Kobo – Page 5 – Rosepoint Publishing

Crime Writer by Vinnie Hansen #BookReview #TuesdayBookBlog #NetGalley

Book Blurb:

In the peaceful California coast city of Playa Maria, CRIME WRITER ZOEY KOZINSKI joins a local police officer for a ride-along in hopes of breaking through her writer’s block. But during a routine traffic stop, the cop is shot, the victim of a brutal homicide.

Zoey realizes she is the only witness and the number one target on the killer’s hit list. PTSD kicks in, sending her into a tailspin. It doesn’t help that she lives on an illegal cannabis farm and that her estranged mother has just arrived. Even the police officer’s widow points a finger at the writer, claiming she was a distraction, and the police department knew it.

Lurking on the fringes is a man who stopped briefly at the crime. Good Samaritan or sinister suspect? For her safety, Zoey needs to find out.

My Review:

I’m fence-sitting on this one. I liked it okay, but didn’t really feel compelled to sit down and finish it up.

It’s one of those that gives you the who as it hooks. That doesn’t mean it’s all over. No. Zoe is up to her eyeballs in the thick of it, having witnessed the killing of the police officer who allowed a ride-along for Zoe, who is experiencing writer’s block.

Unfortunately, not only does she witness the killing, but she is, in turn witnessed. Not the best thing if she wanted to remain hidden and anonymous. Of course, her notes for her book appear to implicate her in the murder of the officer (something his widow latches onto—her being a deadly distraction)…and I always hate that obvious assumption. We know there are so many ways these days to prove it wasn’t her.

Zoe might have had some additional development, although she is not one-dimensional and she has an interesting friend in Harvey. I love the location, beautifully depicted in description as well as the town’s inhabitants. Once she realizes she has been exposed, things get dicey and ramps up the suspense considerably.

You can’t say it isn’t entertaining. I love those small California coastal town settings; they create such a vibe, but you’d better know the town better than the perp if you’re to survive! If you enjoy suspense thrillers, you may very well give this one a try.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book. The thoughts expressed here are my own.

Rosepoint Rating: Three point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Murder, Psychological Thrillers, Murder Thrillers
Publisher: Level Best Books
ASIN: B0FMGNWM2D
Print Length: 307 pages
Publication Date: September 9, 2025
Source: NetGalley

Title Link(s):

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

The Author: Vinnie Hansen fled the South Dakota prairie for the California coast the day after high school graduation.

A reading addict since childhood, Vinnie is now the author of the Carol Sabala mysteries. The seventh installment in the series, Black Beans & Venom, was a finalist for the Claymore Award. She’s also written two stand-alone novels titled Lostart Street and One Gun as well as over 60 published short stories. Her flash fiction, “Bad Connection,” won the 2015 Golden Donut Award from the Writers’ Police Academy.

Vinnie is a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and the Short Mystery Fiction Society.

Still sane after 27 years of teaching high school English, Vinnie has retired and lives in Santa Cruz, California, with her husband and the requisite cat.

Happy Autumn

Our Souls at Night: A Novel by Kent Haruf #AudiobookReview #bookclub #TBT

Editors’ pick Best Literature and Fiction

Nominee for Readers’ Favorite Fiction (2015)

I attended the Y Book Club in our area yesterday for their September selection: Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf. This book club meets once a month and is very popular. I can see why—the moderator does a great job keeping us to script—and the group is active and friendly.

My Thoughts

An unusual book for the book club in that it’s under 200 pages long. Not so unusual is that it’s a rather sad literary peek at the state of love in aging seniors.

The loneliness in seniors is a theme rapidly becoming popular, although this was written back in 2015, released as I understand it, after the death of the author. This is an in-your-face confrontation with that popular theme, suffered by two who’ve survived the death of their spouses in rather unhappy marriages but now find their homes and lives rather lonely and empty.

Amazingly, it’s Addie Moore who surprises her neighbor, Louis Waters, with an unusual request. They live in a small town, so of course, they will know each other, their families, and history. It’s the solitude of the evening hours that propels Addie to make the proposal to Louis. Shocked, he is rather slow to agree, but does so. The first few nights are awkward.

