Sign up for our newsletters to receive our Best of 2024 ezine!

Reviews by Mary A. (Columbus, OH)

If you'd like to be able to easily share your reviews with others, please join BookBrowse.
Order Reviews by:
Meet Me at the Museum
by Anne Youngson
Meet Me at the Museum by Anna Youngston (5/3/2018)
I hesitate to send this review because it is so negative. Meet Me at the Museum does not compare favorably to The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society: Mary Ann Shaffer  which thoroughly enjoyed.

I found the book to be tiresome, contrived and wordy. The pace was uneven. It began with a letter written by an English Farmer's wife, Tina Hopgood, written to Silkeborg Museum's curator, Kristian Larson. Tina wanted to know about the Tollund Man and the Bog people she had learned about in school. This correspondence evolved into a sharing of thoughts and confidences about their lives, and discovering they are two lonely people who have found each other. I did not like any of the characters.
Extraordinary Adventures
by Daniel Wallace
Extraordinary Adventures (2/15/2017)
I really enjoyed this book. I would characterize it as deceptively simple. Daniel Wallace has written an extraordinary, quirky, coming of age novel. The characters are eccentric and pique the reader's interest. The plot provides the motivation that Edsel Bronfman needs for his adventures. The real strength of the novel is the well developed characters and Wallace's descriptions.

Edsel Bronfman has wandered through his 34 years, knowing that something is missing from his life, but he can't quite figure it out. Bronfman's mother, Muriel is senile, but has moments of lucidity. Bronfman cannot always tell when she is lucid. Sheila McNabb flits first one way, then another, unable to find an anchor. Thomas Edison is Bronfman's neighbor and drug dealer. Serena Stanton is the local cop. Wallace brings them together. As I read the book, Bronfman and Sheila became my friends. When I finished reading, I wanted to know about their next extraordinary adventures.
Absalom's Daughters
by Suzanne Feldman
Absalom's Daughters (7/27/2016)
In the Deep South, during the first half of the 20th Century, two half-sisters go on a road trip find their white father.
Recipes for Love and Murder: A Tannie Maria Mystery
by Sally Andrew
Recipes for Love and Murder by Sally Andrew (1/20/2016)
I just finished reading Recipes for Love and Murder: a Tannie Marie Mystery by Sally Andrew. Andrews lives in South Africa on the nature reserve, Klien Karoo. This is her first book of fiction. I have only good things to say about her writing. It is more than a mystery set in an exotic local. The characters are well developed; there are interesting recipes, beautifully described natural landscape, a peek into another way of life, including women's issue. I feel that the resolution of the conflict was contrived. However, I loved this book especially the the writing. I highly recommend it.
  • Page
  • 1

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket
    Prophet Song
    by Paul Lynch
    Paul Lynch's 2023 Booker Prize–winning Prophet Song is a speedboat of a novel that hurtles...
  • Book Jacket: The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern
    The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern
    by Lynda Cohen Loigman
    Lynda Cohen Loigman's delightful novel The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern opens in 1987. The titular ...
  • Book Jacket: Small Rain
    Small Rain
    by Garth Greenwell
    At the beginning of Garth Greenwell's novel Small Rain, the protagonist, an unnamed poet in his ...
  • Book Jacket: Daughters of Shandong
    Daughters of Shandong
    by Eve J. Chung
    Daughters of Shandong is the debut novel of Eve J. Chung, a human rights lawyer living in New York. ...

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
The Rose Arbor
by Rhys Bowen
An investigation into a girl's disappearance uncovers a mystery dating back to World War II in a haunting novel of suspense.
Book Jacket
The Story Collector
by Evie Woods
From the international bestselling author of The Lost Bookshop!
Who Said...

When all think alike, no one thinks very much

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Big Holiday Wordplay 2024

Enter Now

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.