Lost Coast Literary by Ellie Alexander – #BookReview – #booktour

Lost Coast Literary by Ellie Alexander

Rosepoint Rating: Five Stars

**I am so delighted today to provide a review for you at my blog stop for Lost Coast Literary by Ellie Alexander, just released.**

“Does every book need a happy ending? No, but every book needs resolution.”

Book Blurb:

When an editing pen has the power not only to change stories but also to change lives.

Book editor Emily Bryant finds herself unexpectedly in the charming town of Cascata on California’s Lost Coast, holding the keys to her grandmother’s rambling Victorian mansion. While sorting through her grandmother’s things, Emily learns that she must edit old manuscripts to inherit the estate. It’s a strange request from a family member who was basically a stranger.

Emily quickly realizes that there’s something different about these manuscripts. Any changes she makes come true. At first, she embraces the gift. She has a chance to help characters find true love or chart a new course for their future. But then things go terribly wrong. Her edits have the opposite effect. The sweet and funky seaside community of Cascata is reeling from the chaos Emily has created. Everything she thought she believed about her family and her past is in jeopardy, and no amount of editing can fix the damage she’s done.

Then she finds one last manuscript. If Emily can get this edit right, maybe she’ll have a chance to create a new narrative for herself and everyone around her.

My Review:

Protagonist Emily Bryant moved to New York to finally start her new career as an editor and she’s about to pitch her first book when she is informed her grandmother died and left her The Ballad, a mansion in Cascata. How rude!

She would love to just sell the thing, but no, Emily must edit a pile of “Forsaken” manuscripts and cannot legally do anything with it until she has, but sharing the news with her father, his advice is to dump it and proceed with her new job. Her father and his extended family have been estranged since the death of her mother. She felt abandoned by them but has nagging questions she’d like answered—and her father won’t.

First, the Lost Coast of California is intense and volatile and a sunny warm day can turn quickly. Except for Highway 1 (which doesn’t extend the length of the Lost Coast), the area is isolated and stretches from Humboldt to Mendocino Counties. The weather is unpredictable, but…it’s the coast. The Victorian mansion is not only tied to her grandmother’s will demands but to regulations for registered Victorians. She’ll have to go to Cascata.

A Queen Anne Victorian mansion--this one in Eureka, CA. — An example of a Queen Anne Victorian mansion–this one in Eureka, CA.

Grandma Gertrude apparently had a business as an editor working out of a room of the mansion, something that surprised Emily, who had grown up with a deep-seated love of books. It was her theory, fostered by her grandmother, that if she didn’t like an end to one of the classics she was reading as a child, she could rewrite a better one. A fun thing that took flight with her imagination and she took to rewriting conclusions often and has since.

So after the enthusiastic greeting of most of the family, she is more intrigued than ever at what might have created the rift between her grandmother and her father.

After discovering and rewriting the ending of the first “Forsaken” manuscript, she is astounded later to watch it play out in real life. She continues to wrestle with herself over the conundrum of the family that appears to be happy she’s back with the picture painted by her father.

Working on the manuscripts and discovering the power she wields, however, she is cautioned to exact careful study of the possible repercussions her pen may cause.

In the meantime, the reader is introduced to the charming atmospheric little coastal town and its inhabitants, the redwoods and palms (which really threw me as I didn’t remember palm trees around Ft Bragg and Westport where we camped for years when hubby was still diving for abalone).

Emily’s constant angst juxtaposing her New York position with that of her ability in Cascata got a bit taxing, as well as her still unanswered feelings of abandonment, but these were offset by getting to know the amazing characters, including her cousin Shay, who totally understood what was happening to Emily with her rewrites. So many authors noted, classics, books I’ve read, including the more recent The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel (Pie) Society by Anne Barrows (also a beautiful Netflix movie).

A heartfelt and thoughtful novel of family, grief, redemption, friendship, and connection.

Thank you for visiting my stop on the tour. My thanks to the author and to Shalini at Digital Reads Media for the complimentary review copy and the opportunity to read and review this delightful new release. Immersive and entertaining. These are my unbiased thoughts and heartily recommended.

Book Details:

Genre: Magical Realism, #Literature & Fiction
Publisher: Sweet Lemon Press LLC
ASIN: B09PKS8H5K
Print Length: 298 pages
Publication Date: March 29, 2022
Source: Author and Digital Reads Media

Title Link(s):

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

The Author: ELLIE ALEXANDER is a Pacific Northwest native, a voracious storyteller, and a lover of words and all things bookish. She believes that stories have the ability to transport and transform us. With over twenty-six published novels and counting, her goal is to tell stories that provide points of connection, escape, and understanding.

