book reviews

Since I have another half marathon coming up - in a few days, no less - I've kept on with ...
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Now that half marathon training exceeds an hour (and nears two), I'm in the market for wholly absorbing thrillers to ...
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Well, they can't all be perfect. I've been on a roll with books lately, devouring one right after the other ...
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Catherine Steadman is a British actress known for her role as Mabel Lane Fox in season 5 of Downton Abbey, though ...
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It's 1969 in New York City's Lower East Side when the Gold siblings - Daniel, Varya, Klara, and Simon - ...
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I resolved to write this book review before diving into other things because I simply must implore you all read ...
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I am slowly making my way through a stack of borrowed Karin Slaughter books, but goodness gracious almighty, I have ...
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I've had this one on my shelf for a couple of years, waiting for the pull to read it. I ...
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This book was born out of Jordan Peterson's knack for answering questions on Quora. When asked, "What are the most ...
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On the morning of the Royal Wedding, I felt a strong pull back to an early literary love of mine ...
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I've shied away from reading books with titles that have been directly marketed. Yes, all titles are designed to spark ...
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After reading Pretty Girls, I knew I wanted to explore more of Karin Slaughter's work. Happily, one of my besties ...
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It is only May, but I could easily give you my five favorite books of 2018, Eleanor Oliphant included. I ...
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Occasionally I'm drawn to historical fiction, high brow literary works, and out-of-the-box fantasy, but my mainstay is a true crime ...
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I began my Lenten reading with The Story of Reality, which was a throwback to the narrative of my early ...
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I listened to The French Girl on Audible since I've settled in to audiobooks during long runs. (It's wonderful how ...
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(This review was originally published on The Same, an online literary journal for women, by women.) Every once in a ...
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In her sixth book from the Dublin Murder Squad, Tana French hits it out of the park again. I think ...
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Before The Hunger Games, the Divergent Series, and The Maze Runner, there was the Parable of the Sower. Unlike today's ...
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I've been adamant about my love for Ready Player One, not only listing it as one of my favorite books ...
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It's been a long time since I didn't finish a book, but look at me now, not finishing this book ...
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Every time you pick up a new book, you're taking a tiny risk. Have you wasted your $3 at the ...
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Killman Creek picks up where Stillhouse Lake ends. Resolved, but not. However, this time Gwen Proctor isn't on the run ...
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I am late to this book, but it's been on my radar since coming out in 2015. The title was ...
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How good it feels to have a book in your hands that you can't put down! Stillhouse Lake is a ...
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I hung in there for 395 pages because I was sure there was going to be a big reveal. I ...
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Since I enjoyed Faceless Killers so much, reading a second Henning Mankell book was an easy choice. The Kurt Wallander ...
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I chose poorly in 2017, which is perhaps why I was unable to reach my 40-book goal this year. (I’m ...
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A few years ago I caught a show on Netflix called Wallander starring Kenneth Branagh as the Swedish detective. It ...
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After reading Winter People and The Night Sister last year, I resolved to read all of Jennifer McMahon's work. Both ...
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In 2007, I was the young mother of a one and four-year-old. I wrote a column for our city paper, ...
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Private investigator Naomi is in a specialized field: she finds lost children. Sometimes they are still alive, and occasionally they ...
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The year isn't close to being over, but I already know Ready Player One will be on my Top Five ...
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When Nicolette (Nic) returns to the small North Carolina town where she was raised to help manage the sale of ...
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I'm not generally a fan of Young Adult fiction, which is why I barely made it through the first book ...
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I finished this book in late May and completely forgot to review it here. I know most of you who ...
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If you know me, then you know I was #NotWithHer during the 2016 presidential election. I had the privilege of voting ...
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Though released in June 2016, it wasn't until after President Trump was elected in November that I started hearing about ...
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Reading this book was an act of magnetism because I've been drawn to the Lost Generation writers and their work since ...
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I unearthed Max Lucado's 1986 book to read during Lent because I've been craving the story of the cross. In ...
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After the cluster that was my Searching for Sunday reading experience, I craved a literary touchstone so spiritually challenging that I'd be knocked right ...
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If this reads like a break-up letter, that's because it is. Rachel won't receive it, and that's fine. Her pool ...
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First, an English lesson: Deus ex Machina ("god from the machine") is a literary device often used when the writer has ...
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After reading The Devil of Nanking last year, I sought out Mo Hayder's entire collection because I knew she was ...
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Instead of reading a paper book, I listened to this one (for free) in audiobook format. It's not my favorite ...
