasy worlds, but her characters' conflicts, hopes, Schwab's stories take place within her detailed fantasy world (with some historical fiction elements of London and life at the time mixed in), but her world-building never feels manufactured or self-conscious

Adam Sass's beautifully heartfelt Acknowledgments mention that the essence of his story remained intact And I wanted to dive into this story. But I was challenged by frequent issues with story elements, tone shifts and uneven pacing, and character And the repeated use of I instead of me is a copyediting-level issue, but it stopped me every time I temper, and I would expect some measure of rage from anyone at the injustice of his situation, the time

realized adult self, and this journey is satisfying to watch in In Pieces after living through the page time I also recognize that this is unfair since I chose to read this person's life story.

traces the end of her marriage, weaving in the history and the future while she acknowledges that any story as a plot, but isn't this what I'm tasked with now--making sense of what happened by telling it as a story as a "tell-all" but a "tell-mine," repeatedly acknowledging that she can only tell her side of the story

01 Deadly Waters Rebecca Sorley is a college student, and she's trying to get good grades, spend time Mysterious noises, inexplicable goings-on, haunting stories of the past, and the superstitious hatred This is a good old Victorian ghost story so far. I love it. One spooky suspense story, one World War II historical fiction title, and one combination: a spooky historical

Keena Roberts grew up splitting her time between a primate research camp in Botswana, where she felt themselves were stealthy, deadly, and lightning quick; and the dumb but treacherous hippos living along the river

version of a first lady's personal history in An American Wife, which I loved, and I thought her short story a "moral revival," and emphasizes that we are all called to be part of the movement. 04 A Witch in Time In A Witch in Time, Constance Sayers is offering us historical fiction, witches, and repeated reincarnation Friend's Exorcism ​ I've had this on my wish list for a while and decided to perk up my personal pandemic times

The Girl from Widow Hills by Megan Miranda Arden Maynor was a small child when she sleepwalked into a storm days later, she was recovered in a miraculous series of events that ended up with her removal from a storm My book club heard Miranda talk about this story at a virtual library foundation event in the fall, and for a weeklong tour of east coast colleges with a touring company, Jessica's hoping for some quality time I've got a mysterious story with an unreliable narrator and an imagined nationwide hubbub (a la "baby

Tom Clavin's comprehensive account of the lives of the Earp brothers (and also includes some of the story At times the retracing of the town's history and the backgrounds of those involved in the climactic ride

secrets of an Old Hollywood starlet; and A Marvellous Light, Freya Marske's fantastical Edwardian England story 01 Woman of Light by Kali Fajardo-Anstine There is one every generation, a seer who keeps the stories Luz realizes that she may be the only one who can save the stories of her ancestors before they are lost Hugo is a reclusive, extremely famous Old Hollywood movie star, and she's finally ready to tell the story Monique can't figure out why she's been trusted to tell Evelyn's story, nor does she understand allusions

Ninth House, a book for adults whose story line is not connected to the Grishaverse, is the first in for me until the logistics of the magic late in the book felt to me as though they bogged down the story

Here are the books I most loved reading during the past month: a beautiful story of heartbreak and searches for redemption; short stories that pack a punch and offer depth and lots to consider; a wonderfully offbeat feminist Western; a captivating multigenerational family story told through two timelines; the 01 We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker Whitaker's story builds into a tale of heartbreak and desperate I loved having more time with my favorite minor character, the plain-speaking, tough, brutal but fair

The most intriguing aspects of the story for me were related to characters' dreams of a world in which I would've liked to spend more time at the school as they learned about themselves and the world around

Donoghue weaves a good amount of fact into this story--Kathleen Lynn was a real, formidable figure--and the author of Room certainly knows how to craft a story of survival and of finding hope in the most promising read in the #lightfiction category, a genre that's been working well for me during Pandemic Times

The story includes perspectives from those who stand outside the stadiums to loudly protest the brutality It was a difficult story to read but also a disturbingly fascinating exploration of the prison system These tie the book's tragic, dystopian scenario to our current society in an uncomfortably close-to-home

strengths to me here were the issues Fowler explored starting about two-thirds of the way through the story too deliberately constructed, because they were said to be true yet felt too unjustified within the story , or because they just rang untrue for me, drawing me out of the story. anywhere in the U.S. that I kept imagining the book was set decades ago (yet the smartphones place the story came off to me as childlike and not inspiring Helen of Troy passion, devotion, or even Xavier's spare time