Frankly, I struggled through the book though the narrator’s delivery was spot on conveying the misery of loss, solitude, and isolation. I loved their little adventures, and particularly when Addie’s grandson was introduced to the narrative, then was crushed by the conclusion, even with the little ray of connection offered at the end.

Book Club Thoughts

The Y Book Club is exclusively made up of women, most of them seniors, a few of them widows. It’s a novel that strikes to the heart of most and as always provided for lively discussion.

Once again, an emotional wallop, depressing, depending on who read and their own stories. It would appear seniors are either portrayed as having too much free fun, food, and adventure, or depressing scenes of the end of years. Ugh.

This was apparently a very successful author who solicited help from his wife for this, his final book, before he died young at age 71. Particularly the last quarter of the book appears to have her heavy contribution to the manuscript.

Many thanks to my local library for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book. The thoughts expressed here are my own.

Book Club rating 3.5 stars

Book Details:

Genre: Literary Sagas, Romance Literary Fiction, Contemporary Literary Fiction
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 978-1101875902
ASIN: B00PP3DNDI
Print Length: 184 pages
Publication Date: May 26, 2015
Source: Local Library

Title Link(s):

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

Kent Haruf - author — Photo courtesy Goodreads

The Author: Haruf was born in Pueblo, Colorado, the son of a Methodist minister. He graduated with a BA from Nebraska Wesleyan University in 1965, where he would later teach, and earned an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa in 1973.

Before becoming a writer, Haruf worked in a variety of places, including a chicken farm in Colorado, a construction site in Wyoming, a rehabilitation hospital in Denver, a hospital in Phoenix, a presidential library in Iowa, an alternative high school in Wisconsin, as an English teacher with the Peace Corps in Turkey, and colleges in Nebraska and Illinois. He lived with his wife, Cathy, in Salida, Colorado until his death in 2014. He had three daughters from his first marriage.

All of Haruf’s novels take place in the fictional town of Holt, in eastern Colorado. Holt is based on Yuma, Colorado, one of Haruf’s residences in the early 1980s. His first novel, The Tie That Binds (1984), received a Whiting Award and a special Hemingway Foundation/PEN citation. Where You Once Belonged followed in 1990. A number of his short stories have appeared in literary magazines.

Plainsong was published in 1999 and became a U.S. bestseller. Verlyn Klinkenborg called it “”a novel so foursquare, so delicate and lovely, that it has the power to exalt the reader.”” Plainsong won the Mountains & Plains Booksellers Award and the Maria Thomas Award in Fiction and was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction.

Eventide, a sequel to Plainsong, was published in 2004. Library Journal described the writing as “”honest storytelling that is compelling and rings true.”” Jonathan Miles saw it as a “”repeat performance”” and “”too goodhearted.””

On November 30, 2014, Haruf died at his home in Salida, Colorado at the age of 71. He died of interstitial lung disease.

(Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia courtesy Amazon bio.)

Book Club meeting — AI generated graphic courtesy Gemini

Die Again: A Rizzoli & Isles Novel by Tess Gerritsen #BookReview #MedicalThriller

Editors’ pick Best Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Rizzoli & Isles #11

Goodreads Choice Award-Nominee for Readers’ Favorite Mystery & Thriller (2015)

Book Blurb:

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles are back—and they’re going into the wild to find a killer. Die Again is the latest heart-pounding thriller in Tess Gerritsen’s bestselling series, the inspiration behind TNT’s hit show Rizzoli & Isles.

When Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles are summoned to a crime scene, they find a killing worthy of the most ferocious beast—right down to the claw marks on the corpse. But only the most sinister human hands could have left renowned big-game hunter and taxidermist Leon Gott gruesomely displayed like the once-proud animals whose heads adorn his walls. Did Gott unwittingly awaken a predator more dangerous than any he’s ever hunted?

Maura fears that this isn’t the killer’s first slaughter, and that it won’t be the last. After linking the crime to a series of unsolved homicides in wilderness areas across the country, she wonders if the answers might actually be found in a remote corner of Africa.

Six years earlier, a group of tourists on safari fell prey to a killer in their midst. Marooned deep in the bush of Botswana, with no means of communication and nothing but a rifle-toting guide for protection, the terrified tourists desperately hoped for rescue before their worst instincts—or the wild animals prowling in the shadows—could tear them apart. But the deadliest predator was already among them, and within a week, he walked away with the blood of all but one of them on his hands.