She loves inhabiting someone else’s skin through the pages of a book and is passionate about helping writers find their unique storytelling lens. As a writing teacher and coach, she guides writers in crafting the story they’ve always wanted to tell while navigating the path to publication that’s right for them.

Find out more about Ellie, her books, and writing courses by visiting her online:

Website: https://www.elliealexander.co/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ellie_alexander

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/elliealexanderauthor

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elliealexanderauthor

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@elliealexanderauthor

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/ellielovesbooks

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/elliealexanderauthor

Rosepoint Publishing

Citizen K-9: A K Team Novel by David Rosenfelt – #Audiobook Review – #AnimalFiction

Citizen K-9 by David Rosenfelt

Rosepoint Publishing: Five Stars

Book Blurb:

The Paterson Police Department has created a cold case division, and they want to hire the private investigators known as the K Team to look into the crimes. After all, Corey Douglas and his K-9 partner, German shepherd Simon Garfunkel, recently retired from the force. Plus, another K Team member, Laurie Collins, used to be a cop as well.

Their first cold case hits home for the K Team. A decade ago, at Laurie’s 10th high school reunion, two of their friends simply…vanished. At the time Laurie had just left the force, and Corey was in a different department, so they had no choice but to watch from the sidelines. With no leads, the case went cold.

As the team starts to delve deeper into the events leading up to that night – reopening old wounds along the way – the pieces start to come together. But someone wants to stop them from uncovering the truth behind the disappearance, by any means necessary.

In Citizen K-9, best-selling author David Rosenfelt masterfully blends mystery with dogs and humor to create an investigative team that listeners will be rooting for book after book.

My Review:

Yes, this is a spin-off of one of my favorite series, Andy Carpenter, so I was a bit wary of anything that didn’t include the wise-ass attorney. However, I tried the K-Team because a number of the characters that are included in the Andy Carpenter series are featured in this one except Andy Carpenter is exchanged for retired cop Corey Douglas and Carpenter’s dogs for Simon Garfunkel, also a retired (canine) cop. (With me so far?)

But it is not Andy Carpenter by any other name.

Corey works with Laurie, also a retired cop (seriously, is there anyone left on the Paterson NJ police force?), and Laurie also happens to be Andy’s wife. AH HA, you say! Yes, a little nepotism, but this series gets a whole lot more serious.

The K Team works with the Paterson NJ police using their consultant funds to work on cold cases. Perfect. And this cold case involves two former classmates of Laurie’s, both disappearing after a high school reunion almost ten years ago.

As you can see, I haven’t lost a mystery with several dogs, as now there is one very serious German Shepherd and a favorite of the precinct. I have though lost the snarky, sarcastic wise-cracking Andy Carpenter, but I must say, Corey is growing on me despite his quirky personality. And, he may have a steady girl now—enter a budding romance.

This is not the Andy Carpenter series with one new character (minus the courtroom scenes), although you may wish to go back to Book 1 just to get the intro to Corey. I really enjoy Fred Berman’s voice as Corey, he does a great job, and Rosenfelt manages to work Carpenter in for free (cameo) legal appearances. These are complex mysteries with easy, fast, and engaging plots.

I read Book 2 February 2021, Animal Instinct, and thoroughly enjoyed it, found that it built well on the foundation set in this new series. While the concept borrows from the author’s successful characters of the Andy Carpenter series, these first three K-9s are engaging and entertaining and can be read as standalones. This one is just released and I urge you to check it out.

I received a complimentary review copy of this audiobook from the publisher and NetGalley. Thank you, thank you! These are my honest thoughts.

Book Details:

Genre: Animal Fiction, Private Investigator Mysteries
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
ASIN: B094DWV1FH
Listening Length: 5 hrs 53 mins
Narrator: Fred Berman
Publication Date: March 15, 2022
Source: Publisher and NetGalley
Title Link(s): Citizen K-9 [Amazon]
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Author: David Rosenfelt, a native of Paterson, New Jersey, is a graduate of NYU. He was the former marketing president for Tri-Star Pictures before becoming a writer of novels and screenplays. “Open And Shut” was his first novel; “First Degree,” his second novel, was named a best book of 2003 by Publishers Weekly. He currently lives in Southern California with his wife and 35 dogs.

[Goodreads] I am a novelist with 27 dogs.

I have gotten to this dubious position with absolutely no planning, and at no stage in my life could I have predicted it. But here I am.

My childhood was relentlessly normal. The middle of three brothers, loving parents, a middle-class home in Paterson, New Jersey. We played sports, studied sporadically. laughed around the dinner table, and generally had a good time. By comparison, “Ozzie and Harriet’s” clan seemed bizarre.

