Blog Category: Book Sketches
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...
Posted by JGranatino on Wed, Feb 05
Cyril Conroy has built a thriving business in Philadelphia, and surprises his growing family with the purchase of the beautiful Dutch House, a glass masterpiece complete with ballroom. Siblings Maeve and Danny are close, brought even closer when their mother leaves abruptly and their father remarries. The new stepmother, Andrea, is obsessed with the house and when Cyril dies, she inherits both the business and the stunning house, leaving both siblings to fend for themselves. Years later, a near...
Posted by JGranatino on Fri, Jan 31
If you enjoyed Sleeping With the Enemy, this is the book for you!
Beth Murphy is on the run from her abusive husband, trying to hide her tracks and start a new life for herself. Sabine Hardison, a prominent realtor in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, is missing and her husband, Jeffrey is the main suspect in her disappearance. Marcus, a seasoned detective, is on Sabine's case. He knows Jeffrey has something to hide and won't stop until he figures out what.
Told from the perspectives of Beth,...
Posted by JGranatino on Mon, Dec 30
In a dazzling debut, Frances Cha introduces us to five twenty-something Korean women who, each battling their own challenges (reaching for unattainable beauty standards, dealing with the expectations of men, carving out careers and paths in life) learn that they are stronger together when facing the glittering yet cutthroat world of modern Seoul.
Ara is a mute hair stylist obsessed with a K-pop boy-band member.
Sujin is an optimistic girl searching for her place in the world and turns to...
Posted by JGranatino on Wed, Dec 11
This book begins with a magazine writer named Monique who is handed the story of a lifetime. She is asked to interview the extremely private and infamous aging Hollywood movie star Evelyn Hugo regarding her decision to sell off many of her dresses for charity. Evelyn asks for Monique specifically, much to the chagrin of every other columnist in New York. However, Monique soon finds out that what Evelyn actually wants is to tell her entire life story to Monique and have Monique write her...
Posted by JGranatino on Mon, Nov 04
In a stunning debut, Alix Harrow takes you on a journey through books within books, worlds within worlds, and mysteries within mysteries. Your heroine is January Scaller, the seventeen year old ward of Mr. Locke, a member of the exclusive New England Archaeological Society, who employs January’s father to acquire objects of interest around the world. January grows up surrounded by curious artifacts and given anything she could ever need, but she never feels like she belongs. When her father...
Posted by JGranatino on Thu, Oct 31
In her latest book, Pema Chodron, an American Buddhist nun and pupil of the late Chogyam Trungpa Rimpoche, offers strategies for facing unanticipated and disconcerting events of life with equanimity, compassion, and wisdom. Chodron is best known for her simple and no-nonsense approach, offering a living spirituality for encountering the everyday challenges of life. She discusses a variety of approaches to the unwelcome, including meditation practices, aimed at “fully awakening the heart and...
