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Nick Alexander's The Bottle of Tears

Nick Alexander’s The Bottle of Tears

Amazon Publishing UK/Lake Union Publishing / Paperback / Publication Date: August 1, 2019 Reading along contentedly.  Enjoying this good novel.  Appreciating the author’s skillful styling, the easy flow and authenticity.  Assuming, not having noticed, that it was written by a woman.  Finished it with a sigh of satisfaction and moved on to “About the Author”.   Nick Alexander.  Can anyone tell me…

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Jennifer Givhan's Trinity Sight

Jennifer Givhan’s Trinity Sight

Blackstone Publishing / Hardcover Publication Date, October 1, 2019 / Paperback Publication Date, October 13, 2020 A post-apocalyptic horror story?  Another Stephen King wannabe?  But, hey, as we know, there is only one Stephen King, EVER, and sometimes even Stephen King isn’t Stephen King.  Now I do not think that emulating the Master was Jennifer Givhan’s intention, but still, you know.  On…

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It Was the Best of Lines, It Was the Worst of Lines - May 18, 2021

It Was the Best of Lines, It Was the Worst of Lines – May 18, 2021

“There once lived, at a series of temporary addresses across the UnitedStates of America, a traveling man of Indian origin, advancing years and retreating mental powers, who, on account of his love for mindless television, had spent far too much of life in the yellow light of tawdry motel rooms watching an excess of it, and had suffered a peculiar form of brain damage as a result.“ Salman…

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Three by C.J. Tudor: The Burning Girls, The Hiding Place, and The Other People

Three by C.J. Tudor: The Burning Girls, The Hiding Place, and The Other People

Thanks to Covid-19 I’ve been in this house too damn long, and it’s cooooold outside anyway.  Read?  Well, of course, but nothing that would tax my brain, make me work, depress me, or worry me tucked up here safely in my cocoon.  No, sir.  It was just gonna be read and snack, read and snack, read and snack some more.  If that’s where you are too, then I’ve got three for you.  Got ‘em right here. …

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Ann Napolitano's Dear Edward

Ann Napolitano’s Dear Edward

Just arrived in paperback on February 2, 2021 / Hardcover publication date: January 6, 2020 / Publisher: Random House / The Dial Press Now here’s a thing.  I want you to read this lovely novel, but I don’t want to tell you about it.  Well, no, I do, but my fear is that it would be so easy to ruin.  You see, Chapter 1 introduces the Adler family – mother, father, two sons.  One is a teen; the…

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Tracy Chevalier's A Single Thread

Tracy Chevalier’s A Single Thread

Hardcover Publication Date: September 17, 2019 / Paperback Publication Date: October 6, 2020 / Publisher: Penguin Group/Viking Winchester, UK, between the wars.  Life goes on as families continue to grieve their lost sons, women live without men by their sides, and, far, far away, the Nazis build their power base in Germany for another go at world domination.  If you only know Tracy Chevalier…

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The Way Through the Woods: On Mushrooms and Mourning

The Way Through the Woods: On Mushrooms and Mourning

Hardcover Publication Date: August 29, 2019 / Publisher: Random House Publishing Group / Random House Perhaps the most “unlikely” piece of non-fiction I’ve ever read – unlikely to be written in the first place and unlikely to be read by me, or so it seemed.  In fact, I would have said unlikely to be read by anybody.  I would have said that until I read it, so let’s get that behind us.  This…

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Craig Johnson's Land of Wolves

Craig Johnson’s Land of Wolves

Hardcover Publication Date: September 17, 2029 / Paperback Publication Date: August 4, 2020 / Publisher: PENGUIN GROUP / Viking Another in the excellent Longmire mystery series, and let’s just cut to the chase.  That’s a damn good thing, the series and this book.  Sorry to say that I’ve missed a few episodes, and evidently Walt Longmire went through some serious stuff while I was away, but Walt…

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Curdella Forbes' A Tall History of Sugar

