The Overbooked Bibliophile

My Rating: 2.5⭐ Thirty two-year-old Nora Stephens is a literary agent by profession whose life revolves around her work. Unlucky in love (she compares herself to the perpetually dumped city slicker whose partner travels to a small town and falls in love with someone else), her only family is her happily married younger sister Libby. Nora takes time off from her hectic schedule to travel to Sunshine Falls, North Carolina with Libby who is pregnant with her third child and wants to spend some quality time with her older sister. Unbeknownst to her, Charlie Lastra, a book editor from New York is also visiting his family in the same small town. Charlie and Nora are acquainted and have interacted in the past but that’s about it. As the story progresses, they are brought together by a professional assignment (Charlie starts editing one of Nora’s most successful client's upcoming novel) and sparks fly!

My Rating: 4.5⭐ As the story begins we meet our protagonist Meredith Maggs, a resident of Glasgow, who has not ventured outside her home in over 1214 days. Though somewhat a recluse, she does keep busy. She shops online and is employed full-time in a writing job that allows her to work remotely. She socially interacts with an online support group and communicates virtually with her counselor. Pushing 40, she lives with her cat Fred as a constant companion and fills her free time with books, jigsaw puzzles and baking. She does have a fixed set of people with whom she interacts in person - her best friend Sadie and her two children and her grocery delivery boy. Added to this mix are the recent additions of Tom McDermott, a “friend” from the Holding Hands Charity organization, Celeste, one of her online friends, who reaches out to her personally and her 10-year-old neighbor Jacob Alistair Montgomery who knocks on her door and introduces himself. She does have immediate family close by but...

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Percival Everett’s “The Trees” begins in Money, Mississippi with the consecutive murders of two of its white residents. In both cases, two bodies, one Black and the other White, respectively disfigured and mutilated, are discovered. When mysterious circumstances connect the two murders, the MBI (Mississippi Bureau of Investigation) sends two Black detectives to take charge of the case. These murders are found to have ties to the decades-old lynching of fourteen-year-old Emmett Till. However, the spree of murders is just beginning, and as the narrative progresses, similar murders are being committed in different parts of the country. An FBI agent joins the MBI detectives in a race to uncover the truth behind the crimes and find whoever is responsible.

My Rating: 2.5⭐ After a drunken debacle causes her to lose her latest role and earns her bad press, 35-year-old actress, Casey Fletcher retreats to her family’s vacation home on Greene Lake in Vermont. A little over a year ago, Casey's husband drowned in the lake which seems to have triggered her alcohol dependence. Haunted by her memories, she spends most of her time in an alcohol-induced haze and spying on her neighbors with her late husband’s binoculars. The “house across the lake” is owned by a power couple - tech entrepreneur Tom and his wife Katherine, a famous model. After saving Katherine from drowning in the lake, Casey and Katherine become friendly. Casey witnesses ( with her binoculars, of course) what she thinks is a disagreement between the couple ( very “Rear Window”, which coincidentally was her and her late husband's favorite movie), and when Katherine disappears, Casey suspects that Tom had something to do with it. As Casey tries to find out what happened to Ka...

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ At the age of fourteen, Stella Levi, the youngest of seven children born to Miriam and Yehuda Levi, leaves a packed suitcase near the door of her family home in the Juderia, the Jewish Quarter on the Island of Rhodes. The suitcase was symbolic of her aspirations - to finish school and attend university in Italy, to travel and learn and see the world beyond her sheltered life. But life had other plans for her. Seven years later, on July 23, 1944, she is one of the 1,650 Jewish population of Rhodes who are rounded up by the Germans and sent to Auschwitz, along with her parents and immediate elder sister Renee. It was one of the longest journeys (in terms of both time and distance) of any deportation during the Holocaust. Ninety percent of her fellow Rhodeslis would not survive the concentration camps.

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ Orphaned at a young age, our protagonist, thirty-two-year-old Jessica “Jess” Metcalfe was raised by her maternal grandmother, her loving “Mimi”, who instilled in her a love for books and reading. Having encountered tragedy at such a young age, Jess prefers her life to be predictable and safe. However, when tragedy strikes and Mimi passes away from a terminal illness and a few months later Jess loses her job as a librarian at the local library where she had been working for the past eleven years, Jess is forced to rethink her life and start over. A series of events has Jess moving to the village of Middlemass, purchasing the quaint but rundown Ivy Cottage which comes with an abandoned red phone booth on the property. With the support of her immediate neighbors, among whom is single father Aidan Foxworthy, the phone booth is transformed into a little lending library stocked with books from Jess and Mimi’s personal collection. As the story progresses, we see how the “little...