I graduated NYU, then decided to go into the movie business. I was stunningly brilliant at a job interview with my uncle, who was President of United Artists, and was immediately hired. It set me off on a climb up the executive ladder, culminating in my becoming President of Marketing for Tri-Star Pictures. The movie landscape is filled with the movies I buried; for every “Rambo”, “The Natural” and “Rocky”, there are countless disasters.

I did manage to find the time to marry and have two children, both of whom are doing very well, and fortunately neither have inherited my eccentricities.

A number of years ago, I left the movie marketing business, to the sustained applause of hundreds of disgruntled producers and directors. I decided to try my hand at writing. I wrote and sold a bunch of feature films, none of which ever came close to being actually filmed, and then a bunch of TV movies, some of which actually made it to the small screen. It’s safe to say that their impact on the American cultural scene has been minimal.

About fourteen years ago, my wife and I started the Tara Foundation, named in honor of the greatest Golden Retriever the world has ever known. We rescued almost 4,000 dogs, many of them Goldens, and found them loving homes. Our own home quickly became a sanctuary for those dogs that we rescued that were too old or sickly to be wanted by others. They surround me as I write this. It’s total lunacy, but it works, and they are a happy, safe group.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/davidr…
http://www.davidrosenfelt.com

The Narrator: Fred Berman Hundreds of commercials, promos, and video games; over 200 audiobooks and counting; 4 time winner of the Audie Award; 11 time winner of the Audiofile Earphone Award.

Walking with Ghosts: A Memoir by Gabriel Byrne- #Audiobook Review – #biographies

Walking with Ghosts: A Memoir by Gabriel Byrne

A Reading Ireland Month book

Best Biographies & Memoirs

Book Blurb:

When award-winning actor, producer, and international icon Gabriel Byrne was a young boy, his grandmother brought him to the cinema for the first time. There, Byrne fell in love with the transporting power of the big screen. Growing up in 1950s and 60s Dublin within a family of eight, Byrne’s formative childhood years were both carefree and challenging, spent between home, the church, school, and the streets of his ever-changing city where he observed that some of the greatest actors and entertainers could be found in the lives of those around him.

In captivating, funny, and sensual prose that brings to life the myriad voices of his youth, Byrne recounts his first formative 12 years – morning routines with his father, a barrel-maker at the Guinness factory; his debut role in a nativity play; his relationship with his dynamic mother; and his years at a seminary where he studied to be a priest. Interspersed throughout this engrossing childhood story we see Byrne’s ascent to global stardom, from his days acting in amateur drama groups in London, to his first big role opposite Richard Burton, his arrival at the Cannes stage for his breakout hit movie, The Usual Suspects, to the HBO show In Treatment for which he won a Golden Globe.

Combining the cinematic power of Fellini’s Amarcord with the poignance of John McGahern’s writing, Walking with Ghosts is both a moving exploration of the pathos in what it means to be famous and a singular account of Irish boyhood.

My Review:

Oh my goodness, this good-looking Irishman would have turned my head, but add a beautifully written book full of prose, emotional memories, and a sense of humor as well and he has also stolen my heart.

The descriptive writing style pulls a reader in quickly and my problem with listening to the narration of his own audiobook is that I didn’t have a way to highlight passages. Probably, a good thing, as there are quietly related anecdotes, humorous thoughts, as well as painful memories delivered in a sensitive and contemplative manner, and not everything that resonates can be quoted.

The man relates some soul-crushing experiences as well as unabashed astonishment at his rising popularity; sincerely self-deprecating.

There are intense moments (as he relates his time with the seminary) as well as the lighter flashes of the acting years spent rising to stardom and brushing elbows with major cinema notables though this is certainly not a name-dropping tell all.

Of course, there is the on-going story of his struggle with alcoholism and depression that appears to have controlled much of his life, cementing the stereotype of the Irish males.

The storytelling is not chronological, though he does spend time on his childhood, imparting tales of his parents and his lack of confidence or machismo. Growing up in the 50s and 60s, he collected a number of ghosts along the way and he appears to have come to terms with most of them. The lovely Irish brogue-infused narrative alternates somber thoughts to the amusing, which he apparently also appreciates kept him plowing through, one foot in front of the other, eventually to come to terms with it all and settle in peace.

A biography audiobook you’ll want to pick up if for nothing else than to hear that triumph over all that can be achieved by even the most humble of us.

