Author: Hanna
-
“Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice” by Elle Cosimano
Two bodies in a hotel room, a lost Aston Martin, some bad guys, and Kevin Bacon, who is not who you think he is, make for one crazy ride. Once more, Finlay, a divorced mother of two young children, and Vero, Finlay’s children’s snarky nanny, get into trouble. This time, they take a road trip…
-
“The Second Sword: A Tale from the Merry Month of May, and My Day in the Other Land: A Tale of Demons” by Peter Handke
The two novellas of Peter Handke – “The Second Sword” and “My Day in the Other Land” are connected by the motive of a journey. In “The Second Sword,” the same man who was a protagonist of another Handke’s novel, “The Fruit Thief,” once more decides to leave his home –as usual, he leaves the…
-
“Everyone On This Train Is A Suspect” by Benjamin Stevenson
Train travels are romantic. Sure, there are overcrowded trains people board through the open window, as there is no way to fight the crowds of passengers trying to enter using the doorway, and those can hardly be called “romantic.” But there are other trains, seen in luxury travel ads, with people sipping champagne and contemplating…
-
“Ladykiller” by Katherine Wood
“Ladykiller” is one of those thrillers I read late into the night, knowing that I should sleep but couldn’t resist “just one more page.” It’s the best recommendation for a book. Gia and Abby used to be best friends. However, it was not a friendship of equals: Gia was born into a wealthy family, and…
-
“The Fury” by Alex Michaelides
Alex Michaelides took the psychological thriller world by storm a few years ago, publishing “The Silent Patient.” It was hard to avoid seeing his book, and, being a psychological thriller aficionado, I had to read it. I loved it. Later, I enjoyed his next book, “The Maidens.” Again, a college setting is one of my…
-
“Everywhere an Oink Oink” by David Mamet
Someone once said that an experience we take from watching a stage play is always more profound than watching a movie. Many years ago, I watched a performance of David Mamet’s play “Glengarry Glen Ross,” which made an impression more potent than any of David Mamet’s movies. To this day, I consider his command of…
-
“Baumgartner” by Paul Auster
Saying that Sy Baumgartner, an about-to-retire Princeton professor, doesn’t have a good day is an understatement: first, he burns his hand leaving a pot on the stove, then falls down the stairs showing, completely unnecessary, the way to a meter reading technician. I expected that things would get worse, but no, there were no broken…
-
“The Premonition” by Banana Yoshimoto
“The Premonition” by Banana Yoshimoto was written in 1988 but has only been translated into English by Asa Yoneda. It’s a short novel, a coming-of-age story of nineteen-year-old Yayoi, who has a premonition that something significant happened in her childhood. She feels her loving parents may not be her biological parents and is strangely drawn…
-
“The Upstairs Delicatessen” by Dwight Garner
Dear reader, consider yourself to be warned – while reading “The Upstairs Delicatessen,” you’ll undoubtedly, at some point, head to the kitchen to eat either a slice of cheese or a piece of chocolate or even feel strangely invigorated to make yourself a pasta dish or whip up a favorite cake. This excellent book by…
-
“The Wonderful World of James Herriot” by James Herriot
I’m a big fan of two British series, “All Creatures Great and Small,” the older one from 1978 and the new, beautiful 2020 remake (with the fourth season coming in January 2024.) Of course, when I saw an audiobook, “The Wonderful World of James Herriot,” a collection of original stories, I immediately wanted to listen…
Infinite Books 