"Nothing makes me happier than finding that little-known or first-time author who really deserves to make it, and selling a boatload of their books -well, that and putting just the right books into each customer's hands.." jill
The storyline in this book didn't sound like the kind of book I usually read - an honest mechanic struggling to keep his body shop and personal like afloat succumbs to the temptation of taking on a wheelman job for a jewelry store heist.But people whose reading taste I trust told me Blacktop Wasteland is more than it appears to be on the surface - and it is. S.A. Cosby has the mysterious "it." He can write like nobody's business. He can take a story you think you can anticipate and bring it to vivid life. It's been called part Ocean's Eleven and part Drive, but Blacktop Wasteland is a work all its own. There are no missteps. The vernacular feels spot on and there is an interesting contrast between the gritty plotline and the intelligent writing. In fact, S.A. Cosby writes like a master who has been at it for decades. Give it a try!
Wendy Walker's psychological thrillers are always a rollercoaster. I'm sure I've got it all figured out, and then comes a twist or two.Don't Look for Me is no different. On the way home from watching her son's football game, bereft and desperate Molly runs out of gas just as she's running from a major storm. Out on the road, a truck slows for her, and because of the cute little girl in the backseat, she gets in.Never Get In The Car With A Stranger.Imprisoned now, with the search for her officially at a standstill, Molly is befriended by little Alice - who says she needs a new mommy because her first mommy died in the woods.This book as enough creeps, twists and psychological mayhem to delight Wendy Walker's many fans - and the earn her many more. Give it a read!
Hilary Mantel brings us the conclusion of her Booker Prize winning trilogy about Thomas Cromwell in this latest novel.Beginning with the beheading of Anne Boleyn and ending with his own death by beheading, Cromwell's life continues to unfold as he becomes more and more indispensable to King Henry and enjoys status no commoner had before.There is a reason Hilary Mantel's books have been awarded tow Man Booker Prizes, been translated into 36 languages, and reached over five million copies worldwide. If you haven't tackled these literary tours de force, start with Wolf Hall.
A woman is murdered in the sleepy Surrey town of Blackdown. That's rather exciting news for Jack, a detective who has just relocated from London to the quiet village. Until he sees the victim.Anna, a BBC correspondent, wants no part in returning to the scene of her unhappy childhood to cover a murder. Until she sees the victim. And then sees the detective.Told in alternating narratives, His & Hersis a twisty tale that reminds us that there are always two sides to every story.Or three sides. Or four sides...
Karen Dionne hit the jackpot with her first mystery - The Marsh King's Daughter- which is set in the U.P., and the expectations for her next book were quite high.And now you can judge for yourself. The Wicked Sisteralso takes place in the U.P. - on a remote estate where a young family has moved to let their profoundly disturbed daughter grow up away from others. The problem is that Diana eventually gets a younger sister, Rachel, and when the girls' parents are found dead in an apparent murder-suicide, Rachel ends up in a psychiatric facility and Diana remains at the family lodge. Stop in for your copy and let's discuss!
Remember Before I Go to Sleep? Author SJ Watson has another British thriller that's just released that you're sure to like as well.Blackwood Bay, a sleepy, dwindling town, might be the perfect place for London-based filmmaker Alex to shoot her next project about 'ordinary Brits'.But she chose to shoot here because someone sent a postcard to intrigue her. Someone who knows that Alex and Blackwood Bay have a past, and that under the surface, Blackwood Bay is anything but ordinary.
Julie need a fresh start and teaching in a one-room schoolhouse on a remote island sounds enticing.But once she leaves her tightly-knit community in the Adirondacks for another tightly-knit community, she begins to wonder if running to an island will only make it that much harder to escape.Milchman's trademark relationship-based mysteries have garnered her a lot of fans at Saturn, and not only among those who've attended her signings here. I think The Second Mother will make those readers happy and win her some new fans, as well.
Wow! This novel, based upon the author's own mother's life is just masterful and deserves a wide and appreciative audience.
Betty is growing up in southern Ohio in the '50s and '60s in a large family with a white mother and a Native American father.
Impoverished and living in a largely dysfunctional household, young Betty with her dark skin would be imprisoned in a harsh life of bullying and prejudice if not for her larger-than-life father and his fantastical stories that weave Native American lore and sheer fancy.
Landon Carpenter gave Betty wings and encouraged her to fly - helping her to grow into the only of her siblings to graduate into a different kind of life than the one they seemed to live.A story we've perhaps read before is made wholly new in the hands of Tiffany McDaniel, whose prose is by turns lyrical, haunting, disturbing, and beautiful. Can you tell I really liked this one?
I can tell you that this book gave me a gut-check like no other. If you can read this and not have to reflect upon and re-examine your beliefs and institutionalized knowledge about race relations -all races - in our country, then (okay, I deleted my next two sentences because sometimes saying what you really think is just impolitic.)
I’ll leave you with these thoughts:
1)Did you know that the Nazis studied America’s laws affecting treatment of Blacks to formulate their own treatment of Jews - and that some of the committeemen actually thought our laws were more harsh than they’d need to be?!
2)Do you have a drop of German, Italian, Asian, Irish, Native American, etc. blood in your family tree? Do you know how low that would have made you in early America’s pecking order? The roots of our caste system are absurd, and this book shines a spotlight on the myriad ways in which we ridiculously perpetuate it, yes, especially with Black people, even when we purportedly ‘know better’.
Jules was making it as a millennial in NYC - until she wasn't. In one day she was laid off and found her boyfriend cheating. Unfortunately, without much saved, she is immediately down and out.Until a miracle happened - she stumbled upon an ad to house sit in the most famous building in the city - the Bartholomew - and the gig pays incredibly well. Well enough to support her while she finds another job.But the Bartholomew has a long and storied past - and the stories don't have happy endings. A few other sitters have come and gone rapidly, and Ingrid, a sitter Jules was just getting to know, disappeared without a trace.Lock Every Door reads almost like a well-written ghost story at first - but what happens at the Bartholomew has a very human hand behind it. But whose? And will Jules find out before it's too late?A fast, compulsive read.