The Crossing Places: The First Ruth Galloway Mystery by Elly Griffiths #BookReview #ThrowbackThursday

The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths

Ruth Galloway Series Book 1

Book Blurb:

The first entry in the acclaimed Ruth Galloway series follows the “captivating”* archaeologist as she investigates a child’s bones found on a nearby beach, thought to be the remains of a little girl who went missing ten years before.

Forensic archeologist Dr. Ruth Galloway is in her late thirties. She lives happily alone with her two cats in a bleak, remote area near Norfolk, land that was sacred to its Iron Age inhabitants—not quite earth, not quite sea. But her routine days of digging up bones and other ancient objects are harshly upended when a child’s bones are found on a desolate beach. Detective Chief Inspector Nelson calls Galloway for help, believing they are the remains of Lucy Downey, a little girl who went missing a decade ago and whose abductor continues to taunt him with bizarre letters containing references to ritual sacrifice, Shakespeare, and the Bible. Then a second girl goes missing and Nelson receives a new letter—exactly like the ones about Lucy.

Is it the same killer? Or a copycat murderer, linked in some way to the site near Ruth’s remote home?

My Review:

Dr. Ruth Galloway is a forensic archeologist at the University of North Norfolk. Don’t ask me why, but I liked this protagonist almost immediately. She is in her late thirties, lives with her two cats on an ancient spit of land between sea and land on the Saltmarsh coast. She is very isolated and seems to love it, despite the almost daily miserable gray and stormy conditions battering her small cottage.

When she is asked to accompany DCI Nelson to a desolate area near the area where bones are found, he is hoping she can identify a missing child in his caseload. He is enormously magnetic and catches Ruth’s eye, but she can discern immediately that the bones are probably Iron Age. Still, there is another missing child and he’s back.

Ruth is an interesting MC, easy to invest in, and will no doubt be more deeply developed in succeeding installments. The support characters are developed only as far as need be, but the overwhelming star of the show is the area. The writing chills, planting horrendous scenic storms in the mind’s eye. The area is desolate, wet, cold, foreboding.

I loved the detailed description of the Saltmarsh, the Henge Circle, the old legends and ancient myths. Lots to learn, love that history.

“Herbs picked on St John’s Eve have special healing powers.”

“The past is dead. She, as an archaeologist, knows that better than most. But she knows too that it can be seductive.”

It’s dark, creepy, and the writer takes her time with divulging little nuances, secrets, clues. I suspected the ultimate perp, was right, but wanted to see how it all played out. Yeah, I’m hooked and apparently this series went on audiobooks, so I’ll be looking for those next.

I received a copy of this book from my library that in no way influenced this review. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Rating: Four Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Traditional Detective Mysteries, Amateur Sleuth Mysteries, Amateur Sleuths
Publisher: Mariner Books: First Edition
ASIN: B003UV90G6
Print Length: 306 pages
Publication Date: January 5, 2010
Source: Library

Title Link(s):

Amazon-US | Amazon-UK | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

Elly Griffiths - author — Elly Griffiths – author

The Author: Thank you for visiting my Amazon author page! I’m the author of two crime series, the Dr Ruth Galloway books and the Brighton Mysteries. Last year I also published a stand-alone, The Stranger Diaries, and a children’s book, A Girl Called Justice. I have previously written books under my real name, Domenica de Rosa (I know it sounds made up).

The Ruth books are set in Norfolk, a place I know well from childhood. It was a chance remark of my husband’s that gave me the idea for the first in the series, The Crossing Places. We were crossing Titchwell Marsh in North Norfolk when Andy (an archaeologist) mentioned that prehistoric people thought that marshland was sacred ground. Because it’s neither land nor sea, but something in-between, they saw it as a bridge to the afterlife; neither land nor sea, neither life nor death. In that moment, I saw Dr Ruth Galloway walking towards me out of the mist…

I live near Brighton with Andy. We have two grown-up children. I write in a garden shed accompanied by my cat, Gus.

Graphic courtesy Canva.com

Half Moon Bay: A Novel by Jonathan and Jesse Kellerman #AudiobookReview #ThrowbackThursday

Clay Edison #3

Book Blurb:

Clay Edison has his hands full. He’s got a new baby who won’t sleep. He’s working the graveyard shift. And he’s trying, for once, to mind his own business. Then comes the first call. Workers demolishing a local park have made a haunting discovery: the decades-old skeleton of a child. But whose? And how did it get there?

No sooner has Clay begun to investigate than he receives a second call – this one from a local businessman, wondering if the body could belong to his sister. She went missing 50 years ago, the man says. Or at least I think she did. It’s a little complicated.

