🌟🌟🌟🌟 What makes a ‘good’ day for a dysfunctional family? A family made so, in large part, due to unresolved trauma, seeping over time into life-altering mental illness. Betty and Greg Laramie made absolutely terrible parents, eventually forcing them to give up their daughter, Charlie, to foster care. With Betty…
Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick — aka “Mad Mabel” — is eighty-one years old. A tough-talking (tender-hearted?) and deeply humorous octogenarian, six-feet tall with broad shoulders, Mabel puts up with nothing from any-one, least of all the mousy neighborhood child Persephone, or her much-lamented nemesis, the ninety-three year old Ishaan and his…
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 As sumptuous as the softest duvet, this is a novel to sink into, slowly, letting the six or so POV narrators take you on a journey — a winding journey, each of which will lead to something, — be it an interesting character interlude, or a major development to…
🌟🌟🌟🌟💫 Absorbing and masterful psychological suspense, this top-notch thriller is intermingled with thoughtful social commentary on aging, grief, loneliness, and mental clarity — and how hard it is really separate those concepts. Linda Davidson, our first person POV narrator, is seventy-six years old, recently widowed, and living in the retirement…
🌟🌟🌟🌟 Absolutely not your typical memoir — but then again, Sue Aikens is not your typical human. The narrative covers Sue’s tragic beginnings as a young girl, abused and unloved; to her mentors, loves, and children as her family life evolves; all the way to her eventual settlement on her…
🌟🌟🌟🌟 A heart-pounding thriller, based on the stories of three women, each of which will connect to the other in ways the reader will absolutely not predict. Told in three alternating points-of-view, between these pages we will visit an affluent New England town, the fictional Cloverhill Lakes, and the entitled,…
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Breezy and candid, intimate and expansive, this memoir, by non-fiction writer Susan Orlean, refuses to be typecast. The author, an expert in the art of a quirky sort of storytelling, featuring uniquely interesting real-life characters, places or topics, each of which is are not quite what you’re expecting, will…
🌟🌟🌟🌟 Gordon Slee is a bit of a loser. Or, at least, he thinks he is. Bullied and taken advantage of by his cretin of a boss, Edward Creaton, and terminally disappointing to his awful parents, Gordon is forty-two years old and has never managed to live up to his…
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Six charming stories featuring my new favorite literary unsung hero, Ferdinand Fox (sure to be a favorite of your early reader too). Between these pages, Ferdinand is a busy fox — as he roams the countryside, he rescues a trapped boy, helps a box of kittens find a new…
🌟🌟🌟🌟💫 An expertly paced psychological thriller, this book builds to a nail-biter of an ending that absolutely does not disappoint. A compelling read, with a bevy of interesting characters, the story enters on an only-gradually illuminating plot that will keep you guessing, from start to finish. Told in alternating timelines,…