Book Details:

Genre: Cultural & Regional Biographies, Biographies of Celebrities & Entertainment Professionals, Rich & Famous Biographies
Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
ASIN: B08NTW1BND
Listening Length: 6 hrs 57 mins
Narrator: Gabriel Byrne
Publication Date: January 12, 2021
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: Walking with Ghosts [Amazon]

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

Gabriel Byrne - author — Gabriel Byrne – actor-author

The Author: GABRIEL BYRNE was born in Dublin and has starred in over eighty films for some of the cinema’s leading directors. He won a Golden Globe for his performance on HBO’s In Treatment. On Broadway, he won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Actor and has been nominated twice for the Tony Award. He lives in Manhattan and Maine. [Amazon]

Born the eldest of six children to Roman Catholic parents, Byrne is an acclaimed actor, film director, film producer, screenwriter, and author, narrator of his own biography. Byrne spent five years in a seminary (now an atheist), worked in archaeology, cook, and teacher before starting to act at the age of 29. He was married to Ellen Barkin from 1988 to 1999, and to Hannah Beth King in 2014. They have a daughter born in 2017 and as of 2021 live in Rockport, Maine. [Wikipedia]

Have a good week!

Poison Pen (Claudia Rose Forensic Handwriting Mysteries Book 1) by Sheila Lowe – #BookReview – #DomesticThrillers

Poison Pen by Sheila Lowe

Rosepoint Publishing: Five Stars

Book Blurb:

“IT WAS FUN WHILE IT LASTED.”

Those were the words on the suicide note found near Lindsey Alexander’s body. The police say it is an apparent suicide. Case closed.

Or is it?

Ivan, Lindsey’s partner, disagrees. He hires forensic handwriting expert Claudia Rose to poke around.

Motives for murder begin to pile up. Lindsey had made powerful enemies. Soon, a brutal attempt on Ivan’s life confirms Claudia’s fears.

A desperate enemy is lurking.
There is a massive target on Claudia’s back.

Claudia must join forces with intense LAPD detective Joel Jovanic to survive. They must stop the killer before the killer destroys her.

If you loved Simon McLeave’s A DI Ruth Hunter Crime Thriller series, you would most certainly love Sheila Lowe’s masterfully written forensic mystery thriller series.

His Review:

“Handwriting is similar to body language and tone of voice in that it reveals a lot of information about the writer.” Much scientific research has gone into this area of study. Handwriting can identify the writer and many of their mental characteristics. Claudia is an expert in that field. Could a suicide note supposedly written by the deceased actually have been written by another?

Ms. Lowe identifies the study of handwriting with the acumen of an investigator or artist painting a portrait of the author by the sample. Comparing the suicide note to known examples of the victim’s handwriting can quickly expose that a crime was committed. The topic goes much deeper however. Handwriting actually exposes various idiosyncrasies hidden in the psyche of the writer.

When a crime has been committed, the perpetrator will try to alter his/her handwriting. What better way than to print in block letters rather than write a note? Not a bad plan except for one little problem.

This particular note was uncharacteristic of the deceased. Unlike DNA or other clues, handwriting does not have a national database or another repository of historical evidence to draw from. I was impressed by the author’s description of the lengths a good handwriting analyst must go to; the types of letters, flowery curlicues, or rigidity, clearly identify a particular personality.

I suggest anyone with a desire to become a detective read this tome. It illuminates basic personality characteristics and styles the average person would never consider. Kudos to the author! Engaging and entertaining. 5 stars from CE Williams

We received a complimentary review copy of this book from the author and publisher through NetGalley that in no way influenced this review. These are his honest opinions.

Book Details:

Genre: Domestic Thrillers, Women’s Crime Fiction, Mystery Series
Publisher: Write Choice Ink
ASIN: B08WQ36GFP
Print Length: 350 pages
Publication Date: February 22, 2021
Source: Publisher and NetGalley
Title Link: Poison Pen [Amazon]
Barnes and Noble

The Author: Sheila Lowe writes stories of psychological suspense that put ordinary people into extraordinary circumstances. Like her fictional character Claudia Rose in the award-winning Forensic Handwriting series, Sheila is a real-life forensic handwriting expert who testifies in court cases. She also writes the Beyond the Veil paranormal suspense series and nonfiction books about handwriting and personality.

Where to find Sheila

BookBub – https://www.bookbub.com/authors/sheila-lowe
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/SheilaLoweBooksHandwritingExaminer
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/sheilalowebooks/
Amazon Author page – https://www.amazon.com/author/sheilalowe
Goodreads Author page – https://www.goodreads.com/SheilaLowe
LinkedIn – http://www.linkedin.com/in/sheilalowe
Twitter – http://www.twitter.com/sheila_lowe
YouTube Channel – https://bit.ly/3lfPUc7

Have a great weekend!

Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann – #Audiobook Review – #TBT

Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann

A Reading Ireland Month book

“The world spins. We stumble on. It is enough.”

