The Liar’s Dictionary capitalizes on two trends — books about books and dual timeline stories, where one plot occurs in the past, one in the present, with key events or people connecting them. Author Eley Williams makes something entirely fresh from those familiar elements, creating a story that is clever and heartfelt, playful and challenging,…
While it is a well-known fact that I adore winter (and loathe temps above 70 degrees), I also recognize that most people do not share my feelings, especially not after the holidays have wound down and we’re looking at several more months of frigid weather. This year in particular, in the middle of a pandemic…
One of my most anticipated 2020 reads was Vesper Flights, Helen Macdonald’s first book since her 2014 memoir, H is For Hawk. Hawk details the author’s attempts to train a goshawk as a way of coping with her father’s death. It is unpredictable, gorgeously written, and deeply moving. And because I loved H is For…
WHEN NO ONE IS WATCHING by Alyssa Cole is one of the big, buzzy books of this fall, with good reason. While psychological thrillers are not my usual reading fare (because I am a scaredy cat), I adore Cole’s romances and the setting of this book — a gentrifying Brooklyn neighborhood, from the point of…
When Tillie Pembroke’s sister is murdered and tabloid reports suggest the culprit is a supernatural serial killer, Tillie sets out to discover the truth, despite the misgivings of her friends and family -- and her increasing reliance on narcotics to manage a recent injury. It’s a story that could be set anywhere in America…
I did not go looking for Fallen Mountains. Several months ago, I needed a Hoopla title for my mystery book club and wanted something different than the lighter fare we’d been reading lately — all good books, certainly, but variety is the spice of a reading life, and I was determined to find something new.…
I often talk about literary catnip — those elements of a story’s plot, premise, or setting that I just can’t resist, like Sherlock Holmes retellings, librarian protagonists, or quirky cafes. Another favorite: Chicago private detectives. Give me a gritty, down-on-their-luck, good-hearted detective who works in the city I love, and I am SOLD. That being…
Casey Peabody did not expect adulthood to be like this: she did not expect to be drowning in student debt or waiting tables at a pretentious Boston-area restaurant at the age of thirty-one. She did not expect to be living in a moldering garden shed -- and paying rent for the privilege. She did not…
Let me be clear: Zofia Turbotynska, the amateur sleuth at the center of the new novel, Mrs. Mohr Goes Missing, is not going to win the award for Most Likeable Lady Detective In A Golden Age Style Detective Novel any time soon. She really, really isn't. But she should definitely win Most Fun. Zofia Turbotynska…
There are three things I look for in a story: appealing, well-drawn characters, great prose, and a world I can get lost in. Good books have one or two of these elements. Great books -- the ones I shove into the hands of everyone I know, the ones I can't stop thinking about -- have…