, historical fiction set in 1926 jazz-era London; I'm reading Kevin Wilson's newest, Now Is Not the Time Life After Life, Human Croquet, When Will There Be Good News, and many more books. 02 Now Is Not the Time Check out this link for my review of Kevin Wilson's Now Is Not the Time to Panic.

hunch that the mystery of the code in deceased author Edith Twyford's largely condemned, prejudiced stories At about three-fourths of the way through the story, events began to occur that spiked my interest, and

Westerns, you might want to check out the books on the Greedy Reading Lists Six Great Historical Fiction Stories Set in the American West and  Six More Great Historical Fiction Stories Set in the American West.

Walschots hooked me immediately and completely, and I was going to be heartbroken if the story didn't eye of the darkest and most mysterious villain of all, Leviathan, who wants Anna on his staff full time At times she doesn't recognize herself much anymore. , but although this is her first book, I thought her story-building and the story's depth felt effortless

I 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 loved his novel One Foot in Eden.

I also didn’t think it was necessary to have that be a discovery rather than allowing the full love story to grow without the first-time element.

I found the story immensely satisfying. ...I realized I too had seen terrible sights, lived through awful

“In the end, the courage of women can’t be stamped out, and stories—the big ones, the true ones, can researched and documented, with twists and turns that feel so outlandish as to seem like fiction at times Farrow also explores the difficulty the long-silenced victims have in bravely deciding to tell their stories

A compelling Gothic suspense story with supernatural elements that keeps you guessing. Eeeee! Sager has crafted a compelling Gothic suspense story in which we're along for the ride as Maggie, a young But luckily for the arc of the story, Sager does a good job of providing her with a stubborn grip on resembled the Jess of the earlier account of events, to the point that the disconnect made me stop a few times Having Jess gone and unreachable helps the story progress, but still.

during a flight (and delay), and Glass offers a cat-and-mouse chase through side streets and underground rivers

It happens all the time. First, they refused to believe me. Then they shamed me. and abused, opening her own long-closed (and hitherto unknown to her) file and seeing for the first time The reason for this, I suspect, is that these are stories we all already know.

instruments as instruments of death, what felt like overwrought narration of the audiobook, and the amount of time it took to get into the meat of the story and develop characters and fates that I cared about.

On the other side of the Shrines of Gaiety story line is Detective Frobisher, an upstanding outlier in deadly high stakes, the dealings of various crooks, and significant double-crossing throughout the story

mystery series showcases Stevie Bell's instincts, doggedness, and ability to uncover the truth, this time

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 Rash offers an interesting structure here as he unravels what has occurred; he tells the story through One Foot in Eden is a quiet, haunting story with a Southern gothic feel and understated revelations from I found it a fascinating, quick, rich read, and I loved Ron Rash's writing and this story.

I'm reading the recently published A Language of Dragons , a reimagined Bletchley Park codebreaking story

Roy was shaped by the woman she calls "my shelter and my storm," and she tracks back to her childhood By the time she attended her mother's school along with her beloved brother, Roy had already adapted

deGrasse Tyson Here's some more star-related book love for the space-obsessed people in your life--this time What would happen if you rode a helicopter blade, built a billion-story building, made a lava lamp out

He uses his decades of research into moral psychology to explore a timely, potent issue: the power in And while an attempt to understand the underpinnings of these conflicts feels more timely than ever,

We want for people to know us, to know our story, to know who we are and who we will be. This goal adds structure to the novel, but the story is far richer than the characters' mission to create likely needed to be at least seventeen in order for the situation with her parents to work within the story

Kate Quinn makes the urgency of World War II code breaking come alive through the stories of three young The Rose Code is a wonderfully spun historical fiction story of three very different women who answer I love a World War II story about strong women making a difference, but I admit that I was curious about check out the books I listed on the Greedy Reading Lists Six Books about Brave Female Spies, Six Great Stories

The story is inspired by the real-life, formerly integrated Malaga Island off the coast of Maine (in The story tips its island characters farther and farther toward tragedy, then plunges headfirst into

For more books I've loved, check out the Greedy Reading Lists Six Great Light Fiction Stories and Six More Great Light Fiction Stories.

I'm watching The Good Place for the third time, this time with my youngest, and I love hearing his references and a heartwarming reminder that there are thoughtful, kind, well-meaning people out there spending time