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Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books, by Kirsten Miller | Seattle Book Mama
Lula Dean is a deeply unhappy woman. Neglected by her children, alone and unappreciated, she strikes on a way to gain the attention she knows that she deserves. She embarks on a crusade to remove books she deems objectionable from local libraries, and she sets a sterling example for her town by erecting a little…
The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern***** | Seattle Book Mama
Augusta Stern is about to turn eighty, and she’s being forced into retirement, darn it. Her beloved niece persuades her to leave New York and spend what remain of her golden years in a Florida seniors’ community. From there, a wave of surprising events unfolds, changing Augusta’s life. My thanks go to NetGalley and St.…
Identity Unknown, by Patricia Cornwell***** | Seattle Book Mama
Patricia Cornwell’s Scarpetta series is among my favorites. Identity Unknown, the 28th in the series, is every bit as riveting as her earlier ones, and I am thrilled to have received a review copy. My thanks go to Grand Central Publishing, NetGalley, and Hachette Audio. This book is for sale now. First, I have to…
The Message, by Ta-Nehisi Coates**** | Seattle Book Mama
Ta-Nehisi Coates is an eloquent writer, and I look forward to reading whatever he publishes. My thanks go to NetGalley and Random House for the invitation to read and review. This book is for sale now. This book is brief, and it consists of four essays. The first and briefest is about returning to Howard…
My Name is Barbra, by Barbra Streisand***** | Seattle Book Mama
As I came of age in the late 1970s, Barbra Streisand was a tremendous star, and when it came to movies in which she sang, she was peerless. She still is. I was starstruck by her brilliance, her charisma, and her astounding voice, and even so, I didn’t know the half of it. She wouldn’t…
Den of Iniquity, by J.A. Jance**** | Seattle Book Mama
I began reading the J.P. Beaumont series by J.A. Jance around 1990, just a few years after her first was published. I’ve enjoyed it ever since, an entertaining series that is usually set right here in my hometown, Seattle. My thanks go to NetGalley and William Morrow for the review copy. This book, the 26th…
Phantom Orbit, by David Ignatius**** | Seattle Book Mama
“When we know a secret that could have devastating consequences, what should we do?” David Ignatius writes spy thrillers, and is one of the most reliable authors I’ve read within that genre. I can always count on an absorbing read. Phantom Orbit centers on Ivan Volkov, a young man from Russia that goes to Beijing…
Tell Me Everything, by Elizabeth Strout***** | Seattle Book Mama
“Lucy said, ‘So what is the point of this story?’ “Olive laughed. She really laughed at that. ‘Lucy Barton, the stories you told me—as far as I could tell—had very little point to them. Okay, okay, maybe they had subtle points to them. I don’t know what the point is to this story!’ “’People,’ Lucy…
Let Us Descend, by Jesmyn Ward***** | Seattle Book Mama
Reading Jesmyn Ward always hurts so good. In Let Us Descend, she conveys the heartbreak and sense of betrayal a young girl, Annis, faces when she and her mother are sold separately by their owner—who is also her father--and the ways that she copes, and also the ways she is helped by the spirits of…
That Librarian, by Amanda Jones**** | Seattle Book Mama
If ever a clarion call were needed in defense of the First Amendment in general and libraries in particular, that time would be now. Amanda Jones is an educator in a small Louisiana town, where she has lived all of her life. When a censorship battle presented itself, primarily at the behest of organized outsiders…
Margo’s Got Money Troubles, by Rufi Thorpe**** | Seattle Book Mama
Margo’s Got Money Troubles, by Rufi Thorpe, is a bold, inventive, and very funny novel about a young woman cut adrift in a difficult, expensive world. My thanks go to NetGalley and William Morrow for the invitation to read and review. This book is for sale now. Margo is the daughter of a Hooters waitress…
Spirit Crossing, by William Kent Krueger | Seattle Book Mama
Spirit Crossing is the spellbinding new novel in the Cork O’Connor series by William Kent Krueger. The book starts with two missing women, and an accidental discovery of a fresh grave. Readers faithful to the series will recognize the characters; there are enough of them, mostly related to one another, to provide depth and interest,…
The Wedding People, by Alison Espach***** | Seattle Book Mama
