🌟🌟🌟🌟 Edgy and raw, this is Book 4 in the Black Harbor series, and the first this reader has had the pleasure to read. Hazel Rydelle, our first-person POV narrator, is an ex-police-transcriber and and ex-occupant of Black Harbor, Milwaukee, — by her accounts a terrible place; black at heart;…
🌟🌟🌟🌟💫 A thoughtful and penetrating look at multicultural identity - the not-so-simple task of blurring and integrating who we feel ourselves to be, as we assume new roles in new countries, and in doing so, both chip away and attempt to fortify elements of our deepest being. When a young…
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 For those of us who have found it hard (no, impossible) to ignore that little voice, (coming from inside, but imagined to be coming loud-and-clear by those outside of us) telling us to work unremittingly harder, faster, smarter for after all, we are just not good enough (yet?) -…
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟➕ Absolute perfection, this is a book that simply could not be better. Best described as the comfortable puzzling of Agatha Christie meets the sweet, gentle protagonists of Alexander McCall Smith - but thicker, more immersive, with characters and imagery so evocative, layered, and expertly drafted you absolutely know these…
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 A read for my library book club, I found myself reading this gorgeous novel pretty much straight through. A story that sharply, without apology or sugar-coating, cuts through it all — our global predilection for NIMBY-ism, hate, and hypocrisy, underscored by generations of war and conquest — to lay…
🌟🌟🌟🌟 A well-written and engrossing read, with just enough twists to make it special. Sloane Caraway is a liar. At thirty-three years old, Sloane is not unattractive, but finds her own life (a nail technician who lives with her ailing mother) boring and not in the least exotic. And so,…
🌟🌟🌟🌟💫 A totally unique Sci-fi/Thriller mashup that will make you laugh, quake, shake your head in wonder, and most of all, keep on reading as the story takes you into places heretofore completely unimaginable. Dan Foster- our third person POV narrator, is a twenty-nine-year-old lovable angst-ridden loser — who also…
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟➕ Endlessly fascinating, this treasure trove of wisdom easily takes the place as my absolute favorite non-fiction read of 2024 (and likely beyond). Written by a retired academic, the author’s quest for answers sees him following connections crossing over into so many fields the result is a veritable cornucopia of…
🌟🌟🌟🌟 An ambitious and interesting novel, with a unique premise and a narrative voice totally unlike any other. Eddie Asher, a startlingly handsome bi-racial man and our third-person POV narrator, was adopted as an infant by a white family, granting Eddie loving parents, and an older brother, Robert, that he…
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 How much of our future is beholden to our pasts? The people we are — our perceptions, ideas, beliefs, and thoughts — how are they first developed, and then enacted, to create our eventual futures? This mind-numbing book examines all of this, and more, in a crazy, twisty, often…