Trust by Hernan Diaz
A friend texted me about Trust, she wanted me to read it so we could discuss it. She dropped it off and away I went. The title Trust is a good one, because the word can be used in so many ways. The story is about a tycoon and his wife in the early 20th century. There are “trusts” in the context of money making, Wall Street, sketchy financial dealings and philanthropy. The book is also dealing with the idea of whom do we trust? […]
The Last Heir to Blackwood Library by Hester Fox
I’ve read some real stinkers lately but luckily this gentle gothic mystery wasn’t one of them. The story begins in London, 1925, with young Ivy Radcliffe hurrying to her appointment with an unknown solicitor. Ivy lives a life of poverty and struggle in the East End. She has lost her whole family somewhat recently, her father and brother in the trenches of the Great War and her mother of illness soon after. The solicitor informs Ivy that she is now Lady Hayward, inheritor of the […]
Spell Bound by F. T. Lukens
Spell Bound by F. T. Lukens was recommended to me by a YA librarian friend. ( I read this as a passport book – recommended by a friend.) The story is told in alternating chapters by two magician’s apprentices: Rook and Sun. Rook, who was raised by his magician grandmother, is deemed unmagical. After her death, he is sentenced by the Magical Consortium to move away from his home and live in the city without magic. He is a genius (he keeps telling us that) […]
The Silent Wife by A.S.A. Harrison
Reasons why this book grated on me (mild spoilers but I don’t care, you shouldn’t read it anyway): Copious boob descriptions. Behold: The twin peaks that strain against the middle buttons of her blouse Her soaked T-shirt leaving her as good as naked from the waist up. But even though her breasts were resplendent – small but perfect, with nipples standing up like finials in the pelting rain… The nipples inert in the heat of the day The way she let it all hang out […]
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
This is a book I wouldn’t have picked up if not for one of my book clubs, and this is exactly why book clubs and stuff that makes you read outside your comfort zone are so fun. This book was so good! A real treat for book-lovers, and for humans who lived through (are living through?) the COVID-19 pandemic. I didn’t get excited about this one until somebody told me it was about a woman who is haunted by her least favorite bookshop customer, who […]
The Marriage Portrait: A Novel by Maggie O’Farrell
Maggie O’Farrell’s last two novels have been works of historical fiction that deal with heavy topics. In Hamnet, it was the death of William Shakespeare’s young son from the plague, and in The Marriage Portrait it is the death of the 15-year-old Duchess of Ferrara, Lucrezia de’Medici, thought to have been murdered by her own husband. O’Farrell is a master of foreboding, keeping the reader on the edge of their seat while waiting for the horrid event to occur. And yet, despite the fact that […]
