‘Retired’ SIS officer Thomas Kell is called into to follow the new ‘C’ when she seemingly disappears from a painting class in France and heads to Tunisia. Who is the young man Kell sees her with? Lover? Or, someone more important? I’ve heard this is the first of three thrillers for Cumming with this character. That’s great. I couldn’t put this book down! Better yet, Colin Firth is in line to play Thomas Kell in a movie version. Perfect. Now we just have to wait for more.   posted May 17, 2013 at 12:36PM

Samuelsson tells the story of his life so far, born in Ethiopia, adopted into a Swedish family, a globe-trotting young man learning the chef’s trade to the award-winning New York restaurateur we’ve come to know. He’s so self-deprecating and funny, passionate and competitive, a real citizen of the world. I’m his new biggest fan.   posted May 13, 2013 at 9:30PM

It’s the 1950s in Yorkshire; rationing is still in effect. Newlywed Isabel Carey is cold. She and her doctor husband Philip have just moved to Kirby Mintern to a flat with a heavy-footed landlord upstairs. When Isabel finds an RAF greatcoat and begins to add it to blankets at night she finds herself visited by Alec, an RAF captain, and this ghost story is on its way… I’m glad this was just novella size. I’m not sure the author or me as the reader could sustain this little tale in longer form. It had an unraveling affect on Isabel and on me!   posted May 4, 2013 at 9:26PM

Six-year-old Lavinia arrives at Tall Oaks, a Virginia plantation, late in the 1700s. It is home to the ship’s captain, who has her on his hands because of money owed him, following her family’s immigration from Ireland when her parents die at sea. She’s taken to the plantation’s kitchen house to live as an indentured servant among the enslaved people who become her family. Belle, a daughter of the captain and his liaison with a servant who died in childbirth, who cooks for the big house becomes one of the house servants who see that she thrives in this new place. The indentured immigrant girl with red hair and freckles is an interesting story angle to what is a not-so-new tale of the hardships experienced on an Old South plantation and the complicated family relationships that bind both black and white. Her struggle to find her place takes an uncharacteristic turn when she marries the captain’s son Marshall. This book is a page turner. Lavinia is a naïve young woman; Belle is challenged to get what she’s been promised. What will the future hold for each of them?   posted May 2, 2013 at 9:39PM

Tess, a young girl in service and with dressmaking ambitions, manages to board the Titanic on its fateful voyage. What happens on the voyage and its aftermath of investigations tests her sense of morality, loyalty and self discovery. This book was page-turning enjoyable reading written by a journalist turned fiction writer so we shouldn’t be surprised that one of her characters is an enterprising female reporter at the New York Times! I enjoyed spending a few days with these characters in this nearly hundredth anniversary year of the Titanic’s sinking.   posted Apr 21, 2013 at 3:31PM

The lives of eight women who pursued the art of photography during the Twentieth Century are examined—in fictional form although based on real lives. The women all must marry the expectations of domestic life with their art. And, in their musing and what they accomplish reflect much that professional women aspired to and questioned in those times. Otto has given readers a wonderful window into the lives and times of these ground-breaking photographers. And, for those of us who came of age at some of those times, she gives us a chance to think on those ‘what if’ questions we had once more.   posted Apr 19, 2013 at 9:35AM

Paola, Brunetti’s wife, expresses concern when the seeming deaf-mute man who works at their cleaners dies. She asks Brunetti to look into it. This is all about language—a beautiful rendering of expression in all its nuances. These books are always so much more than just a good mystery although it’s that, too.   posted Apr 6, 2013 at 11:20PM

Local writer Thomas Maltman tells a small town Minnesota story that puts an event decades past into fresh light when a young Lutheran minister and his wife move to this prairie town. When the sheriff is murdered by a high school boy, old secrets and long-held grievances percolate into the present, changing everyone as the mystery unfolds. Wonderful storytelling, characters and sense of place.   posted Mar 20, 2013 at 11:36AM

They say there are only so many book themes. This one takes us on one of them, a quest, when an out-of-work web developer stumbles into a job on the late night shift of a San Francisco indie bookstore. There are few customers and those who come are mostly interested in books found on the Waybacklist! What’s going on? It is fun finding out. ‘Such a wonderful book for a fantasy-quest-loving, secret-society-loving, typophile, bibliophile web developer :-),’ says someone at a website Thoughtstreams and ‘I liked it – a good mix of adult fantasy, mystery – and, of course, books,’ says another person at the NoChargeBookbunch. I thought it was fun, very in-the-moment reading set in a great city.   posted Mar 18, 2013 at 5:59AM

Serena Frome is a compulsive reader and a recent Cambridge graduate in 1970s Cold War Great Britain. She’s mentored to find a job in MI5—and there begins this spy caper known as Sweet Tooth. McEwan spins this tale of love and revenge like the master he is, dropping all kinds of literary tidbits along the way. He’s such a gifted storyteller and every book he writes takes you to the unexpected. Great ride!   posted Feb 26, 2013 at 11:39AM