Now this killer has chosen Boston as his new hunting ground, and Rizzoli and Isles must find a way to lure him out of the shadows and into a cage. Even if it means dangling the bait no hunter can resist: the one victim who got away.

My Review:

Detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles are back in the eleventh installment of the series, and Jane again pursues with the heart of a pit bull. I always enjoy the female buddy leads who often bring an emotional quality to the novel not found in male-dominated crime fiction.

The first part of the book is first person by the lone survivor of a mass killing in Botswana. A tourist safari gone way, way wrong. The suspense starts the novel on a high note and seldom falls as the intermittent voice of the African survivor is plunked into the narrative of the gruesome murder in Boston, revealing details about the unique death.

“A woman in love is a poor judge of character.”

The account of the survivor and how she manages to live is gripping. Unfortunately, the killer also begins his unique MO in Boston and guess who discovers it? The settings are descriptive down to the buzzing of the insects and calls of the wild. Jane, herself, becomes a tiger, sure she’s caught her man until an operation proves otherwise. Still, she perseveres.

There are a few twists; it wasn’t easy to catch this guy but it’s always the ride, not the destination, right?

I enjoy how the two, Rizzoli and Maura work together, although opposites in manner and procedure. (Also a popular series on TNT). They are not so fleshed at this point in the series; assumed by now you know their intimate details. (I could do without the Jane mom thing though.) I think you’d still be able to pick up Book 11 of the series and enjoy independently.

Loved The Spy Coast back in November 2023, the first in a new series. A proven author you can really look forward to reading. Many thanks to my local library for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book. The thoughts expressed here are my own.

Rosepoint Rating: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Medical Fiction, Medical Thrillers
Publisher: Ballantine Books
ISBN: 978-0345543868
ASIN: B00JI4ZSDI
Print Length: 353 pages
Publication Date: December 30, 2014
Source: Local Library

Title Link(s):

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

The Author: Internationally bestselling author Tess Gerritsen took an unusual route to a writing career. A graduate of Stanford University, Tess went on to medical school at the University of California, San Francisco, where she was awarded her M.D.

While on maternity leave from her work as a physician, she began to write fiction and in 1987, her first novel, Call After Midnight, was published. It was just the first of 32 suspense novels that she’s written over a 36-year writing career. She also wrote a screenplay, “Adrift,” which aired as a 1993 CBS Movie of the Week starring Kate Jackson.

Tess’s 1996 medical thriller, Harvest, marked her debut on the New York Times bestseller list and her novels have hit bestseller lists around the world ever since. Among her titles are Gravity, The Surgeon, Vanish, Listen to Me, and her upcoming spy thriller, The Spy Coast, which has just been optioned by Amazon Studios for a television series. Her books have been translated into 40 languages, and more than 40 million copies have been sold around the world.

Her series of novels featuring homicide detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles inspired the hit TNT television series “Rizzoli & Isles,” starring Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander.

She lives in Maine.

For more information on Tess Gerritsen and her novels, visit her website: http://www.tessgerritsen.com or
http://www.tessgerritsen.co.uk.

#TuesdayBookblog banner

Ain’t Nobody’s Fool by Martha Ackmann #BookReview #DollyParton #BiographiesofComposers&Musicians

The Life and Times of Dolly Parton

Rosepoint Publishing: Five Stars

Book Blurb:

A larger-than-life new biography of country music legend and philanthropist Dolly Parton.

In Ain’t Nobody’s Fool: The Life and Times of Dolly Parton, Martha Ackmann chronicles the life of an American Original. From her impoverished childhood in the Smoky Mountains to international stardom as a singer, songwriter, actress, businesswoman, and philanthropist, Dolly Parton has exceeded everyone’s expectations except her own. During a time when the Beatles set the standard for contemporary music, Dolly appeared on a local country music television show that her high school classmates thought was pure cornpone. The day after her high school graduation, she boarded a bus for Nashville, but record executives turned her down. One said her voice sounded like a screech owl.

