The year is almost over and I thought I’d end on a high note and read the earlier book of an author who wrote a book that landed on my top books for the year list. I wouldn’t say her more recent book Acts of Violets was great literature and a true classic but it … Continue reading
The Family Game is just such a fun book—an orphan novelist gets swept up by a wealthy man and his games-obsessed, insular family. Chaos ensues. Really a fun twist on the thriller genre with a little book within a book going on. Is it the best book in the entire world? Maybe not but it … Continue reading
How We Fall Apart was one of those books I was so excited to read because it seemed like it was tailor-made for me. Gossip Girl plus murder plus high pressure to succeed? Yes, please! But I ended up disappointed. I didn’t really think the details added up. I am still confused about how a … Continue reading
There is a lot to love about The Verifiers by Jane Pek. The interesting main character, a timely mystery about the ethics of online dating and data collection, a mysterious research group/detective agency, sibling and parent issues, urban bike riding, a realistic NYC backdrop. So much material and depth there. What dropped it down to three … Continue reading
Find Me by Alafair Burke was a weird mess. It was definitely presented as a standalone book when I asked for and was rejected for a galley but it contains a character, Ellie Hatcher, who is the main character of Burke’s long-running Ellie Hatcher series. I haven’t read that series (only Burke’s standalone novels) so … Continue reading
Eep! This is a tricky review to write. I was so excited to read this book and was overjoyed when I was contacted to see if I wanted to be part of a book tour. A memoir about a woman who lived her childhood on the lam with her parents crisscrossing the globe? Yes, please! … Continue reading
I was really excited about Mergers and Acquisitions: Or, Everything I Know About Love I Learned on the Wedding Pages by Cate Doty because the NYT wedding pages both seem like a dinosaur and a fascinating peek into what we apparently value as a society. I was disappointed not so much by the peek into … Continue reading
With the push towards memoir, biographies almost seem quaint in 2021. I feel like I used to read lot more them years ago. As biographies go, this one had an impressive amount of citation and the level of work that went into must be staggering. That said, I felt like it was a little flat. … Continue reading
I read Heidi Pitlor’s first book back in March. I had found it a little odd stylistically but the subject matter–a wife disappears–was interesting and dealt with in a serious fashion that this current trend to the sensational in publishing rarely seems to do well. This book is about another woman on the margins of … Continue reading
I have read all Caroline Leavitt’s books since I was in high school in the late ’90s so I was excited to read this one. I follow her on Twitter so I knew it was a loose fictionalization of the author’s own coma experience so that intrigued me. She said that she had been in … Continue reading
Rachel Reads Books 