Reviews by Linda J. (Urbana, OH)

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The World's Greatest Detective and Her Just Okay Assistant
The World's Greatest Detective and Her Just Okay Assistant
by Liza Tully
The Just Okay Assistant Scores (3/28/2025)
The title was enticing enough for me to request an ARC from Book Browse when offered the opportunity. The read did not disappoint.

Told in the voice of "the just okay assistant," who was just hired by the self-named "World's Greatest Detective." WGD is called by the daughter …more
Harlem Rhapsody
Harlem Rhapsody
by Victoria Christopher Murray
Harlem Rhapsody (10/12/2024)
I was eager to read this book by Victoria Christopher Murray since I truly loved "The Personal Librarian" which she co-wrote. Although interesting and educational, this book did not live up to my expectations.o I was not aware of Jessie Rodman Fauset and her influence on …more
Pony Confidential
Pony Confidential
by Christina Lynch
But wait! There's more! (6/20/2024)
3.5
The opening was imaginative and caught my mind, but…
There kept being one more thing, one more wrinkle, one more trip, one more bending of chronology and imagination. I got tired by the end.
I learned some things, like a pony is not just a young horse and some philosophy. …more
The Stolen Child
The Stolen Child: A Novel
by Ann Hood
The Stolen Child Stole My Mind and Heart (4/25/2024)
A story to keep the reader guessing until very close to the end. Multiple characters whose stories start separately end up intertwining when curmudgeon Nick, a dying WW I veteran, places an ad for someone to help him solve a problem that has bothered him for close to 60 …more
The Frozen River
The Frozen River: A Novel
by Ariel Lawhon
Lawhon’s Best! (1/22/2024)
This book is definitely going on my favorite of all time's list. I could not spend enough time with this engrossing story of a midwife, Martha Ballard, in 1789 who, as a vital person in her Maine community, finds herself involved in what she perceives as a murder while a …more
North Woods
North Woods: A Novel
by Daniel Mason
What. A. Gift! (11/2/2023)
I've read each of Mason's novels, but this is THE best. It reads as if it is a series of short stories when, in actuality, it's a sequence of vignettes that happen on the same wooded property in New England. I often thought well that character's gone. Not so.
The writing is …more
The Critic's Daughter
The Critic's Daughter: A Memoir
by Priscilla Gilman
My Heart Belongs to Daddy (3/8/2023)
Richard Gilman was an author and critic who had 3 adoring children through 2 broken marriages. His elder daughter (from marriage #2) realizes at a very young age what a doting father she has. Her reflections demonstrate a preternatural recognition of her father's love and …more
Libertie
Libertie
by Kaitlyn Greenidge
Free to be... (8/31/2022)
Probably closer to 3.5 stars.
To me this was intense from the beginning and only got more so. A single, light-skinned Negro mother hopes her young daughter will follow mom's career of medicine. Libertie is named for Liberia, the country her father always hoped to get to …more
Free
Free: A Child and a Country at the End of History
by Lea Ypi
Free or not so free (12/15/2021)
This was my first "trip" to Albania. It was my first "trip" to Albania that involved the fall of the Iron Curtain and the 1997 revolution in that country. In fact, other than realizing that Albania is second alphabetically in a list of all the world countries.
I spent a lot …more
Blind Man's Bluff
Blind Man's Bluff: A Memoir
by James Tate Hill
Seeing is believing? (8/19/2021)
To me, a disappointment. The inside flap describes it as "candid yet humorous." Candid it is. Humorous, not so much.
I picked this book to review since I have vision "issues" and thought I'd see some parallels.
Hill becomes legally blind at 16, but doesn't want anyone to …more
All the Water I've Seen Is Running
All the Water I've Seen Is Running: A Novel
by Elias Rodriques
Treading Water (6/21/2021)
This is a complicated story of a young man who finds out his best friend from high school has been killed in a car accident. He had a "different" relationship with her so during a trip back home to Florida continually examines their relationship and his relationship with …more
The Personal Librarian
The Personal Librarian
by Marie Benedict, Victoria Christopher Murray
Well, I Never... (3/6/2021)
...heard of Belle Marion Greener. The daughter of Richard Greener who was the first African-American graduate of Harvard (class of 1870) and spent his life fighting for civil rights along side W.E.B. DuBois and Frederick Douglass
I also never heard of Belle da Costa Greene …more
The Northern Reach
The Northern Reach
by W.S. Winslow
Everybody's Family is a little bit... (11/14/2020)
This is the story of family interactions in a small town in Maine. Some are Catholic. Some are not. Some were born on the "right" side of the tracks. Some were not. Some are faithful to their spouse. Some are not. Some are liked by others in the town. Others...

At first, I …more
Afterlife
Afterlife
by Julia Alvarez
Real Life (3/15/2020)
I was immediately involved with the main character of this book. Antonia is my age, a retired teacher (like me), and has 3 sisters (I have 2.) She is recently widowed, living in Vermont next door to a man who has work for illegal immigrants.
The writing is lyrical prose. I …more
Small Days and Nights
Small Days and Nights: A Novel
by Tishani Doshi
Long Days and Sleeping Nights (12/18/2019)
I love reading about books from cultures I'm not familiar with, but I did not love this book. I can equate it to the female version of Rain Man except I never developed empathy for the main character, the sister who did not know of the sister with Down Syndrome. I should …more
Correspondents
Correspondents
by Tim Murphy
Why hasn't this book gotten more notice? (9/23/2019)
I read this book on the recommendation of another author, a friend of the author of this book. I was completely immersed in the Iraqi War and how it affected so many. Although the war is central to the book, I would not consider it a book of/on war. It's a book of humanity - …more
Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk
Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk
by Kathleen Rooney
Kathleen Rooney took me for a walk (1/19/2017)
Within the first few pages, I needed to highlight a sentence Ms. Rooney coined. Her writing was breathtaking and her choice of character was impeccable. I have been recommending this book to everyone. Even non-bibliophiles. I know this is a book that I will read over and …more
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