TCL’s Best of the Best List for 2013-2025!

You've seen my yearly Top Five/Top Ten lists, and now it is time for another "best of the best" list! For those of you who have been following this blog, you’ll know that a few years ago, I had to make the decision to stick to only 10 books, or just keep adding on. I … Continue reading TCL’s Best of the Best List for 2013-2025! →

TCL’s Best of the Best List for 2013-2024!

You've seen my yearly Top Five/Top Ten lists, and now it is time for another "best of the best" list! For those of you who have been following this blog, you’ll know that a couple years ago, I had to make the decision to stick to only 10 books, or just keep adding on. I … Continue reading TCL’s Best of the Best List for 2013-2024! →

The Quick Switch.

Book Review for “The Muse” by Jessie Burton. Summary: "On a hot July day in 1967, Odelle Bastien climbs the stone steps of the Skelton gallery in London, knowing that her life is about to change forever. Having struggled to find her place in the city since she arrived from Trinidad five years ago, she … Continue reading The Quick Switch. →

Music and… Politics?

Book Review for “French Rhapsody” by Antoine Laurain, translated by Emily Boyce and Jane Aitken. Summary: "Middle-aged doctor Alain Massoulier has received a life-changing letter—thirty-three years too late. Lost in the Paris postal system for decades, the letter from Polydor, dated 1983, offers a recording contract to The Holograms, in which Alain played lead guitar. … Continue reading Music and… Politics? →

Savvy Cinderella Story.

Book Review for “The Girl from the Savoy” by Hazel Gaynor. Summary: "Dolly Lane is a dreamer; a downtrodden maid who longs to dance on the London stage, but her life has been fractured by the Great War. Memories of the soldier she loved, of secret shame and profound loss, by turns pull her back … Continue reading Savvy Cinderella Story. →

TCL’s Best of the Best List for 2013-2023!

You've seen my yearly Top Five/Top Ten lists, and now it is time for another "best of the best" list! For those of you who have been following this blog, you’ll know that I’ve been producing a list of my favorite books published for each of the years I’ve been blogging. Last year, I gave … Continue reading TCL’s Best of the Best List for 2013-2023! →

Choral Comforts?

Book Review for “The Mothers” by Brit Bennett. Summary: "It is the last season of high school life for Nadia Turner, a rebellious, grief-stricken, seventeen-year-old beauty. Mourning her own mother's recent suicide, she takes up with the local pastor's son. Luke Sheppard is twenty-one, a former football star whose injury has reduced him to waiting … Continue reading Choral Comforts? →

TCL’s #DNF Friday #15 – Sorry, not Sorry.

Why I can't write a Book Review for “The Lilac Girls” by Martha Hall Kelly. Summary: "Inspired by the life of a real World War II heroine, this powerful debut novel reveals an incredible story of love, redemption, and terrible secrets that were hidden for decades. On the eve of a fateful war, New York … Continue reading TCL’s #DNF Friday #15 – Sorry, not Sorry. →

Acton In and Out.

Book Review for “One True Loves” by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Summary: "In her twenties, Emma Blair marries her high school sweetheart, Jesse. They build a life for themselves, far away from the expectations of their parents and the people of their hometown in Massachusetts. They travel the world together, living life to the fullest and … Continue reading Acton In and Out. →