And things only get stranger from there. Clay’s relentless search for answers will unearth a history of violence and secrets, revolution and betrayal. Because in this town, the past isn’t dead. It’s very much alive. And it can be murderous.

My Review:

I really like the way the authors suffuse the professional with the personal. So many times, we see a technician going about their business and wonder what their home life looks like: six kids, a spouse equally harried, and a mortgage whose interest rates keep climbing?

In this case, Clay Edison is a new papa. The baby, as most, doesn’t sleep. Clay is working the graveyard shift so his wife can be home and she works days. It should work—doesn’t always.

Unfortunately, his call out is to the discovery of a very old skeleton—that of a small child. Whose? And how did it come to be buried in a park?

Clay might be the personification of a new dad, his baby girl Charlotte has a lot to teach him. The stark difference between his anxious self and his professional self is often laid bare by his self-talk, his first person POV.

The development of the characters in this series has been fun, and each new installment has brought growth and get-to-know-you sessions. I like Clay. He’s smart, dominating, and a strong personage around his peers, though he can be soft and sympathetic with the loved ones he must deal with in his professional capacity.

It doesn’t help that the park and the site of the skeleton is located in Berkeley, always a hotbed of political turmoil and protests. He may have a major development in the phone call from a man claiming that it may be his sister…but he can only supply a minimal amount of background to interest Clay further into the investigation.

The storyline wavers a bit with a couple of small branches off the main plot, but then I wouldn’t expect this would be Clay’s only case. It might create a slight lull in the pacing of the main plot, but there is always another tiny clue.

I’m not sure it would be classified as a slow-burn story as there is usually a lot going on and the characters, including Clay’s wife, Amy, supply a lot of lively dialogue. (I still haven’t warmed up to Amy though.) Of course, the flashbacks to the 60’s and 70’s drew me in. There are twists, divulged secrets, and evil doers as these things are never just simple straight forward…who is the skeleton.

Personally, I really enjoyed the novel and this series, one to go (Book 2), and just got it. I’ll recommend again. If you haven’t checked out this series yet and you found Alex Delaware a bit stodgy at times, you might find the collaboration between this father and son might be just what you were looking for.

I received a copy of this audiobook from my local library that in no way influenced this review. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Rating: Four Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Crime Thrillers, Suspense, Mysteries
Publisher: Random House Audio
Narrator: Dennis Boutsikaris
ASIN: B0863359SD
Listening Length: 9 hrs 35 mins
Publication Date: July 21, 2020
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)

Title Link(s):

Amazon-US | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

The Authors:

Jonathan Kellerman

Jonathan Kellerman is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than three dozen bestselling crime novels, including the Alex Delaware series, The Butcher’s Theater, Billy Straight, The Conspiracy Club, Twisted, True Detectives, and The Murderer’s Daughter. With his wife, bestselling novelist Faye Kellerman, he co-authored Double Homicide and Capital Crimes. With his son, bestselling novelist Jesse Kellerman, he co-authored The Golem of Hollywood and The Golem of Paris. He is also the author of two children’s books and numerous nonfiction works, including Savage Spawn: Reflections on Violent Children and With Strings Attached: The Art and Beauty of Vintage Guitars. He has won the Goldwyn, Edgar, and Anthony awards and has been nominated for a Shamus Award. Jonathan and Faye Kellerman live in California, New Mexico, and New York.

Read more at:
http://www.jonathankellerman.com/

Jesse Kellerman

Jesse Kellerman has written dozens of plays and published seven novels, two of them cowritten with his father, Jonathan Kellerman. He has won numerous awards, including the Princess Grace Award for Playwriting (“Things Beyond Our Control”) and the Grand Prix des Lectrices de Elle (“The Genius”/”Les Visages”). His novel “Potboiler” was nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Novel. An essay, “Let My People Go to the Buffet,” was included in Penguin’s Best American Spiritual Writing (2011). His next book, Crime Scene, was also cowritten with Jonathan Kellerman and will be published in fall 2017. He lives in Berkeley, California, with his wife and children.

The Narrator:

Dennis Boutsikaris

Dennis Boutsikaris was born December 21, 1952 in Newark, New Jersey, to a Greek American father and Jewish mother,^[1] and grew up in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey.^[2] He took up acting while a student at Governor Livingston High School, because he felt he was too small to succeed in athletics.^[3] A graduate of Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, Boutsikaris toured the country with John Houseman’s The Acting Company doing classical theatre. Boutsikaris was married to actress Deborah Hedwall; they divorced in 2002.

He can be heard in over 160 audiobooks and has received eight Audie Awards and two Best Voices of the Year Awards from AudioFile Magazine.^[14] He was voted Best Narrator of the Year by Amazon for The Gene.

Find him at:
http://www.dennisboutsikaris.com *

*Thanks to Wikipedia for this info.

