Listed alphabetically by artists' first name
Learning to See ~ Elise Hooper
Leonora in the Morning Light ~ Michalea Carter
Vanessa and Her Sister ~ Priya Parmar
PATRONESSES OF THE ARTS
Peggy ~ Rebecca Godfrey / Leslie Jamison
Tuesday, July 1, 2025
NOVELS ABOUT WOMEN IN THE ART WORLD
Tuesday, June 24, 2025
MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF FALL 2025
JULY
7 / 1 ~ Typewriter Beach
Meg Waite Clayton
7 / 1 ~ Our Last Vineyard Summer Brooke Lea Foster
7 / 8 ~ The View from Lake Como Adriana Trigiani
7 / 22 ~ The One and Only Vivian Stone
Melissa O'Connor
7 / 29 ~ The Entirely True Story of the Fantastical Mesmerist Nora Grey Kathleen Kaufman
7 / 29 ~ Under the Stars
Beatriz Williams
AUGUST
8 / 12 ~ The Harvey Girls
Juliette Fay
SEPTEMBER
9 / 2 ~ Whatever Happened to Lori Lovely?
Sarah McCoy
9 / 2 ~ Julia
Heather B. Moore
9 / 23 ~ The Guest in Room 120
Sara Ackerman
9 / 30 ~ The Lost Story of Eva Fuentes Chanel Cleeton
OCTOBER
10 / 14 ~ The Missing Pages ~ Alyson Richman
NOVEMBER
11 / 4 ~ Last Call at the Savoy
Brisa Carleton
11 / 4 ~ The Mad Wife
Megan Church
11 / 4 ~ Dear Miss Lake (Emmy Lake Chronicles #4)
A.J. Pearce
Saturday, June 14, 2025
THE ASHTRAYS ARE FULL AND THE GLASSES ARE EMPTY ~ KIRSTEN MICKELWAIT
Book For Review Courtesy of NetGalley / Koehler Books
Imagine a life on the French Riviera where the liquor flows freely, the conversations with Picasso, Fitzgerald, and Hemingway are fascinating, the money never runs out, and you have the lives of Sara and Gerald Murphy. Kirsten Mickelwait's novel The Ashtrays Are Full and the Glasses Are Empty chronicles the lives of these American ex-pat bon vivants and their entertaining of the artistic elite. The novel explores Sara's life from her beginning as a marriage resistant debutant through her marriage to Gerald, life among the glitterati of the "Lost Generation," to unimaginable tragedy. The novel is a loving tribute to geniuses and those who nurture them, even to their own detriment.
THE MARTHA'S VINEYARD BEACH AND BOOK CLUB ~ MARTHA HALL KELLY
Book For Review Courtesy of NetGalley / Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine
War is an impenetrable force, reshaping and upending life. Sisterhood is equally powerful, especially in wartime. Martha Hall Kelly's novel The Martha's Vineyard Beach and Book Club deals with how a military base takes over a quiet beach town during World War II and the effect that has on a particular family, even into the future. Tom Smith, an Army Ranger, is sent to the front leaving behind a grandmother, two sisters (Briar and Cadence) and a fiancee (Bess). Cadence and Bess form a book club, reading the novels tossed aside by the island's wealthy summer inhabitants. They come up with an idea to create small paperback books that soldiers can easily fit into their packs. Briar finds intrigue among a neighboring family.
Overall novel is an enjoyable read. Cadence and Bess' idea is rooted in Armed Services Books, a real program that gave readers the chance to read and trade books. * Briar's story felt a little tacked on as if readers need to be reminded about exactly who we were fighting in World War II. Briar could have been a much more interesting character without that particular storyline holding her down. The novel is framed with a woman hearing the story of Bess and the Smith Girls after coming to the island for a short trip and finding out the truth behind a family secret. The novel is a beautiful look at friendship and family and the necessity of both in the worst times people can face.
(*Curious readers can listen to this segment of Very Special Episodes to hear about The Great Gatsby's revival as an Armed Services Book. Happy 100 Old Sport.)
THE DARK LIBRARY ~ MARY ANNA EVANS
Book For Review Courtesy of NetGalley / POISONED PEN PRESS
RELEASE DATE : June 24
Mary Anna Evans' novel The Dark Library reads like a mature Nancy Drew adaptation (Nancy Drew herself his name checked.) Estella Ecker (named by her Dickens scholar father) is called home after many years away when her father has a stroke. Her mother seemingly disappeared without a trace. E's father leaves an impressive array of antique books, a collection of artworks not worth the canvas they're painted on, a crumbling down Victorian house, and severe debt. E takes a position in the college English department her father ran for several years and lives a meager paycheck to paycheck existence. She refuses to leave until she finds her mother.
E relies on her two best friends, Leontine and Marjorie, and her faithful housekeeper Annie, (subbing for George Bess, and Hannah.) E has a Ned Nickerson in the form of a fellow professor. The stakes, however, are much higher than your average Nancy Drew story ; just as Nancy was sans a mother, so is E, but her mother may have met a fatal end at the hands of E's father. When E finds $500 behind a secret panel in her father's library she begins to wonder what else her father kept hidden - Carson Drew he ain't. E's boss at the university plummets to his death, and the body of a missing a woman is recovered while police are searching for E's mother. With two dead bodies and her father's secrets, E and her clue crew have mysteries to solve. The novel shines a (flash) light into some very dark corners of humanity, and like a Nancy Drew novel there are twists and turns, hidden rooms, and masked identities. With higher and darker stakes E's sleuthing turns up sorrow and cruelty, but all is well for the sleuth and her crew at the end of the story.
Monday, June 2, 2025
SUMMER READING...HAD ME A BLAST...
As someone who identifies as "indoor oriented," the only part of summer I enjoy is my library's summer reading program; here are ten novels with book, book club,
library, reading, or story in the title :
Miss Morgan's Book Brigade ~ Janet Skeslien Charles
The Book of Ruth ~ Jane Hamilton
The Secret Book of Flora Lee ~ Patty Callahan Henry
The Book Club for Troublesome Women ~ Marie Bostwick
The Martha's Vineyard Beach and Book Club ~ Martha Hall Kelly
The Body in the Library (Miss Marple, #2) ~ Agatha Christie
The Dark Library ~ Mary Anna Evans
Reading Lolita in Tehran ~ Azar Nafisi
The Story She Left Behind ~ Patty Callahan Henry
The Lost Story of Eva Fuentes ~ Chanel Cleeton
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)