Tag: book-reviews
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“My Friends” by Fredrik Backman

What a great gift friendship is—for everybody but especially for teenagers in their formative years, when they search for understanding and acceptance, trying to find themselves and moving between excitement and depression, often in a single day. Fredrik Backman’s “My Friends” is a book about friendship that helps them accept that being different is okay.…
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“Bad Nature” by Ariel Courage

Hester, the heroine of Ariel Courage’s debut novel “Bad Nature,” is a 40-year-old New York lawyer with no family and no friends, and to top it off, she is diagnosed with terminal cancer. Refusing the treatment, she instead decides to fulfill her goal, which she has been carrying for years, always sure that it will…
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“The Seventh Veil of Salome” by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Every film studio in 1950s Hollywood was making a sword-and-sandals movie based on biblical stories, preferably with a seducing woman and a powerful man falling under the woman’s spell. The moviegoers were also tired of seeing Gary Cooper and wanted Richard Burton’s animal magnetism. Hence, in Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s new novel “The Seventh Veil of Salome,”…
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“Agnes Sharp and the Trip of a Lifetime” by Leonie Swann

I enjoyed reading the first book in the Agnes Sharp series and found the second one even better. The elderly residents of Sunset Hall – Agnes, Edwina, Bernadette, Charlie, Marshall, and Winston – go on vacation to a fancy, secluded Cornish hotel, partially because Edwina won a romantic gateway for two and everybody wants to…
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“The Dark Wives” by Ann Cleeves

The institution of privately owned care homes for troubled teens in England is controversial. Running them should be a noble mission, but without sufficient state control, it can evolve into a business like any other, subject to negligence. Additionally, for the residents of such houses, their temporary homes and proximity to other teens like themselves…
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“A Refiner’s Fire” by Donna Leon

In her 33rd installment of the series, Donna Leon once again transports us to the enchanting city of Venice, guiding us through the labyrinthine streets alongside Commissario Brunetti. While I may have missed a few of the series’ novels, my fondness for them remains steadfast, a testament to Leon’s captivating world. This time, the story…
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“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…