Graphic by Canva.com

All We Thought We Knew by Michelle Shocklee #BookReview #TuesdayBookBlog

Book Blurb:

When Mattie Taylor’s twin brother was killed in Vietnam, she lost her best friend and the only person who really understood her. Now, news that her mother is dying sends Mattie back home, despite blaming her father for Mark’s death. Mama’s last wish is that Mattie would read some old letters stored in a trunk, from people Mattie doesn’t even know. Mama insists they hold the answers Mattie is looking for.

1942. Ava Delaney is picking up the pieces of her life following her husband’s death at Pearl Harbor. Living with her mother-in-law on a secluded farm in Tennessee is far different than the life Ava imagined when she married only a few short months ago. Desperate to get out of the house, Ava seeks work at a nearby military base, where she soon discovers the American government is housing Germans who they have classified as enemy aliens. As Ava works to process legal documents for the military, she crosses paths with Gunther Schneider, a German who is helping care for wounded soldiers. Ava questions why a man as gentle and kind as Gunther should be forced to live in the internment camp, and as they become friends, her sense of the injustice grows . . . as do her feelings for him. Faced with the possibility of losing Gunther, Ava must choose whether loving someone deemed the enemy is a risk worth taking, even if it means being ostracized by all those around her.

In the midst of pain and loss two women must come face-to-face with their own assumptions about what they thought they knew about themselves and others. What they discover will lead to a far greater appreciation of their own legacies and the love of those dearest to them.

My Review:

It hasn’t been that long since I read and reviewed Appalchian Song in August 2024, my first from this author. She used a dual timeline then, as in this novel as well, dividing two main POVs between WWII and Vietnam. Seems I always gravitate more to one timeline and character than the other, and in the case, it was the 40s with Ava Delaney.

Guard Tower at Camp Forrest courtesy US Air Force and Densho Encyclopedia

Ava Delaney is the more liberal, befriending a German classified as an enemy alien during WWII. She secured a job at Camp Forrest in Tullahoma following her husband’s death at Pearl and finds herself attracted to Gunther (who for a short time has his own POV), a medical student prior to his delivery to the internment camp that was part of the massive base in Tennessee. Granted, she didn’t really know her husband and honest in her reason for the marriage, was more for security than love.

Mattie Taylor loses her twin brother to the war in Vietnam a little more than a generation later. She left her parents’ home shortly after the funeral, furious with their lack of opposition to his joining the Marines with his best friend through childhood. Her brother doesn’t come home, his best friend does but with the loss of an arm.

She has returned home following time on the West Coast where she had turned on, tuned out, and dropped out as so many did during the 60s in protest to the war most thought we had no business being in. More than bitter, she seethes fury at anyone backing the government’s involvement that led to her brother’s death and except that she returned to say goodbye to her now terminal mother, would otherwise have continued the life of a “hippie” in a San Francisco commune.

She is developed as petulant, spoiled, ignorant, selfish, and lacking the ability to support anyone other than those who agree with her ideology, which she repeats—more than once.

(This one hits hard since I lost a brother and both he and my husband were conscripted at the same time. Not like they had a choice back then. Whether or not we agreed with the US position (and we didn’t), we tried hard to support our boys, which was made difficult by those who didn’t.)

So, yeah, I did get very weary of Mattie’s position; the loss is devastating no question. But she got very tiresome.

What I did enjoy was the slow discovery of Amy’s story. Again, not sure I could put myself in those shoes, but the measured delivery of how it all came together became obvious.

The writing style is gripping. There are a few twists. There are themes of the futility of war, the physiological and psychological damage to those involved and the resulting damage to the family unit as well as the community, terminal illness, and hope.

Does Mattie ever relax that resentment, begin to see others first, discover ways she can make a difference in their lives as well as her own? You’ll have to read the book and determine for yourself. It just might be the binge-reader you’ve been looking for!

I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the author and publisher through @NetGalley that in no way influenced this review. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Rating: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Southern United States Fiction, Southern Fiction, Christian Historical Fiction
Publisher: Tyndale Fiction
ISBN: 1496484177
ASIN: B0CW1M4P8D
Print Length: 359 pages
Publication Date: October 1, 2024
Source: Library

Title Link(s):

Amazon-US | Amazon-UK | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

The Author: Michelle Shocklee is the author of several historical novels, including COUNT THE NIGHTS BY STARS, winner of the 2023 Christianity Today Book Award in Fiction, and UNDER THE TULIP TREE, a Christy Award and Selah Award finalist. As a woman of mixed heritage–her father’s family is Hispanic and her mother’s roots go back to Germany–she has always celebrated diversity and feels it’s important to see the world through the eyes of one another. Learning from the past and changing the future is why she writes historical fiction.

