Book of the week
The Dark Wives by Ann Cleeves (2024, 372 pages, Genre: Mystery, Vera Stanhope series #11) A social worker is found murdered on the grounds of Rosebank, a “home for troubled teens.” And 14-year-old Chloe, who lives at Rosebank, is missing. Vera doesn’t want to believe that Chloe is the murderer. But they need to find her quickly. Then another body connected to Rosebank is found in the countryside, near the coastal village...
Book of the week
“Orange World and Other Stories,” by Karen Russell (2019, 271 pages, Genre: Short Stories) Karen Russell’s imaginative stories in this collection grabbed me from the first page and kept me entranced to the end. In eight fantastical stories, you will find ghosts, possession by a plant spirit, a drowned Florida, Madame Bovary’s greyhound, a boy in love with a perfectly preserved bog body, a woman who believes she must nurse the devil to...
Book of the Week
“The Restaurant of Lost Recipes” by Hisashi Kashiwai (2014 — translation copyright 2024, 210 pages, fiction) This is another book by the author of The Kamogawa Food Detectives, featuring the same unique father-and-daughter duo who cook and solve mysteries. Their restaurant is hidden in a backstreet in Kyoto, and you might only discover it through a small advertisement in the Gourmet Monthly magazine. The building looks unassuming,...
Book of the Week
“The Wedding People,” by Alison Espach (2024, 363 pages, Genre: Fiction/Romance) Phoebe Stone arrives at the Cornwall Inn in Newport, RI. Spiraling two years after an unexpected divorce from her professor husband, she booked the nicest, most expensive suite there, and flew from St. Louis with no luggage, wearing the fanciest dress in her closet. At check-in, she is immediately assumed to be part of the wedding party who has booked the...
Book of the Week
“Close Knit,” by Jenny Colgan (2024, 318 pages, Genre: Fiction) Gertie Moonie is a shy young woman who lives on a tiny, remote island, one in a string of islands in the North Sea of Scotland. Gertie is surrounded by women. She lives in a small cottage with her mother Jean, her grandmother Elspeth. The cottage is stuffed full with many packages of wool. The women are all knitters, and their Knitting Circle meets regularly...
