“The Yellow Lantern” by Angie Dicken is the 3rd book in the True Colors Series. True Colors features “historical stories of American crime.” I’ve been a huge fan of this series starting with “The White City,” and followed up by “The Pink Bonnet.”“The Yellow Lantern” takes place in 1824. It features a ring of body snatchers who steal the bodies Read more…
“What Does It Feel Like to Die?: Inspiring New Insights into the Experience of Dying” by Jennie Dear may seem like the last book I would want to read only a few weeks after my husband died of Stage 4 lung cancer in our home on hospice. But I am so glad that I did read it. So many questions Read more…
Henri Nouwen has a gift for expressing the deep truths of an intimate walk with God, in a very accessible way. So I was very excited when I heard that “Following Jesus: Finding Our Way Home in an Age of Anxiety,” was ready to hit the bookshelves. This is some of Nouwen’s never before published work. It focuses on how Read more…
After the 1st book in the “True Colors” series, blew me away, I was looking forward to the next offering in the series. I was rewarded! In “The Pink Bonnet,” author, Liz Tolsma, explores the underbelly of Memphis Tennessee in the 1930s when parents dared not to leave their children alone, for fear they may just disappear.Imagine leaving your child Read more…
“Those People” by Louise Candlish is a mystery/psychological thriller set in England that strikes at the heart of where you live. I found it incredibly gripping, similar to the 1990 film, “Pacific Heights,” about a bad renter. Only this was more disturbing, because you don’t have to become a landlord, but you can rarely control who moves into your neighborhood. Read more…
“The Sentence is Death” by Anthony Horowitz is the 2nd book in the Detective Daniel Hawthorne Series. The first book in the series is “The Word Is Murder.” What makes this series so unique is how “meta”[1] it is. Horowitz places himself in the story as a writer who is following and working with a disgraced detective turned police consultant, Read more…
“Shadow among Sheaves” is a beautiful allegory of the story of Ruth and Boaz from the Bible. Naomi Stephens sets this tale in 1857, when there was much anti-India sentiment in England, due to a bloody rebellion in the empire’s colony. Yet, Rena fell in love with a British officer and married him. When she and her mother-in-law, both found Read more…
“Man of the Year” by Caroline Louise Walker immediately grabbed me with its biting honest narrative. Sag Harbor has just honored Dr. Robert Hart as the Man of the Year. His entire community looks up to him (or at least they act as if they do). It looks like he has it all. How far will he go to keep Read more…
“A Serial Killer’s Daughter: My Story of Faith, Love, and Overcoming by Kerri Rawson is aptly named. The book isn’t about Dennis Rader (also known as BTK) the serial killer who terrorized Wichita, Kansas. It’s about his daughter and her process of recovering after the trauma of learning that her father was BTK. This might sound like semantics, but for Read more…
As a writer, it’s essential for me to have a constant spark of creativity. So, whenever a tool comes along that helps generate ideas, I have to try it out. I’m excited to share my favorite creativity app with you. It is called the brainsparker app. I can’t think of a better name for it. “Brainsparker is a creativity app designed to Read more…
“Whence and Whither: On Lives and Living,” is a collection of writings by Thomas Lynch. Lynch is a poet who also happens to be a funeral director. He is known for his observations on death. “Whence and Whither,” as its subtitle indicates, is much more about life and living it well. It’s easy to see that lynch is a poet, Read more…
As I wrap up my series on how to write a review, I want to share my favorite tool with you, as well as tell you how I use it. It’s a review template. This particular template is for a fiction book review, although I’ve included a couple of questions for nonfiction books at the bottom of the list. Feel free Read more…
The Catherine Howard Conspiracy is the first book in The Marquess House Trilogy by Alexandra Walsh. It’s a British historical conspiracy/thriller with a dose of mystery and suspense thrown in for good measure. This book is structured using 2 distinct time periods. each telling an equally compelling story.In 2018, Pembrokeshire, WalesDr. Perdita Rivers, a respected historian, has just learned that Read more…
Writing a review doesn’t have to be intimidating. All you’re really doing is sharing your opinion about a book, product, or service. Today we’re going to look more in-depth at how to write a book review. We will look at the different styles of book reviews you can write. Some people use a variety of styles, depending on how they Read more…
Last week I shared some of the reasons we should write reviews of the products, books, and services we purchase. This week we will look at one of the easiest and most popular places to do this—Amazon.com. The online retail giant has helped make reviews a routine part of shopping online. In fact, it has become such an integral part Read more…
What if you could create a pronunciation guide to make speech more universal? What if a clock could teach us various sounds in our language rather than simply, “cuckoo-cuckoo?” Or, perhaps the United States should have its own unique language to really liberate itself from England. What about the effect of altering the appearance—or texture of the written word on Read more…
When you buy something on Amazon (or any other online retailer), do you skip reading the reviews, or do you use them to help you decide whether you should hit the “buy” button? Do you make a habit of writing a review for books, products, and services you buy?Over 95% of us check the reviews before buying. In fact, if Read more…
The Wisdom of Sally Red Shoes is the story of Masha. Masha is grieving in the way a young woman should never have to grieve, and her friends and family are grieving with her and for her. Then one night, she has an epiphany. She wants to live—not just to breathe and exist, but to really be alive! But, how Read more…
I loved Teresa Driscoll’s novel, I Am Watching You, so I jumped at the chance to read her latest psychological suspense novel, The Promise.Would you keep the promise you regret making?The Promise hooked me as I learned about 3 girls as close as sisters, thanks to attending boarding school together. Now that they are adults, a promise they made in Read more…
Imagine growing up, having never met someone of the opposite sex—in fact, never even knowing a gender besides your own exists. Would you have more focus? Could you achieve levels of success, unattainable when the distraction of attraction is there? That’s what The Parenthood is betting on in Josh Malerman’s latest novel, Inspection.Inspection is a dystopian novel reminiscent of Lois Read more…