When Dolly finally got her foot in the door, her talent and focus catapulted her to the top of country charts, the pop world, and movie stardom. Yet her success came at a price. Shunned by many in Nashville who saw her ambition as a betrayal of her country music roots, Dolly became the target of death threats, lawsuits, and a judge who threatened to throw her in jail. She nearly collapsed on-stage and later succumbed to depression that pushed her to the brink, but she refused to be counted out and came back stronger than ever developing Dollywood, the amusement park that became the economic engine of East Tennessee, and founding the Imagination Library that provides free books to children around the world. Her philanthropy to health organizations led to creation of the Moderna COVID vaccine. And, finally, she returned to her roots, recording bluegrass albums that became the most celebrated of her unparalleled 60-year career.

Ain’t Nobody’s Fool is a deep dive into the social, historical, and personal forces that made Dolly Parton one of the most beloved and unifying figures in public life and includes interviews with friends, family members, school mates, Nashville neighbors, members of her band, studio musicians, producers, and many others. It also features never before seen photographs and unearthed documents shedding light on her family’s hardscrabble life. More than anything, Martha Ackmann’s fresh and animated new book proves Dolly Parton knows just who she is and she ain’t nobody’s fool.

His Review:

Being raised with a very poor family in the heart of the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee was not a bad thing. Little Dolly’s family had very little but the compensations were unabridged love and family values. A Parton family name meant many brothers and sisters, parents, and grandparents.

Being “dirt-poor” is the memory of many youths from the Tennessee mountain country but family was always there and love and nurturing always supporting. Dolly Parton was surrounded by family and shared everything available. She was a child prodigy and taught herself music and how to play by ear. Her pure tones were always present as she grew. Her family encouraged her musical development.

The polished multi-talented performer that is Dolly Parton is a gift from God and those Smoky Mountain families. She worked hard to become noticed and when it happened, she never looked back. There are those who feel they were instrumental in getting her recognized. This has some truth but her talents and stardom are the result of a lady who never took no for an answer.

Much of her music is derived from the struggles and determination of her youth. She is a self-made superstar and her songs a testament to the determination to escape poverty. I felt honored to read her story and mentally meet a person of her ability. Thank you for the journey! 5 stars – CE Williams

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this Advanced Reader Copy. Any opinion expressed here is my own.

Book Details:

Genre: Biographies of Composers & Musicians, Biographies & Memoirs of Women, Composer & Musician Biographies
Publisher: St Martin’s Press
ISBN-13: ‎ 978-1250286864
ASIN: B0F5PB7WBG
Print Length: 304 pages
Publication Date: December 30, 2025
Source: Publisher and NetGalley

Title Link(s):

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

The Author: Martha Ackmann is a journalist and author who writes about women who have changed America. Her essays have appeared in The Atlantic, the Paris Review, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. She also is a frequent commentator for New England Public Radio, and has been featured on CNN, National Public Radio, and the BBC. Martha is the recipient of fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. Her books include: The Mercury 13: The True Story of Thirteen Women and the Dream of Space Flight; Curveball: The Remarkable Story of Toni Stone, the First Woman to Play Professional Baseball in the Negro League; and These Fevered Days: Ten Pivotal Moments in the Making of Emily Dickinson. –This text refers to the hardcover edition. [Amazon]

Ms Ackmann was born in St Louis, Missouri and currently resides in western Massachusetts. Website: https://marthaackmann.com [Goodreads]

Happy Autumn Weekend to you from Rosepoint Publishing

One Perfect Couple by Ruth Ware #AudiobookReview #ThrowbackThursday

Book Blurb:

Harkening to Agatha Christie’s classic And Then There Were None, this high-tension thriller follows five couples trapped on a storm-swept island as a killer stalks among them—from Ruth Ware, the New York Times bestselling author who “is turning out to be as ingenious and indefatigable as the Queen of Crime” (The Washington Post).

Lyla is in a bit of a rut. Her post-doctoral research has fizzled out, she’s pretty sure they won’t extend her contract, and things with her boyfriend, Nico, an aspiring actor, aren’t going great. When the opportunity arises for Nico to join the cast of a new reality TV show, One Perfect Couple, she agrees to try out with him.

A whirlwind audition process later, Lyla finds herself whisked off to a tropical paradise with Nico, boating through the Indian Ocean towards Ever After Island, where the two of them will compete against four other couples—Bayer and Angel, Dan and Santana, Joel and Romi, and Conor and Zana—in order to win a cash prize.

