The Overbooked Bibliophile

  My Rating: 3.75⭐ In 1968 Sicily, twenty-four-year-old Irene Borgata (nee Weatherbury), the second wife of Enzo Borgata disappeared without a trace. Irene and Enzo had been driving back from town to Villa Alba Trapani, the Borgata family home when their car broke down on a deserted road. Irene had lost a leg from injuries incurred during a devastating earthquake some months ago that destroyed the nearby mountain town of Gibellina. She waits in the car while Enzo walks home to get help but when he returns Irene is nowhere to be seen. Over the decades there have been whispers and conjectures but no one could ever find out what happened to Irene who is presumed deceased. Fast forward to the present day (thirty-five years after Irene’s disappearance) when a celebrity investigator Milo Conti unearths the mystery from decades back, intent on proving that Enzo murdered Irene and plans to expose him on his popular television program. Enzo’s daughter from his first marriage, Maddalena Borg...

My Rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐ How do you describe a story that you didn't like but was unable to put down? I can't say I "enjoyed" this one in the true sense of the term. Darker tha n I had anticipated, shockingly violent but extraordinarily creative and powerful, this novel is a memorable read! So here goes... “It was all death, slow or fast. Painful or sudden. Nothing more. The culture of Chain- Gang was death.” Set in a dystopian alternate reality, part dystopian action drama, part social commentary  Chain- Gang All-Stars  by  Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah  revolves around the commercially successful Criminal Action Penal Entertainment program or CAPE in which convicted murderers in the prison system who sign up are divided into Chain Gangs comprised of “links” who fight death matches with links from other chain gangs – bloodsport that is televised, played at “The Battleground” to packed houses with a mass fan following. As the gladiators compete with their weapons of choice, those v...

My Rating:  3.75⭐️ Satirical, humorous, a tad silly yet twisty  A Most Agreeable Murder  by  Julia Seales  is a locked room mystery set in Regency-era England. A spoof of Regency-era romances and tropes and Agatha Christie-ish mysteries, the story revolves around twenty-five-year-old Beatrice Steele of Swampshire, England (known for its squelch holes). Beatrice is the eldest of three daughters. Her mother is eager to find her daughters suitable matches given that in the absence of a male heir their assets would be inherited by a distant cousin (the utterly revolting Mr. Martin Grub, who seems quite taken with Beatrice) upon Mr. Steele’s demise. The annual Autumnal Ball at Stabmort Park, hosted by the Ashwoods, one of Swampshire’s most influential families, with a particularly affluent and eligible bachelor in attendance has Mrs. Steele hopeful to make a match for one of her daughters. When a murder takes place at the venue, Beatrice finds herself assisting Inspe...

My Rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐ A hit-and-run speedboat crash interrupts the engagement celebrations of Game Warden Investigator Mike Bowditch and his fiancée Stacey Stevens at Mike’s stepfather Neil’s home in the Belgrade Lakes region of Maine. Mike, who works for the Wildlife Crimes Investigation Division of the Maine Warden Service, rushes to the spot where he and his companions discover a severed arm floating in the water. Subsequently, two bodies are discovered – Kip Whitcomb whose arm was the husband of the owner of Mouse Island was severed, and Gina Randazza, the young wife of a biker with whom Kip was having an affair. What follows is a deep dive into the lives of the victims which points them to several suspects – the spouses of the respective victims, those who were driving the speedboat, a vacationer renting nearby who might have seen more than she claims. Mike has to coordinate his efforts with local law enforcement, careful not to step on too many toes, among whom is an eager young constab...

My Rating:⭐⭐⭐ The story begins in 1943, when we meet seven-year-old Peggy Wickman, the youngest child of Colonel Charles Wickman, Esq. and his wife. Peggy and her brothers are constantly at the receiving end of their father’s short temper, overly strict discipline and emotional abuse. Their mother, nurse turned homemaker,  tries to do her best for her children, but with her domineering husband’s neglect and frequent absences, there is only so much she can do. Peggy is a lonely child aware of how different her circumstances are compared to her more affluent school friends and though she makes a few friends and finds kindness in people around her, her miserable home life takes a toll on her life outside her home as well. Her brothers enlist in the Navy as soon as they come of age to escape their father and Peggy is left to fend for herself.  Charles is a lawyer and claims to have a busy schedule, but his long absences, their constant moves between rooming houses, and financial s...

  My Rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The story opens in 1914 in a residential public school in the English countryside. WWI rages on and many have their schoolmates and family members in service. The young students eagerly and impatiently wait to get their hands on the most recent issue of their school newspaper, The Preshutian, to peruse the lists of names of past students who have lost their lives or have been wounded on the front. Among the present students are Sidney Ellwood and Henry (Heinrich) Gaunt, who harbor feelings for one another but are unable to express the same. Henry is half-German and a pacifist but feels compelled to enlist for the sake of his family and to prove his loyalty to England. Being handed a white feather (meant to symbolize cowardice) in public by a young lady, despite his not being nineteen which was then the minimum age to enlist, prompts him to enlist as soon as becomes eligible. Ellwood, of Jewish descent, is a “poet” at heart but also signs up as soon as he is of age...