With both her sons grown, Michelle and her husband make their home in Tennessee, not far from the historical sites she writes about.

Michelle loves hearing from readers! Connect with her at http://www.MichelleShocklee.com

Graphic courtesy Canva.com

The Burning and The Lost Coast by Jonathan and Jesse Kellerman #AudiobookReview #ThrowbackThursday

Clay Edison – Books 4 and 5

The Burning

Book Blurb:

Things get personal for Deputy Coroner Clay Edison when a murder hits close to home in this riveting, emotional thriller from the best-selling father-son team that writes “brilliant, page-turning fiction” (Stephen King).

A raging wildfire. A massive blackout. A wealthy man shot to death in his palatial hilltop home.

For Clay Edison, it’s all in a day’s work. As a deputy coroner, caring for the dead, he speaks for those who cannot speak for themselves. He prides himself on an unflinching commitment to the truth. Even when it gets him into trouble.

Then, while working the murder scene, Clay is horrified to discover a link to his brother, Luke. Horrified. But not surprised. Luke is fresh out of prison and struggling to stay on the straight and narrow.

And now he’s gone AWOL.

The race is on for Clay to find him before anyone else can. Confronted with Luke’s legacy of violence, Clay is forced to reckon with his own suspicions, resentments, and loyalties. Is his brother a killer? Or could he be the victim in all of this, too?

This is Jonathan and Jesse Kellerman at their most affecting and pause-resisting – a harrowing collision of family, revenge, and murder.

My Review:

It’s a story that hits too close to home for Clay Edison, Deputy of the County Coroner’s Office. He is sent to the home of a dead man but is jolted when he spots his brother’s car in the garage. It’s not like he can point that out without severe repercussions for his brother as he is not that long out of prison. With his brother’s track record, he is torn between wanting to believe he had nothing to do with the deceased, but…

In the meantime, he needs to talk to Luke and that’s the rub. Luke is not answering his phone and his wife is not exactly coming forth with the why or how of him going missing.

I like the character of Clay and we get to learn about him in this installment, as well as peek into his fatherhood role. He continues to push the boundaries of his job description and in this installment is well over propriety. There are also some strong, well developed support characters, but I’m not a huge fan of his wife, Amy.

I actually started this series with Book 1, Crime Scene. Yeah, I know what you are thinking, how very unusual! True. I was a solid fan of Kellerman’s Alex Delaware novels, so I did have some experience with Jonathan and Book 1 definitely hooked me, not only with the premise of the protagonist coming from a different angle into the investigation, but also totally loved the narrator, Dennis Boutsikaris. His delivery is extremely dynamic providing realistic dialogue between characters. So yeah, as mentioned in my review of Crime Scene, I got on the wait list for Books 2, 3, 4, and 5. Well, these popped up first. (At this point, don’t you know I’m compelled to complete the entire series.)

There are some twists and I do enjoy the authors writing style. Their collaboration produces an interesting plot, if not entirely unique, lively and well paced.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Crime Thrillers, Suspense, Mysteries
Publisher: Random House Audio
ASIN: B0977QL7GY
Listening Length: 7 hrs 30 mins
Narrator: Dennis Boutsikaris
Publication Date: September 21, 2021
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: The Burning – Amazon-US
Amazon-UK
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Lost Coast

Book Blurb:

Cut loose from his former life at the coroner’s office, Clay Edison has set up shop as a private investigator. It’s steady, safe work. Until it isn’t.

The trouble begins when a young man, tasked with managing his grandmother’s estate, hires Clay to examine some minor financial discrepancies. What starts off as a case of simple fraud rapidly explodes into a web of deception, an elaborate con game stretching back decades and involving countless victims.

All the evidence points to a tiny town on California’s rugged, remote Lost Coast. Good luck getting there, though. And Clay’s reward for surviving the journey is a trigger-happy welcoming committee, ready to guard their secrets with lethal force.

Navigating this landscape of savage waves and savage lies brings Clay into collision with a host of other players: a grieving mother, an enigmatic teenager, a reclusive military veteran, a foul-mouthed PI pursuing her own agenda. And the price of truth will turn out to be higher—and deadlier—than Clay could have imagined.

From the minds of Jonathan and Jesse Kellerman comes a heart-stopping tale of deception and redemption—bursting with action, suspense, and unforgettable characters.

My Review:

Ugh! I hate it when the main character totally changes everything, well, almost, as somewhere between Books 4 and 5, Clay Edison goes from being a County Coroner to a PI. Wha??? I signed up because I thought he was going to do forensics stuff. Nope, now he is the guy with a license (not badges). And as if he ever did, no longer worries about rules or laws.