It’s a good sign when I finish reading a book, and I’m smiling. Alison Espach’s new novel, The Wedding People, not only left me smiling at the end; it made me laugh out loud almost from the get-go, and it will do the same for you. My thanks go to NetGalley, Henry Holt, and Macmillan…
The Faculty Lounge, by Jennifer Mathieu****-***** | Seattle Book Mama
“You really had to hand it to Mr. Lehrer. While dying at work is never ideal, he had the decency to do it during his off period. And not only that, but at the start of it, too, giving the clerks in the main office plenty of time to find someone else to cover Ms.…
Trouble in Queenstown, by Delia Pitt***-**** | Seattle Book Mama
Delia Pitts has been writing mysteries for quite some time, but she is new to me. In Trouble in Queenstown, she introduces hardboiled sleuth Evander Myrick. Myrick’s friends call her Vandy, and that helps to distinguish her from her elderly father for whom she is named; he’s in a memory care unit. My thanks go…
The Chinese Question, by Mae M. Ngai****-***** | Seattle Book Mama
Mae Ngai is an award-winning author and a professor at Columbia University. In her third book, The Chinese Question, she examines the race relations and to some degree, the economic underpinnings of the Chinese diaspora. My thanks go to NetGalley and W.W. Norton and Company for the review copy. I am disgracefully late, but when…
Middletide, by Sarah Crouch***** | Seattle Book Mama
Sarah Crouch makes her authorial debut with Middletide, a mystery set in the Pacific Northwest near where she grew up. Atmospheric and tense, it’s a damn fine start to what is sure to be a promising career. My thanks go to NetGalley and Atria Books for the invitation to read and review. This book is…
Guilty Creatures, by Mikita Brottman***** | Seattle Book Mama
Tallahassee, Florida is a city with more than its share of horrifying murders, which Brottman tells us has earned it the nickname, “Tallanasty.” Is it something in the water? No, wait. That’s the gators. One thing that we know is true: in the far right, conservative Christian enclave there, two upstanding young people decided to…
The Demon of Unrest, by Erik Larson***** | Seattle Book Mama
When it comes to history, it’s hard to conjure a more capable author than Erik Larson. I’ve thought this for some time, but his Churchill biography, The Splendid and the Vile (2020) cemented this impression. I am therefore gushingly grateful to NetGalley and Crown Books for the review copy. I would have paid full cover…
Left for Dead, by Eric Jay Dolan***-**** | Seattle Book Mama
When I saw this book, I was eager to read it. Shipwreck, treachery, and survival? It doesn't get a lot more exciting than that. I signed myself up for both the digital and audio galleys, and settled in to immerse myself in history. My thanks go to NetGalley, RB Media, and W.W. Norton and Company…
Beep, by Bill Roorbach**** | Seattle Book Mama
Beep is squirrel monkey, born and raised in the rain forest of Costa Rica. He’s not a baby anymore, and his old uncles have informed him that all the females are spoken for, and he must travel to a new area to mate and propagate. It’s tricky business, though, because human encroachment has separated the…
Brothers in Arms, by Damien Lewis*** | Seattle Book Mama
My thanks go to NetGalley and Highbridge Audio for the review copy of Band of Brothers, the history of one unit of Churchill’s Special Forces during World War II. This book is for sale now. I was initially attracted to this nonfiction work by Lewis’s reputation—a list of awards as long as your arm—and the…
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, by James McBride***** | Seattle Book Mama
I am late to the party, not having been alert enough to request a galley of The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, by James McBride. McBride is the author of The Color of Water and Good Lord Bird, but I haven’t read those either yet, so the whole thing blew by me, until I read…
The Stepford Wives, by Ira Levin***** | Seattle Book Mama
Ira Levin, legendary novelist and playwright, published The Stepford Wives in 1972, a time when feminist ideas were at a fever pitch for many, and a frightening development for others. Women’s rights were at the forefront in a way that they had not been since the suffragists had won the right for women to vote…
It’s a Privilege Just to Be Here, by Emma Sasaki**** | Seattle Book Mama
Emma Sasaki makes her fictional debut with the darkly amusing story of a mother and daughter caught up in a scandal at a prestigious private school. My thanks go to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for the audio galley. This book is for sale now. Wesley Friends School is the prep school to which presidents and…
