book review Archives

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|

Play Nice

“But so often, being right means nothing but winning a round of a losing game.” Author: Rachel Harrison A selfish young stylist/influencer who loves her content and feels nothing for people, including family, friends, and lovers. A demon-possessed house in need of some TLC. A traumatic childhood. And A LOT of drinking, drugs, and things that go bump in the night and leave smiley faces etched on the walls. And that, dear potential readers, is Play Nice. A less sarcastic, more complete synopsis looks like this: A divorced mother accused of child abuse and alcoholism finally loses custody and visitation rights [...]

Frances Carden2025-12-22T20:21:44-07:00December 22nd, 2025|Tags: book of the month, book review, botm, haunted house, horror, Play Nice, Rachel Harrison, read, reading|