Blog Category: Book Sketches
Posted by JGranatino on Tue, Apr 28
Ten years ago, Maya Seale found herself in the middle of the controversial trial of Bobby Nock, an African American high school teacher accused of killing one of his students, fifteen-year-old Jessica Silver, heiress to a billion-dollar real estate fortune. Maya believed he was innocent and, one by one, persuades the rest of the jurors to return the verdict of not guilty, a decision that will change all their lives forever.
Now, a true-crime docuseries reassembles the jurors with particular...
Posted by BHanley on Thu, Apr 23
Tea & Book Chat: Virtual Book Discussion was held on Monday, April 20. There were 12 titles recommended by readers. Visit eZone to find a copy of available titles.
The Absolutist by John Boyne*
The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel
Hamlet’s Mill by Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend
Lady Clementine by Marie Benedict
Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers
Mrs. by Caitlin Macy
Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson
The Red Lotus by Chris Bohjalian
Thirteen by Steve...
Posted by JGranatino on Wed, Apr 22
Alexis, an ER doctor, is on a vacation trip with her cycling enthusiast boyfriend Austin in Vietnam. While she lounges beside the pool, he sets off on an extended solo ride, presumably to pay homage to his uncle, killed in the Vietnam War, and his father, who was seriously wounded during the conflict. Hours pass, and Alexis has had no word from Austin although she has texted him several times. Soon the Vietnamese police, the FBI and the State Department are combing the hills for any sign of him...
Posted by JGranatino on Tue, Apr 14
Catherine Chung’s The Tenth Muse brings readers a beautiful and sweeping tale about identity, love, and legacy. Since Katherine was a child she knew that she was different. Now a mathematician striving to make her mark in a field that is male dominated, she furthers her studies in Europe tackling the Riemann hypothesis, the greatest unsolved mathematical problem of her lifetime. During the process she comes across a theorem that may not only solve the Riemann hypothesis, but holds the...
Posted by BHanley on Thu, Apr 09
We held our first Tea & Book Chat: Virtual Book Discussion on Monday, April 6. There were 14 titles recommended by readers. Visit eZone to find a copy of available titles.
An American Marriage - Tayari Jones
Collected Stories - Lorrie Moore
Eight Perfect Murders - Peter Swanson
Followers - Megan Angelo
The Honey Bus: A Memoir of Loss, Courage and a Girl Saved by Bees - Meredith May
In the Bleak Midwinter - Julia Spencer-Fleming
Motherless Brooklyn - Jonathan Lethem
A...
Posted by JGranatino on Tue, Apr 07
It’s 1982 and Viv Delaney has run away from her home in Illinois to try and make it in New York City. Unfortunately her plans are derailed and she finds herself in Upstate New York working the night shift at the Sun Down Motel. Before long, Viv realizes that something isn’t right at the Sun Down and she’s determined to uncover all the secrets hidden at the motel. But Viv learns the hard way that some secrets were never meant to be uncovered.
Carly Kirk has never been able to let go of the story...
Posted by JGranatino on Fri, Apr 03
Poland, 1941. Roza and her five-year-old daughter, Shira, hide in the loft of a neighbor’s barn, the only survivors of another Jewish family murdered by Nazi soldiers. They have nothing except their memories of musical family gatherings with young Shira capturing the melodies in her head while she dances around the room. Now she must remain silent to avoid giving away their hiding place. To keep her entertained, Roza weaves a fairy tale of a young girl in an enchanted garden whose yellow bird...
Posted by JGranatino on Fri, Mar 27
Malcolm Kershaw, owner of the Old Devils Bookstore in Boston, is approached by FBI agent Gwen Mulvey when a series of murders seemingly copied from a blog of his entitled “Eight Perfect Murders” throws the spotlight his way. Malcolm chose eight of what he considered the best examples of unsolvable murders in literature from authors such as Agatha Christie, Donna Tartt, Patricia Highsmith and John D. MacDonald, and now the killer seems to have used his blog as inspiration. What’s also troubling...
Posted by JGranatino on Tue, Mar 17
Lydia Perez and her young son, Luca, are at a family cookout when gunfire erupts. Her husband is a reporter targeted for his work exposing members of a powerful Mexican cartel and while she and Luca hide in the shower, all other family members are murdered. After the massacre, Lydia realizes she is not safe and the two head “norte”, hoping to hide and start a new life in the United States. The journey is dangerous and they cannot trust anyone, since the cartel has insinuated itself into local...
Posted by JGranatino on Thu, Feb 27
Marie Kondo’s popular books The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up and Spark Joy offer radical remedies to eliminating unnecessary possessions and simplifying our living spaces. Marla Stone takes a more measured approach. She suggests our inner states are reflected in our surroundings and emphasizes greater introspection to discover why our homes seem cluttered and disorganized. She offers clear criteria for deciding what we will keep, categorizing and grouping...