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Lydia Lee is dead. It is 1977 in rural Ohio and she is the middle child of a mixed race ...
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In 2015, I read 53 books, verifying to myself that I could, indeed, read 50 books in a year. For ...
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I'm working on a post about the favorite books I read this year, and I was about 30 pages into The Snow ...
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There is much to say about this book, but in the interest of not spoiling it for the reader, I'll ...
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In London, Vermont, there's a small motel off of Route 6 that used to be the go-to place for travelers ...
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This book was so good I read it in two days. Then I found a second book by Jennifer McMahon ...
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I've been on a kick of needing complete escapism, and for me, that means mystery, thriller, murder, scary, and what ...
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I assigned this book for my literature and creative writing class at the co-op, and I'm so glad I did ...
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Dennis Lehane might not be an author whose name you recognize, but you know his work. Mystic River, Gone Baby ...
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For Leonora, going to a hen party isn't her cup of tea, but when an old friend from a decade ...
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To officially welcome my favorite month, I started October with a ghost story written by Audrey Niffenegger (author of Time ...
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In the span of a short time, Judd Foxman's marriage falls apart and his father dies. He's living in a ...
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I picked up this delightful on account of its cover design and title. After reading the inside flap, I was ...
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Margaret Holloway is involved in the worst pileup in London's history. Crammed into her crunched vehicle, which is on fire, she fears ...
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I thought I was picking up a little light reading, but no. Dietland is social commentary, and I can't make up ...
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I get book recommendations from myriad places - friends, acquaintances, online reviews, etc. It was from BookTube (the small literary ...
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After finishing Cage of Stars, I sat still for a few minutes and wondered if I'd read the same book ...
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This is the third book I've read by Donna Tartt. Compared to The Goldfinch and The Secret History, it fell ...
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If you recall, I'm teaching a middle school literature and creative writing class at our co-op this year. Wonder is the ...
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I found this book immediately after listening to author Elna Baker on a podcast (episode #589) from This American Life ...
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Do I really need to explain why I read this book? If you're a parent, then you have already spent ...
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Pulling from a real event (the hijacking of a Japanese embassy in Peru in 1996), Ann Patchett creates a similar hostage ...
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The irony of reading this book in the midst of the Orlando attack is not lost on me. The timing ...
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Well, the streak was bound to end. They can't all be great. Unlike Into the Woods, Faithful Place, The Likeness, ...
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It wouldn't be accurate to say that Tana French writes the traditional "Whodunit?" crime thriller because it's almost always clear ...
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The first thing I want to tell you is that Amy Greene is a local. For that reason alone, I ...
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My first taste of Tana French was reading In the Woods last spring. Then I read Faithful Place. Of the ...
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Similar to my review of All the Light We Cannot See, I'm going to break the mold with a unenthusiastic ...
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This one took me nearly three weeks, which is almost unprecedented. It was also surprising, considering how much I loved ...
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For the first time ever, I listened to an audiobook, and while I'm not sure it's something I'll do regularly, ...
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To be a heretic in earlier centuries - that is, to denounce a proclamation from the church at-large - was worse ...
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Since Lent is over I'm back to reading fiction and will be posting more book reviews frequently. Before I attacked ...
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I gotta say - I miss fiction. It feels like I've been immersed in monks and heretics and religious history ...
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I don't know what to say about this book. It is unlike anything I've read so there's nothing that I can ...
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When Clay Jannon lands a third-shift front desk job at a strange 24-hour bookstore in San Fransisco, he doesn't suspect that ...
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Two things: 1. This is a psychological thriller, emphasis on the psycho. 2. It is vulgar. Now that I've made ...
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I'm late to this game, and not just because it was published in 2003. Last year I noticed a handful of ...
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When you think of Europe during World War II, the reign of Hitler and his persecution of the Jewish people ...
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I've read enough books in my life to know not to be swayed by the remarks on the cover. Every ...
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Anna Benz is an American ex-pat living with her Swiss husband and three children in Zürich. She doesn't work outside ...
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Set in present day between the damp, stone walls of an old prison, we are told the sobering story of ...
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After seeing the final Hunger Games movie with Jeremy the last week of December, I decided that I'm really, quite ...
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I completed the 50 Books Challenge by late November, a feat that both surprised and pleased me. I went on ...
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This is a Pulitzer Prize-winning book. It spent two years on the NYT Bestseller list. On Goodreads, it averages 4.3 ...
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There are about ten pages I would cut from Night Film, but they don't transpire until the last sliver of the ...
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I'm tempted to call Marilynne Robinson a favorite writer of mine, but this is the only work of hers that ...