Book Blurb:

In the dawning light of a late-summer morning, the people of lower Manhattan stand hushed, staring up in disbelief at the Twin Towers. It is August 1974, and a mysterious tightrope walker is running, dancing, leaping between the towers, suspended a quarter-mile above the ground. In the streets below, a slew of ordinary lives become extraordinary in best-selling novelist Colum McCann’s stunningly intricate portrait of a city and its people.

Let the Great World Spin is the critically acclaimed author’s most ambitious novel yet: a dazzlingly rich vision of the pain, loveliness, mystery, and promise of New York City in the 1970s.

My Review:

It was in August 1974 when 24 year old Frenchman Philippe Petit made it his “le coup” to illegally walk on a high wire across the top of the twin towers a total of eight times, the “artistic crime of the century.” And the feat was so bizarre, so over-the-top astounding that a film was released about it October 2015 called “The Walk.” I wrote a short article about the headline capturing story on July 2, 2016, not knowing that Colum McCann released this book in January 16, 2015. To be fair, I have not viewed the film.

It wasn’t long before I realized the book was about a particular group of people who may (or may not) have been impacted by this stupendous feat. The first half of the book is very slow, and for me, disjointed. I was trying to figure out how these characters had anything to do with the event that was unfolding before their eyes, or in some other unrelated capacity, connecting them. Indeed, for quite some time it didn’t.

It wasn’t a book about the feat itself or the man who walked the high wire. It was a deep-diving story that eventually begins to form a wire itself—uniting the stories of those five or six of the sixteen plus million people in mid-70s New York City.

You probably couldn’t find a more disparate group of people to dissect, from Irish priest (okay, monk), to mother and daughter hookers. Tillie’s story is graphic and profane but at least she finally breathed some much needed energy into a novel long in the tooth, reveling in finding a topic and expanding on it sixteen different ways, “the wind of the…, the trees of the…, the whatever…eventually just feels like filler to me and indeed, this narrative manages to extend beyond fifteen hours. Not a style I particularly enjoy—the constant philosophizing. It seemed dark, depressing. And when I thought it would get on with the story simply introduced yet another new character that was then studied to within of that life with no discernible bond to any of the previous characters.

I especially had a problem with the “Nam” references since the CE is a veteran of that era; we lived through it. But at least I could identify with the gold star mothers since I lost a brother during that time, not as a mother, but a sister. A pain that gradually dulls but never lets go and also gripped the mothers in this emotional support group.

The author does draw the characters finally together in a cohesive, sensitive manner—a study of the people, of the time. Perhaps not the event, but event driven? In the end, we also get the inside story of the judge, laid open and bare, warts and all, the storyline tied by his wife’s support group, while he’s ecstatic he got the defendant of the year in his court–sufficient to relieve his judicial boredom.

Well, mercy. One final stinging epithet.

Book Details:

Genre: Urban Fiction, Fiction Urban Life, Family Life Fiction
Publisher: Random House Audio
ASIN: B00SC80QC4
Listening Length: 15 hrs 15 mins
Narrator(s): Richard Poe, Gerard Doyle, Carol Monda, Johanna Parker, Ramon De Ocampo
Publication Date: January 16, 2015
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: Let the Great World Spin [Amazon]

Rosepoint Publishing: Three-point Five Stars

The Author: [Goodreads] Colum McCann is the author of three collections of short stories and six novels, including “Apeirogon,” due to be published in Spring 2020. His other books include “TransAtlantic,” “Let the Great World Spin,” “This Side of Brightness,””Dancer” and “Zoli,” all of which were international best-sellers.

“Let the Great World Spin” won the National Book Award in 2009. His fiction has been published in over 40 languages and has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, GQ, Paris Review and other places. He has written for numerous publications including The Irish Times, Die Zeit, La Republicca, Paris Match, The New York Times, the Guardian and the Independent.

Colum has won numerous international awards and has been a bestseller on four continents. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, as well as the Irish association of artists, Aosdana. He has also received a Chevalier des Artes et des Lettres from the French government. He is the cofounder of the global non-profit story exchange organisation Narrative 4.

In 2003 Colum was named Esquire magazine’s “Writer of the Year.” Other awards and honors include a Pushcart Prize, the Rooney Prize, the Irish Independent Hughes and Hughes/Sunday Independent Novel of the Year 2003, and the 2002 Ireland Fund of Monaco Princess Grace Memorial Literary Award. He was recently inducted into the Hennessy Hall of Fame for Irish Literature.

His short film “Everything in this Country Must,” directed by Gary McKendry, was nominated for an Academy Award Oscar in 2005.