But not long after they arrive on the deserted island, things start to go wrong. After the first challenge leaves everyone rattled and angry, an overnight storm takes matters from bad to worse. Cut off from the mainland by miles of ocean, deprived of their phones, and unable to contact the crew that brought them there, the group must band together for survival. As tensions run high and fresh water runs low, Lyla finds that this game show is all too real—and the stakes are life or death.

My Review:

Well, not exactly a new idea for a plot, one that’s been done more than a few times before. This one starts with five couples.

Lyla is in a pickle with her contract for her research and at loose ends, and against her better judgment, agrees to go with boyfriend Nico to participate in a reality TV show called One Perfect Couple.

Something is immediately wrong when the deserted island that was supposed to be a paradise isn’t really ready. The two crew who delivered them have set rules which surprise a few of those so thrilled to be chosen that they neglected to read the fine print.

Unfortunately, the first round eliminated Nico who is sent back and Lyla is left without her partner supposedly waiting for further eliminations to see who will end up the one perfect couple.

One Perfect Couple by Ruth Ware - UK cover — One Perfect Couple – UK cover

To add to the debacle, there is a ferocious storm (hurricane?) that rips through the island almost immediately and leaves those on the island essentially without power or communication to the mainland. Taking inventory of stores, they devise a plan to survive until rescue arrives and one guy appears to take control.

Uh oh…predictably, things begin to happen and not in a good way. They begin the fight for food and water. As the drama ramps up, the group begins to lose a survivor at a time and the tension turns desperate, then deadly.

It starts a bit slow, introducing the characters and the plot device, but once on the island and the storm hits, it becomes engaging and entertaining. There are twists and a surprise in the denouement you didn’t expect. Who will survive to be rescued?

Many thanks to my local library for providing me with the opportunity to listen and review this book. The thoughts expressed here are my own.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Psychological Thrillers, Suspense Thrillers
Publisher:
ASIN: B0CLHL3J44
Listening Length: 14 hrs 25 mins
Narrator: Imogen Church
Publication Date: May 21, 2024
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Links: Amazon-US
Amazon-UK
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Author: Ruth Ware is an international number one bestseller. Her thrillers In a Dark, Dark Wood, The Woman in Cabin 10, The Lying Game, The Death of Mrs Westaway, The Turn of the Key, One by One and The It Girl have appeared on bestseller lists around the world, including the Sunday Times and New York Times, and she is published in more than 40 languages. She lives on the south coast of England, with her family.

Visit http://www.ruthware.com to find out more, or find her on facebook or twitter as @RuthWareWriter

Happy Listening!

A Calamity of Souls by David Baldacci #AudiobookReview #suspensefiction

Editors’ pick Best Books of the Year 2024

Book Blurb:

Set in the tumultuous year of 1968 in southern Virginia, a racially-charged murder case sets a duo of white and Black lawyers against a deeply unfair system as they work to defend their wrongfully-accused Black defendants in this courtroom drama from #1 New York Times bestselling author David Baldacci.

Jack Lee is a white lawyer from Freeman County, Virginia, who has never done anything to push back against racism, until he decides to represent Jerome Washington, a Black man charged with brutally killing an elderly and wealthy white couple. Doubting his decision, Lee fears that his legal skills may not be enough to prevail in a case where the odds are already stacked against both him and his client. And he quickly finds himself out of his depth when he realizes that what is at stake is far greater than the outcome of a murder trial.

Desiree DuBose is a Black lawyer from Chicago who has devoted her life to furthering the causes of justice and equality for everyone. She comes to Freeman County and enters a fractious and unwieldy partnership with Lee in a legal battle against the best prosecutor in the Commonwealth. Yet DuBose is also aware that powerful outside forces are at work to blunt the victories achieved by the Civil Rights era.

Lee and DuBose could not be more dissimilar. On their own, neither one can stop the prosecution’s deliberate march towards a guilty verdict and the electric chair. But together, the pair fight for what once seemed impossible: a chance for a fair trial and true justice.

Over a decade in the writing, A Calamity of Souls breathes richly imagined and detailed life into a bygone era, taking the listener through a world that will seem both foreign and familiar.

