reading Archives

Quiet Life, A

“We live so much of our lives without telling anyone.” Author: Ethan Joella Three lives, going on separately, are each occluded by the unrelenting pressure of grief. One winter, as the ice shines on the road and the cold seeps into the bones, three strangers find each other through the twists of fate. Together, they start to discover the next steps in a life that will not end, no matter how much they wish that it had. It’s weird to say that Ethan Joella’s A Quiet Life is cozy when the themes – death, pain, grief, separation, betrayal – are so [...]

Frances Carden2025-04-12T09:24:00-07:00April 12th, 2025|Tags: book review, botm, fiction, grief, read, reading|

Hidden Pictures

“When you eliminate the impossible, all that remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” Author: Jason Rekulak Mallory is 18 months sober and desperately looking for a new start in life. Her sponsor has potentially landed her a lucrative position as a live-in nanny with the Maxwells. Caroline Maxwell, the mother, knows Mallory’s history, and she is willing to forgive, especially when she realizes that Mallory might be able to help five-year-old Teddy let go of his morbid obsession with his dead imaginary friend, Anya. Ted Maxwell, however, is another matter. He will be a hard sell. It’s touch and go [...]

Frances Carden2025-03-30T15:46:38-07:00March 30th, 2025|Tags: book review, mystery, read, reading, thriller|

Hera

A New Look at an Old Villian Author: Jennifer Saint Hera – the raging goddess of marriage – is a much-hated figure from Greek mythology. While it is her husband, the mighty Zeus, who tricks and rapes his way through both mortals and goddesses, it is Hera that catches our ire. Shouldn’t she, we reason, be gentler, know better, and stop perpetuating a vicious culture of victim-blaming? Shouldn’t her vengeance, her impotent rage, be directed towards the one who really deserves it (her philandering husband) instead of in fits of jealousy towards his often-unwilling paramours? Well . . . author Jennifer [...]

Frances Carden2025-03-23T08:40:21-07:00March 23rd, 2025|Tags: book review, botm, fantasy, fiction, Greek mythology, mythology, read, reading, retelling|