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I finished reading my fiftieth book of the year last night and it was a good one. In the most fitting ...
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Every Harry Potter fan knows what happened after JK Rowling moved on from the wizarding world. She wrote a subpar ...
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This one will not make my top five favorites, or even my top ten. It's going to swim somewhere in ...
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As I've chipped away at the 50 Books Challenge of 2015, I've made mental notes along the way counting the top ...
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Reading has slowed down considerably this month on account of several things, but I hope to get back to normal ...
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It took me a while to finish this book, and not just because it's 540 pages. Granted, the book is ...
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When I saw Silver Linings Playbook a couple of years ago, in which one of the main characters is bipolar, I ...
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At first I didn't think I'd review this book since I figure everyone read it in school, but considering I ...
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I think we've reached the first book - no, the second book - that I won't recommend to you, and ...
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This book got a lot of accolade last year and was all the buzz among bloggers, BookTubers, and the GoodReads ...
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What do you do when you toss and turn all night? Get up and read. I'm still reading Wild Things: ...
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You guys. THIS BOOK. I don't even know where to begin. Rosemary, the narrator and main character, doesn't even start ...
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Here's a confession: The only reason I picked up this book was because of its fabulous lettering. The cover is gorgeous ...
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I don't remember the first time I saw the cover of Lucky (published in 1999), but when I did I ...
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I've recently become an affiliate with the Book Depository, an online bookstore that offers free delivery and discounted prices. I'm ...
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I first heard of Nadia Bolz-Weber about two or three years ago when I was in a heavy place of ...
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This one took no time to finish because I couldn't stop wondering how it would end. Major props to M.L ...
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You may not recognize the name Sara Gruen, but you probably recognize Water for Elephants - the beautiful novel, the ...
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This book has been on my To-Read list for years. More than a decade, really. My fascination with Ernest Hemingway ...
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There are a handful of writers who have a place in my default folder of "People Whose Stuff I'll Always Read." ...
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Man, I'd love to know what Gillian Flynn thinks about right before she falls asleep. Sharp Objects was her debut novel ...
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When I read In the Woods, I didn't know it was part of a series about Dublin murder cases, but ...
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The cover is foiled and crisp, but If Jack's in Love could've been a novella or even a short story ...
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At nearly 800 pages, The Goldfinch was a commitment, but it was one I was ready to make because I'd ...
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The Heights caught my attention primarily for its cover. One cannot underestimate the power of a beautiful book cover! Other than author familiarity, ...
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I acquired this book in November 2013, so to read it so long after its release feels unsupportive of Liz Gilbert and ...
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Hmm. What to say about this one... To start, I picked it up at the Charleston County Library last week ...
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I didn't know that a book could be completely vague and painfully detailed at the same time, but such is ...
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Holy moly. I read The Husband's Secret in three days. It would've been one day had I no children or a coonhound ...
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Having only read her short story, A Good Man is Hard to Find, the one thing I really knew about Flannery ...
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This image must have been used for promotion since it pinpoints the release date (which was in 2013), but I ...
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Alice Winston is a pensive girl and the entirety of this book is an outpouring of her thoughts throughout a ...
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I found this book at a discount store for $2.99, and after reading it, I would've paid more. That in ...
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I have no experience with Christopher Fowler books, but based on Seventy-Seven Clocks, I won't be trying out his work ...
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I've not read anything by Ann Patchett before but I'm going to remedy that soon. She's a lovely storyteller and ...
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That's a stretch, I know, but hear me out. I just finished reading We Are Water, Wally Lamb's latest piece ...
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Small town North Carolina, early 1960s, two children who light fires and kill chickens. Unspeakable things happen when a crazy ...
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Noa is on death row in Pennsylvania for the murder of a girl her age. In a few months, she'll be ...
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It's important to note that In the Woods was Tana French's first novel. Not only was it warmly received, but ...
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I don't normally finish books in two days, but this one was a quick read. The short page count helped, but it ...
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So I finished the third and final installment of Ken Follett's Century trilogy, Edge of Eternity, and I can say ...
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The synopsis of Left Neglected prepares you for the accident. Sarah is a busy working mother of three, living the high ...
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When I read this book last year, I was hooked on every word, relishing the twists and giddy over all ...
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This is perhaps the most unusual book I've read in a while. I've tried to nail down a better adjective, ...
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I was tagged by our cousin, Annette, to list the ten books that have had the greatest influence on me ...
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We've begun our second week of school and if the boys keep at this pace we'll be finished by March. Not ...
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