My Review:

I borrowed this audiobook from my local library because of the author’s name with whom I was familiar having read and enjoyed previous books, the last a thriller, The 6:20 Man. This novel, however, is a far cry from the others. It’s a serious indictment of the time (1968) and place (Virginia), although certainly not a new story, nor unfortunately one that has appreciably changed since then.

Jack Lee, a white attorney, attempts to take on the defense of Jerome, a young black Vietnam War veteran in the killing of Jerome’s elderly white employers. The author wastes little time in developing his characters sympathetically and the reader almost immediately connects with both.

Jack has never before endeavored to take on such a sensational trial, much less one that will engender strong personal and political repercussions, including from his own family who raised him with a lack of overt prejudice and quickly realize he’s in way above his head and is in deep doo-do.

It is then that he is approached by Desiree DuBose, a Black lawyer from Chicago. She is well known for her expertise in the courtroom as well as her efforts in the fight for racial equality.

The novel crafts a thought-provoking, emotional legal thriller as well as a family drama. Steeped in historical perspective and well developed characters, the narrative deeply dives into the fight to protect and salvage their client as well as battle a corrupt and flawed justice system. If Jerome didn’t kill the elderly couple, who did?

A Calamity of Souls by David Baldacci — A Calamity of Souls – UK cover

The tension ratchets up throughout the storyline, often boiling over in heated controversial racial injustice arguments by Desiree. Both main characters are well developed and despite, or perhaps because of, an extreme difference in backgrounds appear to work well together. They begin to develop a grudging respect for each other.

The author pulls no punches in using malicious characters and the language, dialogue, and slurs reflect the time and place. It’s an intensive look back on an ugly system with an emotionally spirited plea in and between the lines to look at it again.

The Author’s Note will explain a lot of the decisions he made in the writing of this literary fiction effort which certainly takes a raw turn. It’s a hard read as well as lengthy, but take the time to read or listen to the informative explanation, which may answer your question.

Many thanks to my local library for providing me with the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. The narrators did an amazing job of representing a cross-section of souls. The thoughts expressed here are my own.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Action Thriller & Suspense Fiction, Mystery Action & Adventure, Crime Thrillers
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
ASIN: B0CKNL91V1
Listening Length: 14 hrs 28 mins
Narrators: David Baldacci, MacLeod Andrews, Sisi Aisha Johnson, Kiiri Sandy, Cary Hite
Publication Date: April 16, 2024
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Links: Amazon-US
Amazon-UK
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Author: David Baldacci has been writing since childhood, when his mother gave him a lined notebook in which to write down his stories. (Much later, when David thanked her for being the spark that ignited his writing career, she revealed that she’d given him the notebook to keep him quiet, “because every mom needs a break now and then.”)

David published his first novel, ABSOLUTE POWER, in 1996. The feature film adaptation followed, with Clint Eastwood as its director and star. In total, David has published 50 novels for adults; all have been national and international bestsellers and several have been adapted for film and television. His novels have been translated into over 45 languages and sold in more than 80 countries, with 150 million copies sold worldwide. David has also published seven novels for younger readers.

David is also the cofounder, along with his wife, of the Wish You Well Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting literacy programs across the United States.

Have a good week! — AI generated graphic courtesy Gemini Flash 2.5

News of the World: A Novel by Paulette Jiles #AudiobookReview #bookclubs #TBT

Editors’ pick Best Literature & Fiction

Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Readers’ Favorite Historical Fiction (2016)

My participation with The Y Book Club in our local area has been a lot of fun. Their August selection was News of the World which I discovered was also turned into a major motion picture with Tom Hanks in the lead role. I am anxious for that movie to come to Netflix.

The book club meets once a month and is very popular. Members are limited as to the number of physical books they can get for book clubs. Fortunately, I do audiobooks. The moderator does a great job keeping us to book club questions.

My Thoughts:

Quickly acknowledged that the book had been made into a movie starring Tom Hanks, the ladies in the Y Book Club who had seen the movie agreed it was excellent. I can’t wait to see it, as I disagreed that the book was excellent. Oh, yes, it was good, and not to say I didn’t enjoy it. Short, descriptive, chock full of historical majesty, from bandits to Native Americans, it’s a feast for the ears.