Colum was born in Dublin in 1965 and began his career as a journalist in The Irish Press. In the early 1980’s he took a bicycle across North America and then worked as a wilderness guide in a program for juvenile delinquents in Texas. After a year and a half in Japan, he and his wife Allison moved to New York where they currently live with their three children, Isabella, John Michael and Christian.

Colum teaches in Hunter College in New York, in the Creative Writing program, with fellow novelists Peter Carey and Tea Obreht.

Colum has completed his new novel, “Apeirogon.” Crafted out of a universe of fictional and nonfictional material, McCann tells the story of Bassam Aramin and Rami Elhanan. One is Israeli. One is Palestinian. Both are fathers. Both have lost their daughters to the conflict. When Bassam and Rami learn of each other’s stories they recognize the loss that connects them, and they begin to use their grief as a weapon for peace.

In the novel McCann crosses centuries and continents. He stitches together time, art, history, nature and politics in a tale both heartbreaking and hopeful. Musical, cinematic, muscular, delicate and soaring, Apeirogon is a novel for our times.

Website: http://www.colummccann.com

#throwbackthursday

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan – #Audiobook Review – #TuesdayBookBlog

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

A Reading Ireland Month book

“Heavy is the head that wears a crown.”

Book Blurb:

It is 1985 in a small Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man, faces into his busiest season. Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery that forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church.

Already an international bestseller, Small Things Like These is a deeply affecting story of hope, quiet heroism, and empathy from one of our most critically lauded and iconic writers.

My Review:

Released just in time for Christmas last year, this beautiful tome should have been described as a novella—as you can see–even the audiobook is very short.

It is, upfront, an unapologetic tale of the Magdalene Laundries and the Catholic Church nuns who administer the enterprise, now having been exposed as a shameful part of Irish history.

Bill Furlong was the child of an unwed mother who was under the employ of a well-to-do widow. The child and his mother were allowed to stay and he grew up under the roof of the kind widow. Bill eventually marries and has five daughters of his own. He has become a successful entrepreneur providing coal to homes in his village for heating. One of his customers is the large monastery where delivering coal just before Christmas he discovers by accident a young girl who begs him to help her escape the nunnery. He cannot at that moment but is haunted by what he saw.

Oh, my… This emotional and poignant little narrative seems to be deeply character-driven while it craftily lays out a powerful indictment on one hand and the generous magnitude of a man with five daughters of his own on the other. The story carefully paints the beauty of the time of year, the level of humanity exhibited by the townspeople in the spirit of the season, and juxtaposed the horrific conditions of the girls in the nunnery. It’s a heart-wrenching vision that tears at the emotions.

It’s a story that has you wondering where it’s going while it quietly lays out the backstory sufficient to give you the moral code engrained in Furlong. So perhaps the conclusion doesn’t come as a big surprise as much as the abrupt end to the tale. I guess you don’t really need a picture—you can fill the rest in—and each reader will do so in their own way.

A sweet little piece that has you reeled in only to realize after it ended how special it is.

Book Details:

Genre: Holiday Fiction, Small Town & Rural Fiction, British and Irish Literary Fiction
Publisher: HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books
ASIN: B09N42GCTT
Listening Length: 1 hr 57 mins
Narrator: Aidan Kelly
Publication Date: December 17, 2021
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: Small Things Like These [Amazon]

Rosepoint Publishing: Four of Five Stars

The Author: CLAIRE KEEGAN was raised on a farm in Ireland. Her stories have won numerous awards and are translated into more than twenty languages. Antarctica won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature and was chosen as a Los Angeles Times Book of the Year. Walk the Blue Fields won the Edge Hill Prize for the finest collection of stories published in the British Isles. Foster, after winning the Davy Byrnes Award—then the world’s richest prize for a story—was recently selected by The Times UK as one of the top 50 novels to be published in the 21st century. Her stories have been published in the New Yorker, The Paris Review, Granta, and Best American Stories. Keegan is now holding the Briena Staunton Fellowship at Pembroke College, Cambridge. [Amazon]

[Goodreads: Claire Keegan was born in Wexford in 1968. A member of Aosdána, she lives in Co. Wexford. Photo attribute]

Reading Ireland Month 2021

Short Stack of Suggestions for Reading Ireland Month

Short Stack

Reading Menu

Good Morning Friends! I’m excited about the review lineup I have for Reading Ireland Month22 and thought I’d share. It’s a full list of varied genres, so hang on–my short stack may turn into a full menu of great reads!

First, in case you missed posted March reviews: (Titles are linked to Amazon; covers are linked to my reviews.)

