Tag: writing
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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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Book Review: The Homemade God by Rachel Joyce
The Homemade God by Rachel Joyce was recently published on July 8, 2025 by The Dial Press, an imprint of Random House. I was offered this ARC by the publisher because of my interest in and book reviews of several other books published by Random House, such as Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano, one of…
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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: The Mysterious Case of the Missing Crime Writer: A Mystery by Ragnar Jónasson
The Mysterious Case of the Missing Crime Writer: A Mystery by Ragnar Jónasson (St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books, September 2025) is my first piece of Icelandic literature. I enjoyed it very much…until the very end. To say that the ending is abrupt and unsettling is an understatement. This is the second book I’ve read THIS MONTH…
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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: Little Alleluias by Mary Oliver
Reading Mary Oliver is sort of like feeling your heart pounding in your throat, threatening to break at any moment. I feel sadness at the very beauty of her words, and then I feel mad because I can’t replicate that same beauty with my own. I am trying very hard to be a writer. I…
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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…
Michelle Blanchard Ardillo 