Yes, I listened to the audiobook narrated by one of my favorite narrators, Grover Gardner, who better to read the book whose setting is 1870 in Texas? The Civil War has officially ended, but not for Texas. (Tom Hanks, by the way, narrated The Dutch House by Ann Patchett.)

Extensive research went into this novel, no question. Questions arose regarding those children who had been captured by Native Americans, which led to additional research on my part and also contributed to lively discussion among the book club members.

As the ten-year-old Johanna and Captain Kidd travel the distance from Witchita Falls to San Antonio to return the girl to an aunt and uncle she doesn’t remember, they confront the extent of a lawless society that post-war chaos can offer. Johanna is rooted in the Kiowa language and spiritual traditions. She remembers nothing of her life prior to her capture at age six and thinks and acts as a Kiowa. Furthermore, she wants nothing to do with white society. It becomes apparent, however, that she is very clever.

Captain Kidd has managed to survive three wars, earning him the status of Captain, and has a reputation for being a strong, level-headed, and astute man, trustworthy in all endeavors. He is a widower whose payment will be sufficient to bring his two daughters from the east to live with him. He earns his living now by reading pertinent news articles to a paid audience from various papers as he wanders the countryside.

I thoroughly enjoyed the story through to the epilogue. Then the reader is suddenly fed the future of the characters in large clumps of sequel material that would have created another satisfying story—rather than the crushing end to this otherwise beautifully written narrative with powerful characters.

Many thanks to my local library for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book. The thoughts expressed here are my own.

Book Club Thoughts

The members found a lot of grist for lively discussion as usual. Although short at just a little over 200 pages or less than 7 hours audiobook narration, the storyline packed an emotional wallop that left an indelible imprint on many of the ladies. Again, another reason so many of us are fascinated with historical fiction books is the revelation of a great deal of factual info and eye-opening material that most of us were unaware.

Book Club star rating vote

Book Details:

Genre: Westerns, Western Fiction, Historical Fiction
Publisher: HarperAudio
Narrator: Grover Gardner
Listening Length: 6 hrs 42 mins
ASIN: B084JJ9K3J
Release Date: August 25, 2020
Source: Local Library

Title Link(s):

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

The Author: My website is paulettejiles.com. I review books and say shocking things and include outrageous pictures.

Paulette Jiles was born in Salem, Missouri, in the Missouri Ozarks. Raised in small towns in both south and central Missouri, she attended three different high schools, an exhausting process of social dislocation and fashion wobbles, and with relief graduated from the University of Missouri (KC) in Romance Languages. After graduation she worked for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Toronto and in the far north of Ontario and in the Quebec Arctic, helping to set up village one-watt FM radio stations in the native language, Anishinabe and Inuktitut. She became reasonably conversant in Anishinabe but Inuktitut was just too much. Very hard. Besides she was only in the eastern Arctic for a year. Work in the north lasted about ten years all told.

She taught at David Thompson University in Nelson B.C. and grew to love the British Columbian ecosystems and general zaniness. She spent one year as a writer-in-residence at Philips Andover in Massachusetts and then returned to the United States permanently when she married Jim Johnson, a Texan. Has lived in Texas since 1995.

She and her husband renovated an old stone house in the San Antonio historic district and amidst the rubble and stonemasons and ripped-out electrical systems she completed Enemy Women. She now lives on a small ranch near a very small town in the Texas Hill Country with a horse and a donkey. If you want a free donkey, please let her know. She plays Irish tin whistle with a bluegrass group, sings alto in choir, rides remote trails in Texas with friends. Her horse is named Buck. News of the World (William Morrow) was a finalist for the National Book Award.

©V Williams

Book Club — AI generated graphic courtesy Gemini 2.5 Flash

The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau: A Novel by Kristin Harmel #BookReview #TuesdayBookBlog

Book Blurb:

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Kristin Harmel, the New York Times bestselling author who “is the best there is at sweeping historical drama” (Kelly Harms, author of The Seven Day Switch), returns with an electrifying new novel about two jewel thieves, a priceless bracelet that disappears in 1940s Paris, and a quest for answers in a decades-old murder.

Colette Marceau has been stealing jewels for nearly as long as she can remember, following the centuries-old code of honor instilled in her by her mother, Annabel: take only from the cruel and unkind, and give to those in need. Never was their family tradition more important than seven decades earlier, during the Second World War, when Annabel and Colette worked side by side in Paris to fund the French Resistance.