The Paris Network by Siobhan Curham

My audiobook review of a WWII Historical Fiction based on true events, the determination and many ways the women of the resistance provided support. Powerful, emotional statements of war heroes and my hearty recommendation. I gave 4.5 stars

Chasing Time by Thomas Reilly

A CE review of a medical thriller with a touch of fantasy. A talisman slips through time enhancing the lives of various individuals through two thousand years until one man’s desperate mission to save his wife. He gave 5 stars.

Wild Irish Rose by Rhys Bowen and Clare Broyles

Molly is a former private detective, now a mother and married to policeman Daniel. She would love to work with Daniel on the current murder mystery and befriends a new Irish immigrant. Good for fans of the successful historical and cozy mystery series.

Second Chance by Mike Faricy

A tried and true Jack Dillon Dublin Tales, Book 12, an international mystery and crime, cozy mystery read and reviewed by the CE. He gave 4.5 stars.

Wolf Catcher by Anne Montgomery

This Native American literature is split into a dual narrative spanning nine hundred years from the tribe that buries a magician to the current storyline of the looting of archeological artifacts. Gripping; I loved it—5 stars.

And Still to come: (Blurbs in Italics)

(Titles are links to Amazon. Covers are links to Goodreads.)

Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann

The Law of Innocence by Michael Connelly

On the night he celebrates a big win, defense attorney Mickey Haller is pulled over by police, who find the body of a former client in the trunk of his Lincoln. Haller is immediately charged with murder but can’t post the exorbitant $5 million bail slapped on him by a vindictive judge.

Mickey elects to represent himself and is forced to mount his defense from his jail cell in the Twin Towers Correctional Center in downtown Los Angeles. All the while he needs to look over his shoulder—as an officer of the court he is an instant target, and he makes few friends when he reveals a corruption plot within the jail.

But the bigger plot is the one against him. Haller knows he’s been framed, whether by a new enemy or an old one. As his trusted team, including his half-brother, Harry Bosch, investigates, Haller must use all his skills in the courtroom to counter the damning evidence against him.

Even if he can obtain a not-guilty verdict, Mickey understands that it won’t be enough. In order to be truly exonerated, he must find out who really committed the murder and why. That is the law of innocence.

The Murder Rule by Dervla McTiernan

First Rule: Make them like you.

Second Rule: Make them need you.
Third Rule: Make them pay.
They think I’m a young, idealistic law student, that I’m passionate about reforming a corrupt and brutal system.
They think I’m working hard to impress them.
They think I’m here to save an innocent man on death row.
They’re wrong. I’m going to bury him.

Walking with Ghosts by Gabriel Byrne

As a young boy growing up in the outskirts of Dublin, Gabriel Byrne sought refuge in a world of imagination among the fields and hills near his home, at the edge of a rapidly encroaching city. Born to working class parents and the eldest of six children, he harbored a childhood desire to become a priest. When he was eleven years old, Byrne found himself crossing the Irish Sea to join a seminary in England. Four years later, Byrne had been expelled and he quickly returned to his native city. There he took odd jobs as a messenger boy and a factory laborer to get by. In his spare time, he visited the cinema where he could be alone and yet part of a crowd. It was here that he could begin to imagine a life beyond the grey world of 60s Ireland.

He reveled in the theatre and poetry of Dublin’s streets, populated by characters as eccentric and remarkable as any in fiction, those who spin a yarn with acuity and wit. It was a friend who suggested Byrne join an amateur drama group, a decision that would change his life forever and launch him on an extraordinary forty-year career in film and theatre. Moving between sensual recollection of childhood in a now almost vanished Ireland and reflections on stardom in Hollywood and Broadway, Byrne also courageously recounts his battle with addiction and the ambivalence of fame.

Walking with Ghosts is by turns hilarious and heartbreaking as well as a lyrical homage to the people and landscapes that ultimately shape our destinies.

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

Already an international bestseller, Small Things Like These is a deeply affecting story of hope, quiet heroism, and empathy from one of our most critically lauded and iconic writers.

A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne

Maurice Swift is handsome, charming, and hungry for fame. The one thing he doesn’t have is talent—but he’s not about to let a detail like that stand in his way. After all, a would-be writer can find stories anywhere. They don’t need to be his own.

Working as a waiter in a West Berlin hotel in 1988, Maurice engineers the perfect opportunity: a chance encounter with celebrated novelist Erich Ackermann. He quickly ingratiates himself with the powerful – but desperately lonely – older man, teasing out of Erich a terrible, long-held secret about his activities during the war. Perfect material for Maurice’s first novel.