Eager to take on new cases, he is looking into what might be a real estate fraud for a client. There are some intriguing unanswered questions, and failing to get enough info online or research decides he must drive to Swan’s Landing. The little town is remotely located on the Lost Coast of California, barely accessible on the roughest of roads and goat trails or by boat. Few inhabitants or services are available and the simple real estate fraud case begins to split into a suspenseful sub-plot.

The Kellermans take their time building the plot amid a masterfully painted description of the desolation and wild mountains on the rugged northern coast of California. (And I might add—as wild and beautiful as it is remote.) Equally well developed are the local inhabitants, unique, each viewing Edison as an outsider.

The storyline is finely paced, allowing the reader to savor the building tension with the discovery of each new piece of information. While my heart sank just a bit in the denouement, all loose threads were creatively woven into place.

It’s the fifth in the series, not sure there’ll be a sixth, although if there is, I’ll be there to sign up. In the meantime, look for future reviews of Books 2 and 3 when I get them. Book 5 might well be read as a standalone—he switched jobs—but not personality and there is a few backstories filling in blanks. Still, you might wish to read Clay Edison the coroner as well as Edison the PI just to get a flavor of the change in depth of the storyline.

I downloaded a copy of these audiobooks from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Private Investigator Mysteries, Crime Fiction
Publisher: Random House Audio
ASIN: B0CN3RYNZ3
Listening Length: 8 hrs 19 mins
Narrator: Dennis Boutsikaris
Publication Date: August 6, 2024
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: The Lost Coast – Amazon-US
Amazon-UK
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Authors:

Jonathan Kellerman

Read more at:
http://www.jonathankellerman.com/

Jesse Kellerman

The Narrator:

Dennis Boutsikaris

Dennis Boutsikaris was born December 21, 1952 in Newark, New Jersey, to a Greek American father and Jewish mother,^[1] and grew up in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey.^[2] He took up acting while a student at Governor Livingston High School, because he felt he was too small to succeed in athletics.^[3] A graduate of Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, Boutsikaris toured the country with John Houseman’s The Acting Company doing classical theatre. Boutsikaris was married to actress Deborah Hedwall; they divorced in 2002.

Find him at:
http://www.dennisboutsikaris.com *

*Thanks to Wikipedia for this info.

The God of the Woods: A Novel by Liz Moore #Audiobook #FamilyLifeFiction

#11 this week

Goodreads Choice Award Winner for Readers’ Favorite Mystery & Thriller (2024)

Book Blurb:

ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES’S NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2024
A NEW YORK TIMES BEST THRILLER OF 2024
A NEW YORK TIMES BEST CRIME NOVEL OF 2024
PEOPLE MAGAZINE’S #1 BOOK OF THE YEAR
A NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY TOP 10 PICK OF 2024
ONE OF NPR’S “BOOKS WE LOVE” 2024
ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE’S “100 MUST-READ BOOKS OF 2024”

When a teenager vanishes from her Adirondack summer camp, two worlds collide

Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any thirteen-year-old: she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found.

As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances. It is Liz Moore’s most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet.

My Review:

Longer doesn’t always equate with better.

I’m the salmon battling up the river and over all the fish ladders as this novel appears to have done quite well and as usual I wasn’t all that thrilled.

While it started out with a hook and sparked my interest, the further I got into it, the less compelled I was to continue.

A seventeen-year-old girl disappears from summer camp and in the search for her the reader is introduced to myriad characters and their own POVs. Unfortunately, many times it is also the cause of timeline switches which disrupted the train of thought, derailed the plot line for me while I tried to digest the new time, the character in that time frame, and how they related to poor Barbara Van Laar whose family owns the camp.

Her brother disappeared from the same camp fourteen years previously. Yeah, now introduce a subplot. Why and how did he disappear?

What began as a nice pace became a slow burn, a mystery, that the longer the search, the more characters, timeline switches, and dysfunctional family memories are shared, the less I cared about any of them.

While there are some truly badass women, they are countered by milksops. My favorite character is TJ. She is smart, solid, and doesn’t let the money power behind the Van Laars lessen her authority. When it’s time for Alice’s POV (she is such a mess), I just want to slap her up the side of the head and tell her to shut up.

Well, are they ever going to find her? I don’t know—did you successfully navigate the twists and turns that lead nowhere? There is an interesting writing style, you can’t say the characters are not fully developed, but the atmosphere of the woods and the camp gets depressingly descriptive at times. Short chapters and slow passages kept me reading when I’d hit another interesting advance to the storyline. It was touch and go.

Perhaps better for you if you enjoy slow burn mysteries and character driven timeline switches. In any case, maybe that denouement will catch you by surprise. By that time though it just seems obvious.