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Our protagonist, nineteen-year-old orphan Flora Poste, finds herself left with a meager annual income after her father’s death. Flora, “discovered to possess every art and grace save that of earning her own living”, chooses to approach her relations with a request to live with them in return for her annual income. “When I have found a relative who is willing to have me, I shall take him or her in hand, and alter his or her character and mode of living to suit my own taste”. Though quite a few of her relations respond to her request, she ultimately decides to live with her eccentric aunt and equally eccentric cousins and extended family, the Starkadders of  Cold Comfort Farm in rural Sussex. Her relations refuse to accept her money on account of a “wrong” that had been committed against her father years ago ( she is mostly addressed as Robert Poste's child instead of her given name). This is a matter of concern for her. (“For, if she lived at Cold Comfort as a guest,...

My Review:  4.5⭐ T his was my first Jennifer Hillier novel and I am sure this won’t be my last!  Finished this a day ago and am still gathering my thoughts! Exceptionally well-written but exceedingly disturbing – this is not an easy read- gruesome murders, graphic sexual violence, emotional abuse and much more- for those easily triggered, please think twice before picking up this book! For others who can stomach violence and cruelty- physical and emotional, this is probably going to be one of the most gripping psychological thrillers you have ever come across.

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Gil, our protagonist, is an extremely wealthy man of forty-five. His inherited wealth has given him an easy life (he admits that his only paying job was a short stint as a bartender). He has few friends, and no family ( he was orphaned at a young age a raised by a grandmother until her death when was still a teenager). However, his outlook toward life is uncomplicated as are his perceptions of the people and places around him. He seems to be burdened by his wealth, guilty even and does his best to give back to society as much as possible. He fills his time serving the community with his philanthropy and volunteer work, where he meets most of his friends. His decision to move from Manhattan to Phoenix and his decision to walk all the way (two thousand five hundred miles over a period of almost five months), to experience life as he has never known it surprises everyone who knows him.

My Rating: 4.5⭐️ Kate Miller is found brutally stabbed to death (presumably with a zombie knife) in her glass-walled mansion overlooking Highgate cemetery and her husband Mike is nowhere to be found. Her body is posed with four strategically placed objects surrounding her. A copy of "How to Process a Murder", a book written by criminologist Laughton Rees, is also found near the body. DCI Tannahill Khan of the NoLMS (North London Murder Squad) is leading the investigation and the search for the missing husband who is the prime suspect. However, in the course of their investigation into the Millers’ lives the police are unable to find out much about them. It's almost as if they didn’t exist!  DCI Khan reaches out to Laughton, a reputed forensics expert, who breaks her own rule to not get involved in active cases and agrees to assist.

My Rating:  3.5⭐ Esther, a reclusive octogenarian, lives alone in her home on the hill, having shut herself away from the world after a sordid scandal wrecked her reputation and her life decades ago. Enter Bruno, an eighteen-year-old boy who Esther hires to help her figure out how to navigate “The On-Line”. Bruno, a closeted gay, is dealing with some issues of his own. Unable to come to terms with his sexual orientation, fearing rejection and ostracism, he feels that coming out would disappoint his loving family. He is happy with the extra income, as he is secretly saving to enroll in conversion therapy .  

My Rating:  3.75⭐️ Hotel California (edited by Don Bruns) is an anthology of eight crime stories that vary in setting, crimes, and tone.  New Kid in Town by Andrew Child   features Jack Reacher who gets embroiled in a search for a lost girl. (2.5/5) Life in the Fast Lane by Don Bruns  : A hired assassin breaks all the rules of the game on an assignment, altering the course of his mission.(4/5) Wasted Time by John Gilstrap :Two brothers, a Senator and a convicted murderer recently released from prison, hash it out as long-buried secrets resurface. (4.5/5)

My Rating:  3.37⭐️ Life Ceremony by  Sayaka Murata (translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori)  is a collection of twelve wildly imaginative, bizarre and unique short stories. The first story,  A First-Rate Material , (4/5 for the unique concept but this one did make me a bit queasy) is set in a future where premium clothing, home décor and furniture are made from human remains (skin, bone, nails, etc) and a soon to be married couple disagree over their preferences/abhorrence for the same. A Magnificent Spread (4/5) revolves around two sisters, one of who is soon to be engaged and how their beliefs and their food preferences can either be a unifying factor and promote tolerance or tear them apart. A Summer Night's Kiss  (2/5) is more a vignette than a story that depicts an interaction between two very different women who have been lifelong friends – one promiscuous, the other reserved who is enticed by her more promiscuous friend into trying fruit the texture of whi...

My Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ A Wealth of Pigeons  is a collection of cartoons created by famed illustrator/cartoonist  Harry Bliss  and veteran actor, comedian and writer  Steve Martin . I picked this book up (it was gathering dust on my shelves for over a year) after reading two emotionally taxing books back-to-back and needed a light-hearted read. This was perfect for a ‘pick-me-up’ and I enjoyed laughing myself silly over this delightful collection of ridiculously funny cartoons (and captions) on a variety of subjects including animals, aliens and outer space and of course the exploits of the common man. We even get a few multi-panel frames in which the collaborators give us a glimpse into their creative process,  Bliss and Martin appearing as cartoon versions of themselves!

My Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Another gem by Claire Keegan! The story revolves around the family of Victor Deegan, a hard working forester from County Wicklow, Ireland. Victor's life revolves around his work as a forester, his farm and his duties towards his family. “In Aghowle there are three teenagers, the milking and the mortgage.” One day he finds a gun dog in the woods and brings the retriever home. His twelve-year-old daughter Victoria, for whom any gesture of attention or affection from her father is rare, somehow assumes that her father remembered her birthday and the dog is his gift to her. She names the dog Judge. Victoria’s mother, Martha,  fears that her daughter’s attachment to this dog will end in heartbreak. Martha is no stranger to disappointment. Her marriage to Victor has not been a happy one. After being courted for a year she agreed to marry him but was soon disillusioned  on account of his emotionally distant demeanor and the isolation of living on a farm in t...

My Rating:  4.5⭐ Our unnamed narrator is a Black writer riding high on the success of his recently published book – a book titled “Hell of a Book” ("It’s been Kindled and Kobo’d, iPadded and Audible’d. It’s been optioned so that it can be movie’d—"). He is currently on a promotional tour, traveling across the country, answering the question “What’s Your Book About?”, signing copies and connecting with his reader base. Of course, he has been extensively trained in media interaction and has a “handler” wherever he goes, though that doesn’t quite prevent him from getting into trouble. As our narrator travels across the country, the recent tragic shooting of a ten-year-old Black boy by the police has garnered national attention – it’s on the news, protesters have taken to the streets - and being an African –American writer, almost everywhere he goes someone is bringing it up expecting him to voice his thoughts about it.  

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ My Real Name is Hanna begins in the present day from the perspective of adult Hanna Slivka (who now goes by Marcelina Rosenberg) as she shares her story with her daughter. She details the experiences she and her family went through between 1941-1945 as they struggled to survive the Holocaust in their hometown of Kwasova in Ukraine during WWII – events that led to her family finally leaving behind their home, their country and even their real names.

My Rating:  4.5⭐ It has been six years since Andrew Mason returned home after a fishing trip with his best friend and business partner to find his wife Brie missing. In those six years, he has been hounded by the police (who still suspect him), hated by his wife’s family, lost his reputation and his business before finally moving to a neighboring town, changing his name and rebuilding his life. He is now in a new relationship with Jayne, who is unaware of his past, and has apparently moved on.  When a woman who looks a lot like Brie turns up in their old neighborhood in front of where their home used to be and creates a scene only to disappear again, Andrew and the police led by Detective Marissa Hardy resume their respective investigations of what happened six years ago and  try to figure out the identity of the woman who bears an uncanny resemblance to Brie. Is Brie alive and if so, where has she been for six years? Will Andrew be able to prove his innocence this time o...

My Rating:  ⭐⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Rowena Snyder is a stay-at-home mother who gave up her career and life in New York to move to Silicon Valley with her new husband Jacob, who works for a tech firm. Living in the house her husband grew up in, Rowena spends most of her time with her six-month-old daughter Michelle but misses her life in New York, her mother and her friends. She also suffers from anxiety and takes prescription medication for her condition. Her husband takes every opportunity to bring up her mental health, often unkindly, and his response to her problems is always to remind her to take her medication. 

My Rating:  ⭐⭐️⭐️ After the demise of her husband, an octogenarian takes to her bed and turns her back (literally and figuratively) on the family, preferring to spend time staring at a wall hoping to slip through the cracks and disappear. The appeals and cajoling of her son, daughter-in-law, daughter and grandchildren fall on deaf ears.  “She had grown tired of breathing for them, feeling their feelings, bearing their desires, carrying their animosities.”

My Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️ The morning after Molly Bradley celebrates her husband Jay's  fortieth birthday with a group of close friends, she finds her husband murdered in his home office. With experienced detective Rita Myers leading the investigation, the police delve deep into Jay’s life and those of his close associates – everyone is a suspect and everyone's lives are under the microscope. A psychologist by profession, Dr. Jay  Bradley was considered a nice guy and the perfect husband. He didn’t appear to have any trouble professionally and was working on a book. But he was murdered and the police suspect it was someone from his close circle.  Who killed Jay? Was he truly the nice guy everyone thought him to be? Could the killer be a disgruntled patient or was Jay murdered by someone he knew and trusted?

