Stacked by Aviva Blakeman
There’s a special joy when your friends write and publish their first book. Last year when Aviva published Stacked and its sequel Say My Name I scooped them up and then in typical me form saved them for when I needed a boost. I should have read this one sooner, if only to join the chorus of positive reviews, but either way I’m glad to have read it now because it was just what I was looking for. (As a note, I’m thanked in the […]
The Governess Affair by Courtney Milan
For my Bingo Gateway Square, I decided on a personal Gateway and one that I would recommend to others. The Governess Affair was my on ramp into the writing of Courtney Milan (and her near perfect Brothers Sinister series) and it’s been a love affair for the past six years. As for others, this lovely little novella is good for a general introduction to romance and romance novellas specifically. I struggle often with reading novellas or short stories – too often for my liking the […]
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
I am pegging this one down as my CBRbingo white whale for two reasons: 1) I have been starting and failing to read this book for years- a lot of people kept telling me how great it is, and how much they loved it, but up until recently, I just couldn’t get into it enough to get past the first 50 pages; and 2) it is so long- close to 600 pages- and so finishing it feels like a real accomplishment (especially because ‘white whale’ […]
The Binding by Bridget Collins
It was hard for me to make this my Violet square since I bought this on Ale’s recommendation (and their review photo shows the purple in the cover much better than mine – VS Ramachandran’s The Telltale Brain would have made a prettier rainbow, but we’re getting down to the wire and I can read fiction faster than nonfiction in most cases, so needs must). I was almost as charmed by the book as Ale, but I have to admit it was a slower burn for […]
The Broom of the System by David Foster Wallace
Lenore Beadsman’s life becomes very complicated all of a sudden when her great-grandmother and twenty-five other people vanish from a nursing home, her cockatiel starts talking without pause, and the telephones at the company she works for go crazy. While looking for her missing great-grandmother, she has to confront other members of her family and her family’s history, and acknowledge the lack of control she has over her own life. Lenore is sort of a blank canvas that others project their needs on, for instance, […]
The Animals at Lockwood Manor by Jane Healey
CBR12 BINGO: Debut BINGO (Diagonal): Money, Debut, Yellow, Pandemic, Music Minor spoilers. I thought it would be a struggle coming up with a book to read for the Debut BINGO category, but I was fortunate enough to see a CBR Facebook post with some great suggestions. I took note of The Animals at Lockwood Manor and thought, “A mystery that combines natural history with an early World War II England setting? This has my name all over it.” Shout out to whoever posted the suggestion. […]