I received an audiobook of this title from my local library that in no way influenced this review. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Rating: Four Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Family Life Fiction, Literary Fiction, Psychological Thrillers
Publisher: Riverhead Books
ISBN-10: ‎ 0593418913
ISBN-13: ‎ 978-0593418918
ASIN: B0CL1YQLB5
Print Length: 490 pages
Publication Date: July 2, 2024
Source: Library

Title Link(s):

Amazon-US | Amazon-UK | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

The Author: Liz Moore is the author of five novels: The Words of Every Song, Heft, The Unseen World, the New York Times-bestselling Long Bright River, and The God of the Woods. A winner of the 2014 Rome Prize in Literature, she lives in Philadelphia and teaches in the MFA program in Creative Writing at Temple University.

I’ll Have What She’s Having by Chelsea Handler #BookReview #TuesdayBookBlog

Book Blurb:

In hilarious and tender essays, #1 New York Times bestselling author Chelsea Handler shares her unforgettable story of becoming the woman she always wanted to be.

There’s a woman I want to become, Chelsea Handler thought as a child. She’ll be strong and confident. She’ll light up a room and spread that light to make others feel better. She’ll make a living being herself. She’ll be a survivor.

At ten years old, Chelsea opened a lemonade stand and realized she’d make more money if the drinks were spiked. So she added vodka to her recipe and used her earnings to upgrade herself to first-class on a family vacation—leaving her parents and siblings in coach. She moved to Los Angeles and got fired from her temp job when she admitted she didn’t know how to transfer calls. She’s played pickleball with the scions of an American dynasty. She’s sexted a governor. She shared psychedelics with strangers in Spain. When she accidentally ended up at dinner with Woody Allen, she was not going to leave the table without asking him a very personal pointed question. She went on national television and talked about having threesomes. She’s never been one to hold back.

But this life of adventure and absurdity is only part of her story. Chelsea knows what it is to truly show up for her family—canine and human, biological and chosen. She’s discovered how to spend time with herself, how to meditate, how to be open to love, and how to end a relationship with dignity. She is a sister to the many women who rely on her.

Surprisingly vulnerable and always outrageous, Chelsea Handler captures the antic-filled, exhilarating, and joyful life she’s built—a life that makes the rest of us think, I’ll have what she’s having.

My Review:

You know the name. So do I. And I opted for this book anyway, assuming I’d get what I expected.

You know what you get when you assume?

And, yes, I got some a lot of that. And I also got a surprising number of revelations. Not just about her. But also about me. Gees, after reading some of her childhood, I kept wondering why in the world was she so screwed up? Why did she require years of therapy to make a breakthrough in understanding who she was and how she got there?

This from a narcissist:
“When I see a bird, I’m not thinking about what that bird is thinking about. I’m thinking about how well rounded I am that I’m paying attention to birds…The bird is always about me; it’s never just a bird.”

My first book by this author almost turned me off when she began talking about Jane Fonda. (Remember, we spent years in the military during ‘Nam when Fonda made that infamous trip to North Vietnam, still earning her blistering traitor comments. How could anyone take advice from someone who created such hatred from our guys?)

Still, the heart-to-heart struck a chord with Chelsea, and giving it much thought began a turn-around in her attitude. Known for her open dislike of the male gender and children, it’s amazing she could find so many men with whom to have relationships. She was looking for “the one.” As it was observed, however, women appeared to expect men to change while men expected a woman not to. Yeah, funny, and isn’t it the truth? But there were a lot of quotables, funny observations nestled in all those life lessons and chapter-length discussions on how to be a better person.

“…recognize that instinct is a knowing feeling, and impulse is acting on an emotion.”

My eyes might have occasionally glazed over when the lectures of what she discovered and how she turned it around went on rant page after page. Sometimes it felt like the point was not just made but then pounded in with a jackhammer. And all this from a woman readily discussing her drug and alcohol use, sheets of LSD. Was she writing “on the influence?” I had that feeling more than once. Were I at a cocktail party and she was on a soap box, I’d be finding another group to listen in on.

“Dependable, kind, munificent, free. These are the words I want people to use when describing me.”

But she made her point, one that keeps being stuck over and over: Kindness. You never know what someone else is going through.

I loved her account of the children she’s worked with, the love she has for her nieces and nephews, and her own dogs. When she’s on a mission to learn more about parenting, whether human child or pup, she dives in up to her chin and has the wherewithal to pay for the best tutorage.

“I was finally grasping the idea that all children are all of our responsibilities.” (Yes, it takes a neighborhood, a mantra when I was growing up.)