But one night in 1942, it all went wrong. Annabel was arrested by the Germans, and Colette’s four-year-old sister, Liliane, disappeared in the chaos of the raid, along with an exquisite diamond bracelet sewn into the hem of her nightgown for safekeeping. Soon after, Annabel was executed, and Liliane’s body was found floating in the Seine—but the bracelet was nowhere to be found.

Seventy years later, Colette—who has “redistributed” $30 million in jewels over the decades to fund many worthy organizations—has done her best to put her tragic past behind her, but her life begins to unravel when the long-missing bracelet suddenly turns up in a museum exhibit in Boston. If Colette can discover where it has been all this time—and who owns it now—she may finally learn the truth about what happened to her sister. But she isn’t the only one for whom the bracelet holds answers, and when someone from her childhood lays claim to the diamonds, she’s forced to confront the ghosts of her past as never before. Against all odds, there may still be a chance to bring a murderer to justice—but first, Colette will have to summon the courage to open her own battered heart.

My Review:

A fascinating dual timeline plot featuring Colette Marceau, now late 80s. During the war, her mother Annabel was arrested by the Germans for theft. The family tradition was modeled under the Robin Hood tradition of robbing the rich to give to the poor, only in her family it was to steal from the despots and give to a worthy cause. In this instance, give back the matching bracelet to her mother’s best friend who owned the matching set that completed a butterfly design.

In the melee of the arrest, Colette’s little sister is kidnapped and her body found later floating in the Seine. Colette has blamed herself all her life for not watching her sister more closely as she was supposed to do.

Colette is now astonished to see the missing half of the bracelet sewn into the hem of her sister’s gown long years ago. It is to be on display in an exhibition. No one knows of Colette’s past, the jewels she’s stolen to continue family tradition or causes but it’s about to be fully exposed.

Perhaps she’ll finally discover who took her sister, what happened to the bracelet. In the meantime, she is forming a new “family,” not all of blood relatives. However, they’ll all have a role in piecing together how the jewels came to be in Boston seventy years later.

The prose and writing style are beautifully laid out and I greatly enjoyed the dual timeline, living the part of the Nazi occupation with mother and daughter’s assistance to the French Resistance. There are numerous quotables throughout:

“The more years one lived, the more indignities one was forced to endure.”

“…caring for someone wasn’t about fitting them into spaces that you’d already cut out. It was about allowing them to exist in their own way.”

“There is a difference between a life that honors the past and a life dictated by it.”

It’s a war fiction mystery and suspense that takes place over decades and for the most part plausible. Except for that one final denouement, I could believe it all happened—just as written.

Many thanks to my local library for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book. The thoughts expressed here are my own.

Rosepoint Rating: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: War Fiction, Historical World War II Fiction
Publisher: Gallery Books
ISBN: 978-1982191757
ASIN: B0DHV7V1B4
Print Length: 384 pages
Publication Date: June 17, 2025
Source: Local Library

Title Link(s):

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

The Author: Kristin Harmel is the New York Times bestselling, USA Today bestselling, and #1 international bestselling author of The Paris Daughter, The Forest of Vanishing Stars, The Book of Lost Names, The Winemaker’s Wife, and a dozen other novels that have been translated into more than 30 languages and are sold all over the world.

Kristin has been writing professionally since the age of 16, when she began her career as a sportswriter, covering Major League Baseball and NHL hockey for a local magazine in Tampa Bay, Florida in the late 1990s. In addition to a long magazine writing career, primarily writing and reporting for PEOPLE magazine (as well as articles published in numerous other magazines, including American Baby, Men’s Health, Woman’s Day, and more), Kristin was also a frequent contributor to the national television morning show The Daily Buzz. She sold her first novel in 2004, and it debuted in February 2006.

Kristin was born just outside Boston, Massachusetts and spent her childhood there, as well as in Worthington, Ohio, and St. Petersburg, Florida. After graduating with a degree in journalism (with a minor in Spanish) from the University of Florida, she spent time living in Paris and Los Angeles and now lives in Orlando, with her husband and young son. She is also the co-founder and co-host of the popular weekly web show and podcast Friends & Fiction.