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Reviews by Cathryn Conroy

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Vinegar Girl: Hogarth Shakespeare Series
by Anne Tyler
Laugh-Out-Loud Funny! (4/22/2023)
If just the thought of reading Shakespeare is enough to make you groan, grunt or growl, this is just the book for you!

As part of the Hogarth Shakespeare project in which the Bard's plays are retold for a modern audience by some of today's best-selling authors, themore
Innocent Traitor: A Novel of Lady Jane Grey
by Alison Weir
Mesmerizing! (4/22/2023)
Even students of British history who know how this story ends will find this fictionalized version (that is solidly based on historical facts) a riveting and even mesmerizing read. Author Alison Weir masterfully tells the life story of Jane Grey, known as the nine-day queenmore
Big Little Lies
by Liane Moriarty
Delicious and Gossipy--But With a Vitally Important Message (4/22/2023)
This is one of those rare books: A delicious, gossipy, laugh-out-loud funny, escapist read with an intricate "can't-put-it-down" plot with a message that is quite profound. And while there is a murder--we are told that at the beginning--it's not a classic style murdermore
Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic
by Sam Quinones
This Should Be Required Reading--For Everyone (4/22/2023)
This should be required reading--for everyone.

"Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic" is the tragic, frightening and prescient story of the heroin and opiate epidemic in the United States. And if you think none of this applies to you, that is all the moremore
The House Girl
by Tara Conklin
A Magnificent Book (4/22/2023)
This book is two disparate stories with loose threads that bind them together, and first-time author Tara Conklin brilliantly succeeds in weaving this tale of Josephine Bell, a slave on a Virginia plantation in the mid-1800s, with the modern-day story of Lina Sparrow, amore
The Little Stranger
by Sarah Waters
A Good Ghost Story, But Way Too Longwinded (4/22/2023)
Imagine "Downton Abbey" meets "Rebecca." Well, a downtrodden, shabby, dilapidated Downton Abbey, that is. This gothic ghost story set on a crumbling and decaying English estate just after World War I tells the story of a small family--Mrs. Ayres and her two grown children,more
We Are Not Ourselves
by Matthew Thomas
This Book Is Profound. And It's Also a Great Disappointment. (4/22/2023)
This book is profound. But it is also a great disappointment.

This is the story of Eileen, an Irish-American from a working class family in Queens, who marries Ed. Together they have a child, Connell. This is the story of their lives--Eileen's determined quest for a largemore
Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race
by Margot Lee Shetterly
They Helped Break the Color Barrier as They Helped Break the Sound Barrier (4/22/2023)
You don't know this story. This is almost a secret story. Not because it was kept secret on purpose; it was just not deemed to be worth telling. But it is not a secret any longer. Thanks to this book and the movie with an all-star cast we are now privy to the extraordinary--more
My Name Is Lucy Barton: Amgash Series #1
by Elizabeth Strout
As Nearly Perfect as a Novel Can Ever Be (4/22/2023)
This is a story about the human condition. Of happiness. And sadness. Of love. And hate. This is a story of life--childhood, marriage, motherhood. It's all here in a very short book that will grab your heart and not let go. It is a simple story written in exquisite prosemore
Anything Is Possible: Amgash Series #2
by Elizabeth Strout
Elizabeth Strout Is My New Favorite Author (4/22/2023)
I just want to say this first: Elizabeth Strout is my new favorite author. She consistently writes with an empathetic and wise compassion of the human condition. Her books touch my heart.

"Anything Is Possible" is a continuation--not a sequel--to "My Name Is Lucy Barton." Domore
House of Names
by Colm Toibin
A Chilling and Dramatic Page-Turner (4/22/2023)
If you think Greek mythology is boring, dull and ancient, think again. "House of Names" by Colm Tóibín is an exciting, thrilling and imaginative retelling of the story of Clytemnestra's murder of her husband, Agamemnon, after he brutally sacrificed their 16-year-oldmore
The Sleepwalker
by Chris Bohjalian
Brilliant! This Book Will Give You Goosebumps (4/22/2023)
Imagine a mountain. A boulder is on the top. The wind and rain eventually--but slowly--push the boulder inch by inch to the crest. And then gradually it begins to tumble down that mountain...ever so slowly at first and then it picks up an inexorable amount of speed until itmore
A Gentleman in Moscow
by Amor Towles
An Extraordinary and Charming Book (4/22/2023)
In 1922, Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov is declared by the new-to-power Bolsheviks of being a Former Person and is sentenced to house arrest. It just so happens that the good count, a highly-educated, well-read aristocrat who has never worked a day in his life, has lived formore
The Leavers
by Lisa Ko
Heartbreaking and Emotionally Raw--But Oh So Important to Read (4/22/2023)
This book will leave you emotionally raw and potentially bruised, but it's worth the psychic pain because the story--illegal immigration and its consequences big and small--is vitally important, perhaps more so now than ever.

After a seesaw life of ups and downs in China,more
The Nix
by Nathan Hill
This Is Genius! A Must-Read Book Worth 10 Stars (4/22/2023)
Wow! (Sigh.) Wow! (Sigh.) Oh, wait. This is a book review. I should use real words to describe it. Let's see...Genius. Astounding. Mind-boggling. An absolute must-read. I would give it 10 stars if I could.

The title of the book comes from a Norwegian superstition about themore
Before We Were Yours: A Novel
by Lisa Wingate
A Tragic, Riveting Tale Based on Historical Facts (4/22/2023)
Although it's very sloooow in getting started (Hang in there! It's worth it!), this becomes a can't-put-it-down book that tells a heartbreaking tale based on historical facts. From the 1920s to 1950 in Tennessee, wealthy couples were able to adopt babies and children whomore
Bridge of Sighs
by Richard Russo
Genius. Pure Genius (4/21/2023)
I read the first sentence and thought: "Oooh! This is going to be a good book."
I read the second sentence and thought: "I adore Richard Russo. Such a good author."
I read the third sentence and thought: "Hmmm...this might be a five-star book."
I read the fourth sentence andmore
Bittersweet
by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore
This Is the Quintessential Page-Turner (READ IT!) (4/21/2023)
Warning: Do not start reading this book unless you have hours and hours to read. It will suck you in and not let go, and your planned schedule will fly out the window.

Girl No. 1, Genevra (Ev for short), comes from a New York family that is wildly wealthy in money, realmore
The Witches: Salem, 1692
by Stacy Schiff
Serious Nonfiction Ideal for the History Buff (4/21/2023)
The 1692 Salem, Massachusetts witch trials and executions can be considered America's first true-crime story. And a helluva story it is! Mass hysteria turned the idle chatter and bizarre accusations of several bored little girls into mass hangings of innocent people. Itmore
Charming Billy
by Alice McDermott
This Is an Irish Catholic Wake--In Written Form (4/21/2023)
This is a novel about life. About death. About memories. About the future. About faith. And the loss of it. About truth. And lies. And secrets. And most of all about the relationships that bind us to one another.

This book is essentially the written form of an Irish Catholicmore

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