Wanted to kick-start 2026 with an easy read for our monthly book club. My experience with Tana French has been positive; she is, after all, a great atmospheric writer with the ability to build a character-based thriller. If you haven’t read the Dublin Murder series, check it out. However, The Hunter is just not it. I am going to say it outright–this was the most tedious book I have read in a long time. Nothing…
fiction
The Seven Sisters by Lucinda Riley Genre: I literally don’t care The first book of the year always sets the tone for the rest of the reading year which for me was an epic fail. As a book club read, I dove into The Seven Sisters by Lucinda Riley, the first novel of a best-selling series. The premise was promising. A rich tycoon adopts seven girls from across the world and raises them on his…
A sliver of sunshine lit up the hardwood floor of the cafe as a thirty-something brunette pushed open the door, dragging a laptop stroller behind. She was dressed in business clothes — crisply pleated dark trousers, a collared shirt and a navy blue blazer. She looked out of place in the hippy café with its multicolored chalkboard menu listings, ads plastered over the walls, and local paintings for sale exhibited all over the seating area.…
The latest novel by Ann Patchett is an intimate character study of a brother and sister, abandoned by their parents and their fate often tested by life. One day the Conroy siblings find themselves motherless, as Elena Conroy leaves them for a higher calling without ever bothering to say goodbye. This abandonment by their mother, and her picking the needs of strangers over her own kids, leaves a permanent bruise. And it all started with…
Santiago and the Drinking Party is an odd little book. It doesn’t have a plot or a theme. Stuff happens. Why or to what end doesn’t seem to matter. The story starts at an unusual place, deep in the Amazon, where Daniel, our narrator, is backpacking as a student. During a dangerous, almost fatal river crossing he meets Santiago. Santiago is the resident philosopher, who earns his living feeding off the superstition of the tribes. His…
“A story has no beginning or end: arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead.” ― Graham Greene, The End of the Affair Isn’t that a beautiful start? I fell head over heels in love with the novel the minute I read that opening sentence. However, as it often happens, it was easier to fall in love than to stay in love. So, What’s It About?…
