Book Review for “At the Stroke of Midnight” by Jenni Keer. Summary: " It’s 1923 and in a decade that promises excitement and liberation, Pearl Glenham and her father are invited to a mysterious country house party on the Dorset coast, by a total stranger. Her father claims not to have any prior association with ..read more

Book Review for “The Memory of Lavender and Sage” by Aimie K. Runyan. Summary: "Food critic Tempèsta Luddington has always felt like the odd person out in her family, ever since she lost her beloved mother at the tender age of thirteen. When her workaholic father passes fifteen years later, Tempèsta is not surprised that ..read more

Book Review for “Walk the Blue Fields” by Claire Keegan. Summary: "... an unforgettable array of quietly wrenching stories about despair and desire in the timeless world of modern-day Ireland.  In the never-before-published story “The Long and Painful Death,” a writer awarded a stay to work in Heinrich Böll’s old cottage has her peace interrupted ..read more

Book Review for “Only May” by Carol Lovekin. Summary: "Listen. The bee walks across my finger, slow as anything and I can see through the gauzy wing, to the detail of my skin. 'You aren’t looking in the right place.' If you look her in the eye and tell a lie, May Harper will see ..read more

Why I can't write a Book Review for “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” by J. K. Rowling. Summary: "It's no longer safe for Harry at Hogwarts, so he and his best friends, Ron and Hermione, are on the run. Professor Dumbledore has given them clues about what they need to do to defeat the ..read more

Book Review for “Cloud Cuckoo Land” by Anthony Doerr. Summary: "Thirteen-year-old Anna, an orphan, lives inside the formidable walls of Constantinople in a house of women who make their living embroidering the robes of priests. Restless, insatiably curious, Anna learns to read, and in this ancient city, famous for its libraries, she finds a book ..read more

Book Review of "The Miniaturist" by Jessie Burton The blurb for this book reads as follows: "On an autumn day in 1686, eighteen-year-old Nella Oortman arrives at a grand house in Amsterdam to begin her new life as the wife of wealthy merchant Johannes Brandt. Though curiously distant, he presents her with an extraordinary wedding ..read more

Book Review of "A Snow Garden & Other Stories" by Rachel Joyce In this collection, Rachel Joyce connects seven stories spanning from just before Christmas Eve through New Year's Eve. Joyce not only arranges these tales chronologically, she also links them with other elements. The stories here are: Faraway Smell of Lemon - Binny wasn't ..read more

Book Review of "And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer" by Fredrik Backman. Stock up on tissues folks, because Fredrik Backman is BACK! This time, Backman gives us a perfectly formed, exquisitely developed novella (whose title is almost longer than the book itself) about a man slowly succumbing to dementia and his ..read more