Sheila's Guests and Reviews

 A friend recommended this book to me and I felt sure I would love it. Instead I just "liked" it. It's a slow read, but it brings to life a different world in vivid detail. And its depiction of the struggles of a broken family to stay together is truly haunting. Before we were yours by Lisa Wingate In 1930s Memphis, a family living in comfortable poverty are split up by do-gooders, their children sent to a Tennessee Children’s home where they are prepared to be “sold” to eager (rich) adoptive parents. The novel is based on real records and presents a stark image of “doing good” gone wrong. In the present day, a privileged young woman finds herself drawn to a total stranger in a chance encounter. Choosing to research where the stranger comes from, she uncovers a past that just might change everything. The two timelines of this novel stay separate for a large part of this slow-reading book, leaving reader and protagonist alike to guess at what part each story might pl...

 A friend who lives in the Pacific Northwest recommended this author to me, saying these books might offer the best depiction of the area. So I had to read them. Now, at last, I'm catching up on writing book reviews. The Child Finder by Rene Denfeld Set in a vividly depicted Pacific Northwest, Rene Denfeld’s dark novel follows a PI nicknamed the Child Finder as she researches a cold case – the mystery of a child who disappeared three years previously. Child Finder Naomi is herself a “lost” child, and her skills have been honed by her past. But the search for Madison threatens to open dark doors to that past, and Naomi is soon in danger of “finding” her own self – a self she keeps deeply locked away, even from those she cares for most. A dark, haunting novel about an all-too-believably dark, haunted world, The Child Finder is an enthralling read full of character and plot. The Butterfly Girl by Rene Denfeld Sequel to the Child Finder by the same author, the Butterfly Gir...

 I got these two books for my birthday last year but found them hard to hold with a broken wrist. They stared at me from the not-read bookshelf, enticingly. And eventually I got them down, reading both in the space of three or four day. Long books, but great reads, especially if you like time travel contradictions, or just like London. Blackout by Connie Willis Historians in 2060 Oxford, England, are researching the past. It’s a kind of hands-on research whereby they travel into the past, with strict instructions (and many protections) to avoid their changing anything. Of course, things go wrong. Travelers visiting different locations, times and events of WWII find themselves trapped. Time-travel interactions might mean a certainty that someone will survive, combined with uncertainty about oneself. And multiple viewpoints have the reader tracking back and forth till the threads start coming together. And the fears. The characters quickly become very real, and the world of WWI...