Well written story of family and female friendship. Strong characters and interesting story line work well. Great read!!

Kate Grenville does an excellent job of writing in a 1800's Englishman's voice. Daniel Rooke and others travel from England to New South Wales. Daniel, a student of math, astronomy and languages, goes to study weather and the nighttime skies. Though an outsider in a strange land he finds himself feeling, for the first time in his life, as if he belongs. He befriends the natives and tries to learn their language, their ways. The story is based on historical records but doesn't read as such. Interesting story written well.

I had my doubts about liking this book - Sierra Leone, murder and child soldiers, but the author does an excellent job of capturing the readers interest immediately. The Secret Keeper is a fast read with interesting characters and a satisfying conclusion. Well done!

One Single Mother's Story is Asha Bandele's memoir dealing with motherhood.

She fell in love and married a prisoner serving a 20 to life sentence. A memoir ensued.

She got pregnant and had a beautiful baby girl. Another memoir.

Asha is adopted and has issues with her birth mother; I imagine a memoir dealing with her search for her birth mother might be next.

This book is well written and has some lovely thoughts beautifully expressed but at the end of the story I felt I'd been a fly on the wall during a very long therapy session.

If I have to read any more Bowen / Pennyworth novels. They're far too clever for me.

Michael Bowen appears to be a very smart man and wants to share his brilliance with his readers, but I can't say I appreciate his efforts. His characters, Lawyer Rep Pennyworth and Professor Melissa Pennyworth, come across as smug, pretentious and have 'obnoxiously superior attitudes'; so much so, another character in the book even mentions the latter. I did not enjoy spending time with these people. Every character in the book is wise, witty and very proficient with the ripostes. But the puns and tongue in check humor fall flat. There's extremely little character description or development, too many pointless plot points and a weak story. Bowens condescending comments of other authors came across as patronizing and pointless as did his portrayal of academia. I don't think I'll be recommending this, the previous 3 or any future books in this series.

A good read. It's the fourth in Mary Anna Evans's Faye Longchamp mystery series. I'm not familiar with the author or the series, so I read the book with no strong feelings for characters and their histories. I can't say I came away with any either.

The story was entertaining while I was reading it, but I don't feel the need to search for previous or future books involving Faye Longchamp and her circle of friends. Perhaps I would feel differently had I read the 3 previous works, but I think books should be able to stand on their own.

I found Findings to be a quick, average read.

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni writes of a girl becoming a woman in the 3rd Age of Man in the novel The Palace of Illusions. Princess Panchaali is destined to become queen and the book is about the long journey of life. The story deals with fate, conscience, power of voice, omens, obsessions, vengeance and so much more. It also deals with perceptions, illusions, but at heart it is about relationships. It's all the many and varied relationships that moves the story along and keeps you reading. Divakaruni does an excellent job of ending short chapters with a bit of foreshadowing that keeps one turning the pages. It's a good retelling of an old story with a strong, determined female character leading the way.