So, yes, I’m torn. An interesting and unexpected book. I suspect I might have greatly enjoyed an audiobook version, but this gave me the opportunity to peek into the life of the woman proclaiming her freedom, apparently from everything deemed appropriate for a successful woman supporting herself in grand style by being herself. If you’re a Chelsea fan, then you’ll no doubt love this book. My generation, though, grown before burning bras was the thing might still find some disclosures TMI.

I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the author and publisher through @NetGalley that in no way influenced this review. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Rating: Four Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Celebrity & Popular Culture Humor, Humor Essays,
Publisher: The Dial Press
ASIN: B0DDSK9TJR
Print Length: 320 pages
Publication Date: February 25, 2025
Source: Publisher and NetGalley

Title Link(s):

Amazon-US | Amazon-UK | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

The Author: Chelsea Handler is an accomplished stand-up comic and actress, as well as the bestselling author of My Horizontal Life. She is the star of her own late-night show on E!, Chelsea Lately; was one of the stars of Girls Behaving Badly; has appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Late Night with David Letterman; and has starred in her own half-hour Comedy Central special. Chelsea makes regular appearances in comedy clubs across America and lives in Los Angeles.

What Is Wrong with You?: A Novel by Paul Rudnick #BookReview #humorousfiction

Book Blurb:

A tech billionaire and the flight attendant he’s marrying. A TV superhero who used to be married to the flight attendant. A Manhattan book editor and the sensitivity associate who got him fired. A twenty-three-year-old wild child prodigy who’s perhaps the savior of American literature. A vengeful Arkansas sheriff who sells a vitamin-enriched, ten-pounds-off-today demulsifier. A Wall Street bro who raps on TikTok. Two dentists—possibly stalking each other.

What do these people have in common? Invited or not, they’re all headed to the most anticipated destination wedding ever, on the billionaire’s private island, to seek romance, to cause mayhem, and to figure out everyone else’s futures and maybe even their own.

Find out what happens in Paul Rudnick’s heartfelt new novel, which dares to pose the question essential to anyone who’s ever been in love: What Is Wrong with You?

His Review:

Linda and Sean should have been soul mates. The problem is that Linda could never totally subject herself to unrequited love. There always seems to be something that will ruin it. Therefore, she plans for failure and infidelity and thereby is never disappointed. The author wades through all manner of relationships and sexual persuasions.

Gay love has all of the pitfalls of heterosexual love. The evolving question is: Can any human relationship be relied upon 100%? The prognosis is even more convoluted by the trials of everyday life. Would a gay partner be any the less inclined to be faithful to someone who is terminally ill? Should a husband ignore the urging of his loins while 3,000 miles away from a sniping wife?

These and other questions are the essence of this tome. I found myself laughing out loud at some of the trials this author illuminates. So many threads in the storyline, so much conflict, so many stories. The writing style is compelling.

The ending of the tale turns out funny and rewarding yet tragic at the same time.

But everyone will see it differently. 4.5 stars – CE Williams

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: LGBTQ+, Humorous Fiction, Literary Fiction
Publisher: Atria Books
ISBN-10: 166806829X
ISBN-13: 978-1668068298
ASIN: B0CW1F55Q2
Print Length: 336 pages
Publication Date: March 25, 2025
Source: Publisher and NetGalley

Title Link(s):

Amazon-US | Amazon-UK | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

Paul Rudnick - author — Photo courtesy Wikipedia

The Author: Paul Rudnick is an American writer. His plays have been produced both on and off Broadway and around the world. He is also known for having written the screenplays for several movies, including Sister Act, Addams Family Values, Jeffrey, and In & Out.

Born on December 29, 1957 in Piscataway, NJ, Rudnick celebrates his birthday today! Happy Birthday, Paul!

You Never Know: A Memoir by Tom Selleck #AudiobookReview #Rich & Famous Biographies

Best Biographies & Memoirs

Book Blurb:

There are many miles from the business school and basketball court at the University of Southern California to 50 million viewers for the final episode of a TV show called Magnum P.I. Tom Selleck has lived every one of those miles in his own iconoclastic and joyful way.

Frank, funny and open-hearted, You Never Know is an intimate memoir from one of the most beloved actors of our time, the highly personal story of a remarkable life and thoroughly accidental career. In his own voice and uniquely unpretentious style, the famed actor brings listeners on his uncharted but serendipitous journey to the top in Hollywood, his temptations and distractions, his misfires and mistakes and, over time, his well-earned success. Along the way, he clears up an armload of misconceptions and shares dozens of never-told stories from all corners of his personal and professional life. His rambunctious California childhood. His clueless arrival as a good-looking college jock in Hollywood (from the Dating Game to the Fox New Talent Program to co-starring with Mae West and escorting her to black-tie social functions). What it was like to emerge as a mega-star in his mid-thirties and remain so for decades to come, an actor whose authenticity and ease in front of the camera connected with audiences worldwide while embodying and also redefining the clichés of onscreen manhood.