Once Maurice has had a taste of literary fame, he knows he can stop at nothing in pursuit of that high. Moving from the Amalfi Coast, where he matches wits with Gore Vidal, to Manhattan and London, Maurice hones his talent for deceit and manipulation, preying on the talented and vulnerable in his cold-blooded climb to the top. But the higher he climbs, the further he has to fall. . . .

Sweeping across the late twentieth century, A Ladder to the Sky is a fascinating portrait of a relentlessly immoral man, a tour de force of storytelling, and the next great novel from an acclaimed literary virtuoso.

Okay, the short stack turned into a whole meal! But what do you think? Have you already read one (or several?) or have I enticed you into putting one of these on your #tbr? Let me know, please.

Second Chance (Jack Dillon Dublin Tales Book 12) by Mike Faricy – #BookReview – #readingirelandmonth22

Second Chance (Jack Dillon Dublin Tales Book 12) by Mike Faricy

A Reading Ireland Month book

Book Blurb:

Second Chance – Jack Dillon Dublin Tales 12

US Marshal Jack Dillon is sent to the coastal village of Skerries to investigate a murder. Since his partner D.I. Paddy Suel can’t make it, Dillon is accompanied by D.I. Kevin Rafferty. Turns out the victim in the murder is an American.

What’s even worse is D.I. Rafferty is killed in a car accident returning to Dublin…

Or was it an accident?

Things get very complicated very fast.
Dillon is sent to the west of Ireland to investigate a case and to keep him safe. There’s only one problem – It doesn’t work.

Marshal Jack Dillon becomes the primary target of a killer who has been given a Second Chance!

His Review:

People are being executed for no apparent reason. When several of the deceased are part of law enforcement, it becomes personal for Ireland’s law enforcement. Finding detectives shot dead along major thoroughfares makes everyone nervous.

A young lady lays in a hospital bed clinging to life. She was suffering from a bad head wound. How could this happen in the sleepy Irish town called Sligo Town. Someone with anger issues had pushed her hard against a building and she cracked her head. Suspects were few and far between.

Another person had come over to Ireland to arrange for the burial of his wife. A bullet stopped his progress and another case was opened for An Garda Siochana Special Branch out of Dublin. The suspicion is that the target was probably Marshall Jack Dillon and not the person actually slain. Arranging for funerals in Ireland had suddenly become very dangerous.

Mike Faricy has a system he utilizes to develop his tales. This story was predictable as well but maintains suspense because of the amping risk to the investigating detective. Jack tries to solve the cases while keeping his head down to keep from becoming one of the victims. His movements are restricted due to the threat on his life. The banter between the higher ups and Jack are entertaining. This book kept me turning the pages. Enjoy! 4.5 stars – C.E. Williams

We have reviewed a number of Faricy’s novels (the last in this series being Dublin Moon), as well as the Dev Haskell series (the last being Silencio!) and all continue to be engaging and entertaining.

We received a complimentary review copy of this book from the author that in no way influenced this review. These are his honest opinions.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: International Mystery & Crime, Cozy Mystery
Publisher: Credit River Publishing: 12^th Edition
ASIN: B09R4QBBHQ
Print Length: 305 pages
Publication Date: February 23, 2022
Source: Author request
Title Link: Second Chance [Amazon]

The Author: [Mike Faricy] was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, I still live there as well as in Dublin, Ireland. I’ve been a soldier, freelance journalist, tended bar, sold designer cakes, owned a painting and decorating company along with a number of other schemes and scams. If that doesn’t offend you I also play bagpipes with the Brian Boru Irish Pipe Band. All my books stand alone, read them in whatever order you wish. They are filled with the sort of oddballs we are all curious about, but wisely, prefer to keep at a distance. None of my characters will be saving the world from terrorism, international banking conspiracies or coups to take over the government. Rather, they inhabit a world just below the surface of polite society, characters with one foot on either side of the law. The circumstances they find themselves in are usually due to bad decisions, but bad decisions lead to interesting stories. They serve not so much as an example but as a warning to us all. Thanks for taking the time, happy reading. [Goodreads bio]

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[Amazon] Faricy’s Jack Dillon Dublin Tales series was originally released under the pen name Patrick Emmett. US Marshal Jack Dillon is sent to Dublin to escort a prisoner back to the US. Things don’t go exactly as planned and trouble ensues. Dillon becomes permanently stationed in Dublin, just to get him out of his boss’s hair. Things take an entertaining turn from there, think of a cross between Dev Haskell and James Bond.

Visit Mike on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/MikeFaricyBooks

Visit Dev Haskell’s Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/DevHaskell

Email Mike” mikefaricyauthor@gmail.com

Follow Mike on Twitter @mikefaricybooks

Mike’s web site; www.mikefaricybooks.com

Have a great weekend!