book review Archives

Two Girls Down

Stereotypical Detectives And Tough Girl Action Author: Louisa Luna A mother leaves her two children in the car to rush in and buy a present for a birthday party. She comes out, and they are nowhere to be seen. The local police are overwhelmed and understaffed. The family reaches out to bounty hunter / private detective / all-around kick-ass Alice Vega to find the girls before it’s too late. Vega, known for her results and general lack of law abiding, soon teams with shamed ex-cop Max Caplan to suss out answers. What follows is a web of misinformation, wrong suspects, [...]

Frances Carden2025-12-29T13:35:25-07:00December 29th, 2025|Tags: book of the month, book review, botm, detective, fiction, mystery, read, reading, thriller|

What Alice Forgot

"Maybe every life looked wonderful if all you saw was the photo albums." Author: Liane Moriarty After a gym accident, Alice has forgotten ten years of her life. She entered the gym as a forty-year-old, soon-to-be divorced mom of three who was happily dating, career-oriented, and known for her overly organized take-charge attitude, fancy dresses and heels, and abrasive attitude. She exited having lost a decade, thinking that she was 29, newly married and pregnant, adoring sweatpants and chocolate, a little mousy, looking for the comfort of her husband and shocked to discover that everything has fallen apart – including her [...]

Frances Carden2025-12-24T11:18:38-07:00December 24th, 2025|Tags: book review, drama, fiction, Liane Moriarty, read, reading, What Alice Forgot|

Petals of Haiku

Of Longing and Loneliness and Love Author: Richard Hauken Haiku: A Japanese poem of seventeen syllables, in three lines of five, seven, and five, traditionally evoking images of the natural world. ~ Dictionary.com Petals of Haiku is a short but powerful collection of poems documenting the ordinary and extraordinary life of the author, Richard Hauken. It is both retrospective and introspective, highlighting the warring emotions of love and loneliness, dreams attained and longings as yet unrealized, and the impacts of a mental disorder. Petals of Haiku is divided into three parts. The first portion is Family, Home, and Friends. Through each [...]

Frances Carden2025-12-23T13:10:06-07:00December 23rd, 2025|Tags: book review, haiku, poetry, read, reading, Richard Hauken|