In You Never Know, Selleck recounts his personal friendships with a vivid army of A-listers, everyone from Frank Sinatra to Carol Burnett to Sam Elliott, paying special tribute to his mentor James Garner of The Rockford Files, who believed, like Selleck, that TV protagonists are far more interesting when they have rough edges.He also more than tips his hat to the American western and the scruffy band of actors, directors and other ruffians who helped define that classic genre, where Selleck has repeatedly found a happy home. Magnum fans will be fascinated to learn how Selleck put his career on the line to make Thomas Magnum a more imperfect hero and explains why he walked away from a show that could easily have gone on for years longer.

Hollywood is never easy, even for stars who make it look that way. In You Never Know, Selleck explains how he’s struggled to balance his personal and professional lives, frequently adjusting his career to protect his family’s privacy and normalcy. His journey offers a truly fresh perspective on a changing industry and a changing world. Beneath all the charm and talent and self-deprecating humor, Selleck’s memoir reveals an American icon who has reached remarkable heights by always insisting on being himself.

My Review:

You might get the impression by the length of the blurb that this gets a little on the verbose side? Well, possibly.

I waited for my turn on the library audiobook and it was worth the wait. I was interested to see what he thought important and given that his years with Magnum PI ran into minute detail on specific episodes, the rewriting of each, and the next season’s problems, I’d guess that was where his heart is.

The man was a head-turner, no question, but have to say when Magnum ran (December 11, 1980 to May 1, 1988), I was busy with a three and five-year-old and if I had time to watch TV was probably too exhausted to remember tuning into much of the Magnum seasons.

Oh, wait! “But I have to say” and “I gotta tell you” were repeated so many times I wondered why the editor didn’t cut a few. But anyway, I gotta tell you, he read his book to me. Or it seemed like it. Well, he didn’t just read it. The book was spoken in an easy, comfortable and conversational tone. I just needed the overstuffed easy chair with a glass of Moscato.

I didn’t get to ask questions though, and if I had, I might have asked about the blanks in his story—more on his early childhood—his marriages. More…personal stuff. And, maybe more about Blue Bloods. Eegods—that was longer running than Magnum (fourteen seasons) as opposed to seven on Magnum. Actually, I was really surprised by all his credits—a much longer list than I had any clue. (After all, the man’s been involved in the industry fifty years.)

It appears he was incredibly lucky, this was certainly not a path he was originally set on. Serendipity worked for him more than once, with the possible exception of his loss of the role that Harrison Ford got in the Raiders flicks.

He was divorced from first wife Jackie when he met Jillie Mack who was playing in Cats in London. It has to be Jillie that kept him coming back to see that one (eight times!?). I snoozed through a large part of it.

I did enjoy many of the thoughtful memories, the stories of the locations, the one in Yugoslavia in particular. They did have too much fun! I wondered sometimes if his generous and considerate memories of the many men and women he was associated with were paving a story for the picture of a loving and sweet hero or was that really who he is? There was an obvious change from his humble beginnings as he got more popular during Magnum to his exertion of more power. And how could you not? He’d had a lot to learn and obviously learned it very well.

He dropped a lot of names, including Princess Di, but I particularly loved his friendship with James Garner, always one of my favorites. Memories were kept on the charitable side followed by the story of his 63 acre ranch located in Ventura County, California when he retired from Blue Bloods. That’s a beautiful area, my brother born there back when there were more acres of orange groves than houses. Before the drought hit California, his ranch was a thriving avocado farm.

If you enjoy celebrity memoirs, you’ll enjoy this one, particularly because it’s narrated by the author. If you are looking for trash on all his associates, you might not. I’d recommend it, however.

I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Rich & Famous Biographies, Biographies & Celebrities & Entertainment Professionals, Actor & Entertainer Biographies
Publisher: HarperAudio
ASIN: B07QPQF4DB
Listening Length: 15 hrs 27 mins
Narrator: Tom Selleck
Publication Date: November 19, 2024
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: You Never Know – Amazon-US
Amazon-UK
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Author: Tom Selleck, born in Detroit, Michigan on January 29, 1945. Tom Selleck is an American actor, film producer, and California Army National Guard veteran. He is most known for starring as private investigator Thomas Magnum in the television series Magnum, P.I. (1980–1988), as Peter Mitchell in the comedy film Three Men and a Baby, and as NYPD Commissioner Frank Reagan in Blue Bloods on CBS since 2010. (Goodreads bio)

Thomas William Selleck is an American actor. His breakout role was playing private investigator Thomas Magnum in the television series Magnum, P.I., for which he received five Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, winning in 1985. (Wikipedia–short bio and portraits)

Happy Holiday week!