January 2016

    Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld

    I admit, I was not familiar with The Austen Project, which includes Joanna Trollope’s retelling of Sense & Sensibility, Emma  retold by Alexander McCall Smith, and Val McDermid’s version of Northanger Abbey. Curtis Sittenfeld is the latest author hired by the Austen Project to bring Austen’s stories from the early 19th into the early 21st …

    The Quality of Silence by Rosamund Lupton

    I consider myself a fan of Rosamund Lupton, having read and enjoyed Sister and Afterwards. And there are things about her writing that I really enjoy: she can evoke strong emotions about the power of love like few authors I can think of, and (as she shows in her latest, The Quality of Silence) she can …

    Missing Pieces by Heather Gudenkauf

    Sarah and Jack Quinlan have been married for two decades, and they live in Montana with their twin daughters, age 18. So Sarah would think she knows Jack VERY well. But, when they get a phone call that Jack’s aunt in the Midwest has taken a bad fall and may be near death, they fly …

    The Outsider by Fredric Forsyth

    In the early 1970s, I read The Day of the Jackal, and it changed my reading habits forever (in a good wayJ). It probably remains my favorite novel by Fredric Forsyth, although The Dogs of War and The Odessa File rank right up there… I had no idea that Forsyth’s tales of espionage and intrigue were …

    The Travelers by Chris Pavone

    The first thing I read from Christopher Pavone was The Accident, which knocked me out (thrillers are probably my favorite genre, when they are done well). The follow-up, The Expats, convinced me that he was not a one-hit wonder, so I was happy to receive an advance copy of The Travelers (in exchange for my …

    Lie In Plain Sight by Maggie Barbieri

    How did I miss this series? Maggie Barbieri has written two novels featuring Maeve Conlon: Once Upon a Lie and Lies That Bind. All I can figure is there was an unfortunate subconscious reminder of OJ’s girlfriend that blinded me to Ms. Barbieri’s work 🙂 But now she is back with further adventures for Maeve …