My Rating:  3.5⭐️ In 1876, Norway, seventeen-year-old Brynhild Storset is embroiled in an affair with a man who leaves her after she gets pregnant and ends the affair in a vicious act of violence. She eventually emigrates to America joining her sister, Nellie, in the Midwest takes up work as a maid and seamstress. She changes her name to Bella (later Belle) and strives to begin a new life. However, her past haunts her and she is consumed by guilt and shame and an inherent mistrust of those around her. Belle gets a fresh start, marrying a man who loves her, and taking in abandoned children, thereby fulfilling her desire for love and family. However, Belle’s life is not one of happily ever afters but one of disillusionment and anger towards a world that fails to evoke any feeling of belongingness within her and as the narrative progresses we follow Belle as she embarks on a journey of violence, greed and crime. I found the premise of  My Men  by  Victoria Lielland ...

My Rating:  4.5⭐️ A solid procedural that I thoroughly enjoyed! Garda Maggie D’arcy is a former Long Island homicide detective with twenty years of experience under her belt, who relocated to Ireland a few years back and is working her way up the ladder in local law enforcement, currently on community policing assignment in Dublin's Portobello neighborhood. When former mer model/reality television star and single mother Jade Elliott is found strangled to death in her home and her toddler daughter Lauren missing. Maggie and her partner Garda Jason Savage were first on the scene. Given her experience in homicide and the fact that the investigative unit is temporarily short-staffed, Senior Investigator Roly Byrne ropes her in to join the investigation. We follow Maggie, Roly and her temporary partner Detective Sergeant Padraig Fiero, as they do a deep dive into Jade’s past – both personal and professional as they frantically search for the missing child and try to find the killer. Wha...

Plot: 4⭐️ Audio Narration: 5⭐️ “In a place called lost, strange things are found.” 1921, London: Twenty-one-year-old Opaline Carlisle chooses to leave for France to escape being forced into an arranged marriage by her dominating older brother. Her love for reading, a passion she shared with her late father, and her subsequent association with Sylvia Beach of "Shakespeare and Company" fame, where she takes up a job, fuels her interest in antiquarian books and manuscripts - a journey, that after a sequence of events, eventually has her opening a bookshop in Dublin all the while searching for an elusive manuscript. Present Day: Martha Winter, a young woman running from an abusive marriage, finds her way to Dublin in the employ of the eccentric Madame Bowden as her live-in housekeeper. Martha is not much of a reader, and in fact, has an eversion of sorts to books. When books start appearing in the walls of the small basement of Madam Bowden’s residence where Martha now lives, wil...

My Rating: 4.5⭐ In 1952 Paducah, Kentucky, we meet church organist and piano teacher, Mrs. Minerva Place, a widow in her fifties. Minerva lives alone and her social life is limited to pleasantries exchanged during brief interactions with others and occasional visits from her immediate neighbor Nella. Minerva prefers her solitude and is often annoyed with having to deal with others. She frequents Oak Grove Cemetery where, after studying the gravestones and markers, she researches the lives of the deceased denizens who spark her interest following which she writes up semi-fictional ( she likes to fill in the blanks with her carefully thought-out details) biographies, which she does not share with anyone. What makes her pastime rather interesting ( also at times alarming, prompting her to question her own sanity) are the “visits” from those who are the subject of her research. Minerva’s life is disrupted when she meets six-year-old George Robert McAlpin who recently moved into the neighbo...

My Rating:  4.5⭐️ As the story begins we meet our protagonist, Hazel Francis in 1946 as she lands up in the coastal town of Laguna Beach, California, out of work after being laid off from a job at Douglas Aircraft, (one of many “Rosie the Riveters”) helping build fighter planes. Hazel is a small-town girl from Wichita Kansas, having left her hometown in 1942 to do her bit contributing to the war effort in a job she truly enjoyed. Now that WWII is over and the men have returned from the front and reclaimed their spot in the workforce, Hazel finds it difficult to secure employment in the kind of work she enjoys and is good at. With no family left to go back to she ventures out on her own hoping to find her place in the world. She ends up taking a job as an Assistant to renowned artist Hanson Radcliff, whose eccentric personality takes a while to get used to. Hazel’s job description includes everything from modeling for her employer to running errands and helping out with the local ar...

My Rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Each of these stars is a star that died. Or could be. Are they in conversation? Part of a design? They each seem unaware of the others. And since you don’t know whether they’re dead or alive— their lives are many years further back than their look of life— their shine for us on earth is all the same whether we’re looking at dead shine or live shine. Starlight is simply performative.” Finn, a high school teacher fond of conspiracy theories, visits his terminally ill older brother Max in hospice in the Bronx. They reminisce and Finn ponders over the impending loss of his brother and how they had drifted apart in their adult years. In the course of his visit, he receives disturbing news concerning his ex Lily, a therapy clown by profession who had been struggling with mental issues and whom he still loves. Finn leaves his brother watching the World Series confident that his brother will be alive the next time he visits and returns to Chicago fearing the worst. What follows...

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ One infant and another on the way, her husband Sam expected to make partner at his law firm and a new home in an affluent DC suburb – everything seems to be going well for Alexis and her family. The house is a fixer-upper and will need quite a bit of work but Alexis is up for the challenge though money might be a bit tight with her on maternity leave from her Consultant job, Alexis is hopeful that this move will usher in a new beginning for her and her family. Alexis eventually moves into her new home with her husband, two children and live-in nanny and slowly gets to know her new neighbors, the first of whom is Blair who has lived in the neighborhood for over fifteen years. Tragedy rocks the community when Blair’s husband Teddy is found dead at the bottom of a trail near their home on the banks of the Potomac and all evidence points to the fact that it was indeed murder. An investigation ensues and Alexis befriends Blair, spending a lot of time in each other’s company. ...

My Rating:   4.5⭐️ I read  Open Throat  by  Henry Hoke  twice, listened to it once, and intend to read it again! The audio narration by  Pete Cross  breathes life into this story. The author does a commendable job of building a prose poem fever dream-like narrative from the first person limited perspective of an animal untouched by human domesticity, allowing for unbiased and untainted reactions to what it sees and experiences. “I have no idea what it’s like to be a person and to be confronted with a me” Our unnamed narrator, a queer wild mountain lion who roams the forest area around the Hollywood sign in “ellay”, shares their perspectives on a myriad of topics– survival in the dwindling forests, homelessness, the earthquakes or the “shudders”, their fear of the highway and the habits and conversations of the hikers they see from their hiding place in the thickets. Observant and perceptive, our narrator is often critical of the human condition an...

  My Rating: 3.5⭐ “Misfortune hadn’t touched Alex: it had only come close enough that she felt the cold air of a different outcome hurtling past.” Twenty-two-year-old Alex is a grifter, a liar and an opportunist. After managing to charm Simon, an older man she meets at a bar in the city, Alex eventually finds herself spending the summer in his Long Island vacation home. Leaving her train wreck of a life (prostitution, theft, prescription medication abuse and a particularly threatening fellow by the name of Dom who has a score to settle with her), she spends her days content with the attention, the expensive gifts and the affluent lifestyle that comes with Simon’s companionship. She is aware of how different she is from Simon's wealthy friends and struggles to fit in, but keenly observes their way of life. However, one misstep at a party prompts Simon to show her the door. Alex leaves his home but not the area, waiting for Simon to cool down, hopeful that she can gain his favor once...

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ In 1931 an eleven-year-old dust bowl refugee abandoned by her parents is “adopted” by Hollywood actress Patsy Chen who christens her “Sally”. Some years later, following her divorce Patsy leaves her flailing career for Europe, working as a gossip columnist for the Hearst syndicate. Over the next few years, Sally helps Patsy in her assignments, attending parties, hobnobbing with the rich and famous, picking up the scoop on dalliances and scandals and reporting on them under a nom de plum. In 1941, after a selfless act of kindness leaves her stranded in Mussolini’s Italy with no papers, Sally is left to fend for herself, learning how to survive under a fascist regime as WWII rages on. Her story intersects with that of Lapo, a writer and farmer from Siena, who is chosen by Mussolini to ghostwrite a glowing biography and Lapo’s anti-fascist son, Alessandro, who despite his father’s best efforts is unable to avoid being drafted into Mussolini’s army, and eventually stationed...

My Rating:  4.5⭐️ “We want history to be a unified narrative, a causal, linear plot that cantilevers across the centuries, but I’ve always pictured it like the filigree of a wrought-iron gate, our unaccountable lives twisting and swooping against a few vertical lines.” As the story begins, we meet social historian and academic, Hugh Fisher on his way to his late mother's ancestral home in Valetto a (fictional) crumbling town in Umbria. Hugh, a widower, was bequeathed a cottage on the premises of the family villa by his mother Hazel, where he plans to spend the next six months while on sabbatical from his teaching job at a college in Michigan. Once a thriving town of population three thousand, the post-war years and natural calamities ( such as the earthquake of 1971) resulted in a large-scale exodus of families and at present boasts of a population of ten full-time residents among whom are Hugh’s aunts – the Serafino widows -Violet, Rose, and Iris-and their mother, Hugh’s Nonna Ida...