Author: michardillo
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All Nighters
Do you remember life before the internet? We were returning from the university cafeteria, stopping and chatting with everyone we knew on campus, which was just about everyone, headed back to the sorority dorm at my small state college. Looking at us (we always traveled in a pack of 5-7 girls), you would think we…
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Fits Me to a Tea
I’m thrilled to share my essay about my love of tea and my Scottish heritage recently published in Tea Zine, a Scottish print and online publication! This one is very special to me! https://coinoperatedpress.bigcartel.com/product/the-tea-zine
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Book Review: The Optimists by Brian Platzer
I’ll begin this review of The Optimists by Brian Platzer with a quote from another reviewer on Goodreads: I’ll admit, when I finished this book I immediately went to Goodreads to look at some of the reviews, a few 5-star, a few 1-star, and then I turned to the 3-star reviews. Near the top I…
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Fire and Ice, So So Nice
List your top 5 favorite fruits: pineapple, papaya, mango, cantaloupe, and honey dew melon! Read on to see why! Trigger Warning: this essay is about 9/11 and a trip I took a month after it happened. The morning of 9/11, as normal, I dropped my girls off at school and headed to my office where…
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My April 2026 Reads!
RUN, don’t walk…to read The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout! Another Strout masterpiece! How I love her writing! So many emotions, such great pacing, beautiful prose, but not pretentious or showy. See my review here. Also, Saoirse by Charleen Hurtubise is such a great book. If you like Irish scenery, characters who have…
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Book Review-The Antique Hunter’s Guide to Murder: A Novel by C.L. Miller
To use a term often used in antique appraisals, this debut novel comes with quite a provenance, as it was written by the daughter of the late Judith Miller (1951-2023), a regular specialist on the wildly popular BBC Antiques Roadshow. Antiques Roadshow, both the UK version and the American version, is a favorite of mine.…
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Book Review: Saoirse by Charleen Hurtubise
The title of this book, Saoirse, is an Irish name that means freedom. And, in this powerful novel, a US debut for this American writer living and working in Ireland for the last few decades, the main character longs for just that…freedom from her past, from her trauma, from her fears of her past catching…
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Book Review: The Windsor Affair by Melanie Benjamin
There’s almost constant chatter about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, but long before there was a Harry and Meghan, there was a David and Wallis. While the severity of what happened during what will forever be known as the Abdication Crisis does not compare to the “spare” and his wife stepping back from royal…
Michelle Blanchard Ardillo 