Category: Contemporary Novels
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The American Heiress by Daisy Goodwin
Titled My Last Duchess outside of the US Many reviews of this entertaining novel have mentioned that “If you’re missing Downton Abbey, read this to fill the void” and really this could have been the story of Lady Grantham if she had married a dissembling dirt bag instead of Lord Grantham, who seems like a…
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The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths
There’s been an interruption to my scheduled reading plans because I have been stressed at work and needed pure escape. I haven’t read a good British mystery in a while and when I saw a review of this on Book Group of One it sounded like just the respite I needed. I plunged into it…
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Enough About Love by Herve Le Tellier
Translated from the French by Adriana Hunter Enough About Love is a contemporary novel that follows two very similar couples and their relationships. In that respect, it reminds me of the last book I posted on, The Odd Women. That novel also charted the parallel relationships of two couples. In Enough About Love our couples…
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A Heart of Stone by Renate Dorrestein
Translated from the Dutch by Hester Velmans I read this novel for Iris’s Month of Dutch Literature. It was the only Dutch title in my library branch and seemed like a good story so I eagerly started it. I can’t say I completely disliked it, but I was confused by it. It seemed, to me,…
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Faith by Jennifer Haigh
This is a book that kept me mesmerized through all of last weekend, but I am having the hardest time writing about it! Does anyone else find that the books you truly admired and enjoyed leave you speechless? Faith is narrated by Sheila McGann, a thirty-something teacher who is determined to tell the full story…
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The Trinity Six by Charles Cumming
I’ve been listening to this fast-paced spy thriller in my car for the past few weeks and it concluded a few days ago just as I was pulling out to go to the grocery store. Like all spy novels the plot is very complicated and involved so I’m just going to give the synopsis right from the…
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The Complaints by Ian Rankin
This Ian Rankin is a very clever guy. I’d forgotten how sly his plots are. I read the entire Rebus series a few years ago (all except for the last one – I couldn’t bear to see the end of Rebus) and loved the convoluted and complex plotting. This latest book, The Complaints, takes place…
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Ice Cold by Tess Gerritsen
A co-worker and I are doing a genre study together – reading books from genres neither of us is particularly drawn to and then discussing them over lunch. This month we’re reading thrillers and since I’ve wanted to try Tess Gerritsen for a while, this seemed like the perfect time to pick up her latest.…
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The Dead Path by Stephen M. Irwin
After losing his wife in a freak accident, Nicholas Close begins seeing ghosts. Not just ghosts; deaths. Anywhere he goes where there’s been an unexpected death, Nicholas is able to see it, over and over again. As he lives in England he constantly sees the deaths of centuries of people. So he decides to move…
A Certain Fondness 