From One Book Lover

I do not think book blurbists and I read the same book. Offbeat office novel? Apocalyptic satire? Wry? Witty? Yeah, we definitely read different novels. Before we begin, here is your spoiler alert: I will reveal plot points in this review that may spoil the story for you. Please proceed at your own risk. Okay, good? Are we ready? Let's get to work. Candace is employed by a midtown Manhattan book publishing company and oversees production of their Christian Bibles. Her parents are dead, her extended family is in China, and her boyfriend lives with few attachments to "place." She is more attached to "place," but her roots are shallow. So when Shen Fever hits,  she views it very differently than her coworkers and her love. They have family and friends, options and networks. She has a lapsed photo blog and her mother's salad spinner. Her employer takes advantage of that and gives her an anchor: "manage" the building for a period of ti...

We are hitting mid-stride in summer reading just about now — and, luckily, just in time to review and appreciate Intrepid Reader Karen's summer reading list. I think I can speak for all of us when I say, "I approve!"  As we all can agree, TBR List Approval doesn't matter. We The Readers read what we want, and we support reading freedom for others.  However, we often are inordinately pleased when we see books we recognize — either read or to read — on someone else's summer reading list. So, without further ado, I present Intrepid Reader Karen's 2019 Summer Reading List: The Psychology of Time Travel   The Girl With a Pearl Earring Relative Fortunes The Lost City of Z Women of the Bible (selected readings) Ruby Red Sapphire Blue Emerald Green Dream a Little Dream trilogy Finding Fraser The Ghost Studies Pirate The Iliad Stealing Time Released by the Highlander The Holy Bible (selected readings) You will notice The Ghost Studies...

There is no shortage of reading "challenges" that encourage readers to expand their horizons with deliciously  random criteria that forcibly inject variety into their book choices.  While some readers may take this lawlessness as a command to find new books for their shelves, I instead see this as an opportunity to more deeply peruse my TBR shelves, Kindle, and Audible selections. (If I told you I had a thousand books on my Kindle Fire, I'd be lying. I have 1,554.) Take the Goodreads Challenge for Beginners , a reader favorite, where the challenge includes: a Goodreads community-voted favorite a Goodreads community popular read a book that has been on your Goodreads Want to Read list for a year or more a book being adapted for film or TV this year Do I have any books on my to-read list that would fit those criteria? Why, yes I do: Children of Blood and Bone Where the Crawdads Sing or Daisy Jones and the Six Behind the Scenes at the Museum Where'...

Leave it to technology to continue providing ways to humiliate ourselves — and leave it to Rosie Walsh to write a compelling romance novel to make us re-live some of our most debasing experiences. The novel has well-constructed suspense and chapter-ending teasers that will keep readers up long past their bedtimes. I read it hungrily, staying up late and gobbling up the savory tidbits — until a string of hackneyed tropes appeared and a character I adored was unintentionally wounded. At that point, I solved the mystery and could read at a leisurely pace as the author breezed through overwrought tension, some unbelievable relationship complications, trite storyline resolutions, and a final, maudlin conclusion. I liked many of the characters, especially a few who popped in for only a short time on the page, and I felt as bad for them as I did for myself as the book wound down. This book pivots on its cliffhangers, with a few big reveals along the way. This review contains spo...