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ As the story begins, we meet Cathal, our protagonist as he goes about his usual workday, even staying a bit late to finish up on pending work. The date is a significant one (which is revealed later) and throughout the workday and on his way home to Arklow, his thoughts often drift to Sabine, the woman with whom he had been in a relationship and was set to marry. As he reflects on the relationship – the highs and the lows- he is compelled to assess how his attitude toward Sabine and women, in general, contributed to the end of their relationship. "That was the problem with women falling out of love; the veil of romance fell away from their eyes, and they looked in and could read you."

My Rating:  3.5⭐ “ They were in a windowless basement café. The lighting was provided by just six shaded lamps hanging from the ceiling and a single wall lamp near the entrance. A permanent sepia hue stained the café interior. Without a clock, there was no way to tell whether it was night or day. There were three large antique wall clocks in the café. The arms of each, however, showed different times. Was this intentional? Or were they just broken? Customers on their first visit never understood why the clocks were like this.” Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi features four interwoven stories set in the retro Funiculi Funicula Café in Japan – a café that is not only popular for its aromatic brew but one that is the subject of an urban legend as the “ café that transports you back in time”. 

  My Rating:  4.5⭐ " I know you’re not there. But the silence is like a held breath, the silence of listening, the silence of our life.” It is not uncommon for ten-year-old Rae’s mother to disappear on her once in a while, leaving her to fend for herself. But this time is different. Rae knows her mother isn't coming back but is unable (and unwilling) to accept the truth behind her mother’s absence. Rae’s only comfort is her faithful dog Splinter and memories of good times with her mother. However, Rae manages to keep up the pretense of a normal life – taking care of the house and Splinter, cooking and cleaning, attending school and going about her normal routine. She is cautious not to arouse suspicion that she is living alone in her house and is conscious of not drawing "attention" to herself by any out –of character behavior – at school or otherwise .

  My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “It’s not what you know you don’t know that kills you, it’s what you don’t know that you don’t know.” Seventy-five-year-old Ethel Fiona Crestwater runs a boarding house for government agents. When one of her boarders, Jonathan Finch, a Secret Service agent, is murdered right outside her home, she is not one to wait for the authorities to reach the scene and she initiates her very own investigation. Ethel's ”double-first-cousin-twice-removed”, Jesse, who is a university student and also one of her current boarders, assists Ethel in her efforts. As local law enforcement, the FBI and Secret Service enter the fold, it appears that the victim's murder case is somehow linked to past and present cases that fall within the jurisdiction of more than one branch of law enforcement. While the bigwigs resolve their conflicts of jurisdiction and set the rules for collaboration, Ethel and Jesse are out to solve the murder. In the course of their investigation, Ethel and J...

My Rating:  4.5⭐ A chance meeting between twenty-nine-year-old Libby Nicholls and the elderly Frank Weiss a retired theater actor on the number 88 bus results in an unlikely friendship that impacts both of their lives in the best possible ways. In their first meeting on the bus, Frank reminisces about a similar chance meeting with another red-haired young lady - an aspiring artist who made quite the impression on the young man that he was in 1962. A hastily scribbled phone number on the bus ticket that was promptly lost put a wrench in their plans to meet at the National Gallery in London. However, their brief conversation had a positive impact on Frank’s life for which he has always been grateful. He has since frequently traveled the same bus hoping to meet her again with no success. He still hopes to meet her someday and express his gratitude for her advice all those years ago. Libby was recently dumped by her boyfriend of eight years and is currently living with her sister’s fam...

 

My Rating:  ⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Prepare, endure, and thrive, ” Our protagonist, nineteen-year-old Avery is one of twelve members living in a secluded survivalist commune, “Clovelite”. Their “Father” is the dominant male in the group. The children are trained in survival skills, harshly disciplined, and “prepped” for doomsday because “Nothing on the outside was going to last. We would last.” However, as the narrative progresses Avery is subject to much abuse and cruelty on the instruction of her Father, apparently in the greater interest of their commune.

In May, 2017, after living in Chicago for five years , I finally managed to visit the birthplace of Ernest Hemingway just a few weeks before we were supposed to move to the East Coast! Better late than never!            Ernest Hemingway Birthplace Museum in Oak Park Illinois The Room In Which Hemingway Was Born  

A lovely detour on the way to visiting Maine! Spent a few wonderful hours at Orchard House in Concord, MA. Visited the longtime home (now museum) of the Alcott family and the very house "Little Women" was set and written in! A walk through literary history!