Tag: death
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Nothing Gold Can Stay
Yesterday, September 24, 2025, my last aunt passed away. I only had three to start with and the last one living, my dad’s baby sister, died yesterday at the age of 88. She was seven years younger than my dad, and she grew up in my hometown. She graduated from high school the year I…
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Book Review: Sugar and Spite, An Agatha Raisin Mystery by M.C. Beaton with R. W. Green
Mystery is by far my favorite genre, and within that genre I tend to gravitate toward cozy mysteries. Add to that a Scottish author and, well, I’m all in. Everyone has a guilty pleasure when it comes to their reading life, and for me, the Agatha Raisin mystery series falls squarely in that court. With…
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Come to Me All Who Labor
This past Sunday the gospel happened to be one that has always confused me, the story of Martha and Mary and their visit from Jesus. Our parochial vicar, Fr. Juan Pablo Noboa, gave me something new to think about in connection to this passage of scripture from the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 10, Verses 38-42. …
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Book Review: The White Octopus Hotel by Alexandra Bell
NetGalley is a digital platform that provides book people with FREE advance reading copies (ARCs) of books yet to be released in exchange for a review written and posted on their site, on Goodreads, on Amazon, on your own social media. Sometimes you are offered a book, but more often you request a book that…
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Book Review: My Friends by Fredrik Backman
My Friends (Atria Books, May 6, 2025) is the second book I’ve read by Swedish author Fredrik Backman (translated by Neil Smith). In its almost two months since publication it has garnered a solid average of 4.52 stars in Goodreads with over 45,000 ratings and over 9,800 reviews. At this point, does it really matter…
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Book Review: Death on the Marlow Belle by Robert Thorogood
In Death on the Marlow Belle (Poisoned Pen Press, September, 2025) this fourth installment of The Marlow Murder Club, a cozy murder mystery series, author Robert Thorogood has returned us to Marlow, a very real town located on the Thames River thirty miles from London. This is brilliant news for all of Thorogood’s fans, as…
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Book Review: Through an Open Window by Pamela Terry
First, thank you to NetGalley and Pamela Terry, through her publisher Penguin Random House, for the ARC of this new novel, to be published on August 19, 2025. This is Pamela Terry’s third novel, and I feel that her work becomes stronger and stronger with each new book. She is a true Southerner, and her…
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Book Review: Here After by Amy Lin
I checked this book out from the new release shelf at my local public library, Aspen Hill Public Library of Montgomery County, MD, and I must admit I was drawn to it by its size and cover. It is a hardback, but it is a non-traditional size, more of the size of a diary or…
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Book Review: The Husbands by Holly Gramazio
The Husbands (Knopf Doubleday, 2024), debut novel by Holly Gramazio, a writer and video game designer, is an interesting read. I waited for quite some time to get a copy from my local library. I read it quickly, but it’s taken me several days to decide what I want to say about it in this…
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Book Review: Murder by the Book by Lauren Elliott
Murder by the Book (the novel, Kensington Cozies, 2018) by Lauren Elliott is the first in the Beyond the Page Bookstore Mystery series. I checked this book out to read on my Kindle via Libby through my local MCPL mostly because of the title and the cover. Many years ago, I directed a play by…
Michelle Blanchard Ardillo 