Curdella Forbes’ A Tall History of Sugar

Hardcover Publication Date: October 1, 2019 / Publisher: Akashic Books A Tall History of Sugar delivers a tall order of beautiful language, a giddy, glorious and, yes, intoxicating order.  Just as I wrote this, one tiny example came to mind, two words only: “ploughing darkness”.  Dark, but lovely, isn’t it?  How recognizable to any of us afflicted by the human condition.  Hard work, that…

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Katie Lowe's The Furies

Katie Lowe’s The Furies

Hardcover Publication Date: October 8, 2019 / Expected Paperback Publication Date: September 15, 2020 / Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

An exclusive British girl’s school has an eerie history, and I was expecting (hoping for, actually) witches.  Haven’t done witches in such a long, long time and was not in the mood for anything that smacked of reality.  Well, it’s not witches– exactly, nor is…

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BLOG TOUR! Alex George's The Paris Hours

BLOG TOUR! Alex George’s The Paris Hours

The Paris Hours by Alex George

Publication Date:  May 5, 2020

Publisher:  Flatiron Books

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for The Paris Hours!  Check out my thoughts and ruminations on the book, as well as an excerpt, below.

What do an Armenian puppeteer, a down-on-his-luck artist, a French journalist with dreams of America, and Marcel Proust’s former housekeeper all have in common?  At first…

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BLOG TOUR - The Mountains Sing by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai

BLOG TOUR – The Mountains Sing by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai’s The Mountains Sing.  I have to admit my stop was actually scheduled for Tuesday, March 17, but the world has a way of taking over sometimes.  Tuesday was the first day that our entire office began working from home due to that nasty ol’ COVID-19, and things were a little chaotic.  I just flat forgot about the blog tour until today,…

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Crisis in the Red Zone: The Story of the Deadliest Ebola Outbreak in History, and of the Outbreaks to Come

Crisis in the Red Zone: The Story of the Deadliest Ebola Outbreak in History, and of the Outbreaks to Come

It’s OK to dangle your foot over the edge of the bed.  Really.  There are no monsters underneath.  Really.  Truly.  It’s OK to read Stephen King or even Edgar A. Poe just before you turn out the lights.  Sweet dreams.  But, if you read Richard Preston’s most recent non-fiction entry about the Ebola virus, Crisis in the Red Zone…….?  YOU’LL NEVER SLEEP ANOTHER WINK IN YOUR LIFE!  My friends, as…

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Saint X: A Novel

Saint X: A Novel

Release Date:  Today, February 18, 2020 / Available here from your local indie bookstore!

There’re two sides to everything.  Simple folk wisdom that we use and hear so much it’s almost meaningless.  Nevertheless, it is still wisdom.  And it is this universal dichotomy that Alexis Schaitkin examines in her excellent novel Saint X.  Further, where I am today is rainy, foggy and gloomy, just nasty,…

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M.T. Edvardsson's A Nearly Normal Family

M.T. Edvardsson’s A Nearly Normal Family

  Now available in hardcover from Celadon Books / Due in paperback on June 30, 2020.  Support your local indie bookstore with your purchase or pre-order!

Welcome to Scandinavia – again (and again).  Sweden, in this case, but not just another Scandinavian mystery novel.  Yes, there’s a murder, and no, we’re not sure who the murderer is, but the mystery is not the story.  The murder may be the…

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Alexandra Fuller's Travel Light, Move Fast

Alexandra Fuller’s Travel Light, Move Fast

  Release Date:  August 6, 2019 / Travel light but move fast to your local indie bookstore and shop here!

If Alexandra Fuller writes a shopping list, read it; margin notes in her high school biology text, read them; weekly menu plans with beans and franks every Tuesday, read those, too.  Anything you can get your hands on.  Ms. Fuller will always have something original to say – even about the…

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Chasing My Cure: A Doctor's Race to Turn Hope into Action

Chasing My Cure: A Doctor’s Race to Turn Hope into Action

  Release Date:  September 10, 2019 / Support your local indie bookstore by purchasing a copy here!

Can’t really say why I’ve been avoiding medical memoirs lately, but this one…..well, this one got in my face, in my head and simply wouldn’t be denied.  After losing his mother to a brain tumor while he was an undergrad, David Fajgenbaum committed himself to becoming a doctor.  He wanted to fight…