A Few More Titles from my Review List

I love to read and I enjoy writing book reviews. But enjoyment isn't love, so I've decided to spend more time reading, more time writing books (which I also love), and more time editing (which I love and get paid for), therefore less time reviewing. Maybe I'm just getting old, or time's ticking faster. Anyway, I shall try to post the remaining reviews from my review list, then settle down to read more "just for me." Hope you can find a good book "just for you" in this list.

I reviewed Willa's Grove by Laura Muson recently, a novel that very cleverly blends self-help and fiction, with intriguing characters and a very evocative sense of place. It reminded me of The Women's Room, which I loved long ago. Best enjoyed with some elegant complex four-star coffee.

And the Dark Sacred Night by Julia Glass is another literary tale of wounded people and struggling relationships. It's musical, lyrical and beautifully told, with a great blend of characters, and an interesting take on the importance or otherwise of revealing all. Enjoy with some more elegant complex four-star coffee.

Her by Harriet Lane is a present day psychological thriller with two female protagonists, one threatened and one threatening, with the space between them never completely clear. It's a disturbing tale, revealing how easily the fabric of safety can tear. Not always believable, with much left to the imagination, this is one to read with some dark five-star coffee.

If Willa's Grove weaves four stories, and Dark Sacred Night and Her each weave two, Margaret Atwood's The Testaments is a braid of three--the scribe, the teen and the devotee. As beautifully told as both the others, and equally enthralling, it's a very satisfying novel of how Gilead came to be and where it might go. It's also rather depressing and scary, read in our present world, but highly recommended, best enjoyed with more cups of that elegant four-star coffee.

Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson is another tale of different times and places, taking readers to a spaceship taking its first human colonists between the stars. Offering an intriguing balance between hard science and social science, it's a fascinating tale - part Apollo 13, part the Village, part 2001 perhaps. Enjoy with some more complex four-star coffee.

The Department of Sensitive Crimes by Alexander McCall Smith introduce McCall Smith's take on Nordic noir. It's fun, though I'm not hooked yet. And it has the expected blend of seriously strange characters, with suitably noir (but always gentle) flaws. Enjoy with some smooth well-balanced three-star coffee.

And finally, a short review or a short story with clever balance and food for thought: The Medallion by A.J. Chaudhury has shades of Alice in a tale of self-discovery and fear of failure. Enjoy with a quick cup of elegant four-star coffee.