Synopsis: After inadvertently slicing off the top of her thumb in sculpture class, Maja wants her mother to comfort her–but her mother is nowhere to be found. Review: Me on the Floor, Bleeding was a surprisingly funny coming of age story that took a lot of unexpected turns. It was a fun, easy read with a likable protagonist who kept me interested in her story. Great voice.
Synopsis: When pregnant Emily and her lawman husband move from New York City to a small, wealthy Texas town, she finds herself enmeshed in mean girl culture and doesn’t take it seriously until the town’s queen bee goes missing–and a mysterious package hinting at her own dark past shows up on her doorstep. Review: Lie Still is your next read if you liked Gone Girl–and if you did, this is probably all I need to say. Lie Still hooked me from the very beginning with…
Synopsis: Subtitled: Gluten-Free, Grain-Free, Dairy-Free Recipes. Review: I have recently gone grain free and it really has been the right decision for me. I’m losing weight and feeling great, all while eating a lot. I love to bake, so I’m keen to discover how to make tasty baked good without flour or other grains. I am intrigued by a lot of the recipes in Paleo Cooking from Elana’s Pantry as she is a blogger who comes up in search results a lot. The directions look…
Synopsis: Time travel makes a vicious serial killer unstoppable, but when one of his “shining girls” survives, the paradoxes in her case send her looking in the right direction, even as the killer grows more disorganized and deadly. Review: The Shining Girls is, quite simply, a great crime story with time travel element that probably has Stephen King kicking himself for not thinking of it first. In 1932, Harper has found a house filled with shining objects, and when he steps outside he can will…
Synopsis: When dreadlocked and delinquent skater girl Kal’s rock star mom fails to come back to LA for a hearing, Kal finds herself living with the father she never knew, under a strict curfew–and enrolled in a magnet school for teens who aspire to careers in law enforcement. Review: Set in the meticulously and passionately described LA town of Venice Beach, Kalifornia Blu has attitude and the plot to back it up. Kal has always been a wild child, the daughter of an aging rock…
Synopsis: Two sisters set out to walk from New Mexico to northern California in the hopes that their mother’s ex-boyfriend will take them in, but the theft of some eggs while traveling through a Native American reservation threatens to bring their whole scheme crashing down around their ears. Review: Walk Me Home had me hooked from the very first pages. Carly and her little sister Jen have such a realistic, touching relationship that I couldn’t help but become immediately invested in their journey. As the…
Synopsis: Charlie Cullen was a hospital administrator’s dream–a nurse who took any shift and worked harder than anyone else–but to his patients, he was an “Angel of Death” who killed upwards of 300 people. Review: It’s been awhile since I read a true crime account, but when I heard a radio interview with The Good Nurse author Charles Graeber I knew I had to pick this one up. Charlie Cullen’s story is fascinating because of the institutional protection he received over his career as a…
Synopsis: Subtitled: “My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape.” Review: Beyond Belief is one of the best ex-cult memoirs I have ever read. Not only does it go into great detail about the inner workings of Sea Org, the religious order of Scientology, but it’s extremely well written. I was on the edge of my seat wondering when Jenna Miscavige Hill (niece to Scientiology scion David Miscavige) would come to her sense and realize that she had been systematically abused physically, emotionally, and…
Synopsis: This sequel to Huntress Moon follows Special Agent Roarke as he tracks a female serial killer who sets prostitutes and abused children free from their captors, while wondering if a cold case holds the secrets to her deadly sojourn. Review: Blood Moon was an outstanding follow up to Huntress Moon and I cannot wait to find out what happens next. I only like crime when the writing is top notch and often I find that most crime novels rely on sensationalistic descriptions of crime…
Synopsis: Subtitled: How Love Caught Up with a Christian Drunk. Review: Sober Mercies is first and foremost an addiction memoir, showing the secrecy and the deception and the havoc wreaked by Heather Harpham Kopp’s need to drink as much alcohol as possible every single day. What makes her story stand apart is that Kopp was (and still is) a professing Christian at the time of her addiction. She believed that alcoholism was only a sin problem, not an addiction or a disease, and so she…