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Reviews by Ellen F

All the Little Hopes: A Novel
by Leah Weiss

All the Little Hopes (10/8/2021)

I found this book to engaging and although slow to start the story became rich with detailed description of the people, their ways and the community they lived in, The smoothness in which the story is told, including difficult parts such as the Prisoner of War camp reward …more

A Place for Us
by Fatima Farheen Mirza

Intriguing and Captivating (3/26/2018)

“A Place for Us” by Fatima Farheen Mirza is intriguing and captivating story of an Indian-American Muslim family. The struggle and conflict of observing one’s faith, tradition, needs and wants is intense. A constant theme of finding balance in a complicated society. The …more

Ginny Moon
by Benjamin Ludwig

Ginny Moon (1/15/2018)

I wasn't prepared to like this book or the main character. I thought it was going to be a very different type of book. The author brings the reader into Ginny's world as the story develops. I could empathize with all of the characters in her life and begin to understand how …more

Stay with Me
by Ayobami Adebayo

Stay With Me (8/24/2017)

Stay With Me, a slim first novel by Ayobami Adebayo is filled with emotion about a naive college educated couple facing infertility and their interfering family's cultural superstitions. 1980s Nigeria still practices polygamy and is facing political unrest and violence. …more

Security
by Gina Wohlsdorf

Security (4/10/2016)

I have a self imposed 125 page limit in reading a book before determining whether or not to keep reading. I've probably quit reading a book less than 15 times in a lifetime of reading books. Unfortunately, this is one of those times. Choppy, sophomoric writing....very loose plot. Don't recommend.

Sisters of Heart and Snow
by Margaret Dilloway

Sisters of Heart and Snow (4/2/2015)

I so enjoyed this novel. It is about a father, mother (Japanese) and two sisters. The mother is in a nursing home with Alzheimers and on one good day she tells one of her daughters about a book that is hidden in her sewing room. The sisters find the book which is written in …more

The Rabbit Back Literature Society
by Pasi Ilmari Jaaskelainen

Fantasy and Mystery in a Single Delicious Serving (12/20/2014)

TRBLS is a captivating suspenseful blend of Finnish mythology, mystery and fantasy. The plot is unusual and creative and the characters are well drawn.
In short, the novel is the story of the pursuit by a young woman, Ella, of the deepest secrets of the Rabbit Back …more

Close My Eyes
by Sophie McKenzie

Close My Eyes (7/12/2013)

In her first adult novel and her first to be published in the USA, McKenzie vividly brings us every couple's nightmare. Not just the loss of a child after a much wanted and anticipated pregnancy that is essentially without complication to the heartbreaking and …more sudden delivery of a stillborn child. Not just a stillborn child but one who is reportedly so disfigured and misshapen that her very presence is hidden from the mother both at the hospital and later the funeral. The pain of a loss like this is overpowering and especially so as there can be no closure. The hopes, dreams and desires that accompany the birth of a child are suddenly dashed and ripped away without ceremony and the pain felt is akin to that of a missing limb for the mother. A pain, that unless one has experienced it themselves is inconceivable to friends, family and even the spouse. Pain that Geniver, the mother in question will never quite overcome no matter what therapy, support or encouragement she gets from the outside world. She has only to look in the mirror to see the results of that experience.

Fast forward 8 years. Her husband feels compelled that they visit a fertility expert to recapture what they lost and begins to apply pressure in this pursuit, refusing to concede and acknowledge what his wife and partner is still experiencing. A knock at the door brings it all back tenfold when a woman appears with a deathbed confession of her sister's that confirms the nagging suspicions that Geniver has felt. Her child IS alive and to make matters worse her husband has known this all along. While friends and family try to convince her that this is nothing more than a scheme to extort money from her the woman is the victim of a hit and run accident which only helps to fuel a paranoia that causes Geniver to question everyone and everything in her life. When a former friend of her husband's listens and offers to help her get to the bottom of the accusations, she embarks on a game worthy of some of the greatest English mystery writers of the past.

With shades of "Gaslight", "Bunny Lake is Missing" and a tip of the hat to "The Other and The Omen", Ms Mckenzie builds a maze of a mystery that would have attracted Hitchcock. I encourage readers to push past the beginning of what appears to be simply another example of "chick lit" or a soap opera and give in as we watch Geniver's life simultaneously spiral out of control and back again. While all have tried to make her feel inept and weak, we watch and cheer as she gains the strength to push forward to go beyond the smoke and mirrors to the spine tingling chilling last page. You won't be disappointed. One can only hope this is not the lone attempt by Ms. McKenzie in adult literature and we have many more to look forward to in the future. (less)

The Comfort of Lies: A Novel
by Randy Susan Meyers

The Comfort of Lies (5/30/2013)

This women's story is filled with many contrasts: Motherhood, families, couples, a single parent, their livelihood, community, and their love for a five year old adopted girl.

This is a great book for discussion in a book group. It's more interesting than the usual adoption …more

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The River Knows Your Name
by Kelly Mustian

A haunting Southern novel about memory and love, from the author of The Girls in the Stilt House.

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Becoming Madam Secretary
by Stephanie Dray

New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Dray returns with a captivating novel about an American heroine France Perkins—now in paperback!

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The Husbands
by Holly Gramazio

The Husbands delights in asking: how do we navigate life, love, and choice in a world of never-ending options?

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A Map to Paradise
by Susan Meissner

From the USA Today bestselling author of Only the Beautiful. 1956, Malibu, California: Something is not right on Paradise Circle.

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The Devil Finds Work
by James Baldwin

A book-length essay on racism in American films, by "the best essayist in this country" (The New York Times Book Review).

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Girl Falling
by Hayley Scrivenor

The USA Today bestselling author of Dirt Creek returns with a story of grief and truth.

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Jane and Dan at the End of the World
by Colleen Oakley

Date Night meets Bel Canto in this hilarious tale.

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The Antidote
by Karen Russell

A gripping dust bowl epic about five characters whose fates become entangled after a storm ravages their small Nebraskan town.

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Reviews by Ellen F

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