House of Glass, by Sarah Pekkanen***-**** | Seattle Book Mama
3.5 stars, rounded upwards. Author Sarah Pekkanen is known for writing psychological thrillers, and her newest novel, House of Glass, is a real page turner. My thanks go to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the invitation to read and review. This book will be available to the public August 6, 2024. Our protagonist is…
The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club, by Helen Simonson***** | Seattle Book Mama
Helen Simonson is the author of the bestselling novel, Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand. With her new release, The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club, she is once more in her element, creating believable characters and using them to skewer the pervasive racism and class snobbery of Britain, and also, in a smaller way, that of…
Rednecks, by Taylor Brown***** | Seattle Book Mama
“Law only serves them that’s in power. Ain’t no different than always...’Tis the victor who writes the history—and counts the dead.” I’ve been an enthusiastic fan of author Taylor Brown since reading Gods of Howl Mountain, which was published in 2018. His new novel, Rednecks, is out now, and as with his earlier work, it…
Codename Nemo, by Charles Lachman**** | Seattle Book Mama
3.5 stars, rounded upward. Code Name Nemo is the true story of how U.S. Naval Commander Dan Gallery and his men captured a German U-boat during World War II. My thanks go to NetGalley, Diversion Books, and Dreamscape Media for the review copies. This book will be available to the public June 4, 2024. German…
Like the Appearance of Horses, by Andrew Krivak**** | Seattle Book Mama
I first read Andrew Krivak in 2017, when The Signal Flame was published. His glorious prose is something few authors can match. Here we have another novel involving many of the same characters and to an extent, the same setting. I am happy to get back to it. My thanks go to NetGalley, Highbridge Audio,…
Instrument of Darkness, by Charlie Parker***** | Seattle Book Mama
It’s a funny thing about long running series, how some of them become stale after a time while others just keep building. The Charlie Parker series by John Connolly is one of the latter, and with every addition to it I am more riveted, more amused, and more engaged than I was before. The Instruments…
Summers at the Saint, by Mary Kay Andrews**** | Seattle Book Mama
Summers at the Saint is the latest novel by veteran author Mary Kay Andrews. I am not usually a fan of what I think of as light and fluffy books, but over the last couple of years, I’ve developed an appreciation for this author’s work. This story centers on a fashionable beach resort hotel and…
The Morningside, by Tea Obreht**** | Seattle Book Mama
In 2019, Tea Obreht blew me away with Inland, a work of historical fiction—alternative history actually—so creative that I haven’t stopped thinking about it to this day. Her new book The Morningside is a dystopian novel that, while not as remarkable as the previous effort, is both intriguing and memorable. My thanks go to NetGalley…
Pay Dirt, by Sara Paretsky***** | Seattle Book Mama
Sara Paretsky is a badass author with a badass protagonist. Her hero, Vic Warshawski, is a rough and ready private eye, and though based in Chicago, she sometimes—as now—finds herself elsewhere when duty beckons. Author Paretsky is one of the three that pioneered the hardboiled female private eye subgenre; the first in this series, Indemnity…
Little Underworld, by Chris Harding Thornton*** | Seattle Book Mama
Chris Harding Thornton debuted in 2021 with Pickard County Atlas, a book I loved so much that I’ve had a finger in the wind ever since, hoping to score a galley of her next book. This is it. Sadly, I don’t love it the way that I did her first endeavor; perhaps I just loved…
Longstreet, by Elizabeth Varon***** | Seattle Book Mama
Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South is a biography that focuses on Longstreet’s military service in the American Civil War, and his political life thereafter. It’s meticulously researched, and the documentation is among the best I’ve seen anywhere. Students, Civil War buffs, and other interested readers won’t want to miss it. My thanks…
The Backyard Bird Chronicles, by Amy Tan**** | Seattle Book Mama
My thanks go to Net Galley and Alfred A. Knopf for the review copy. This book will be available to the public April 23, 2024. I probably should have read the promotional blurb more carefully, because here’s a fact: I have very little interest in birds. But I saw the name Amy Tan, and her…
Darling Girls, by Sally Hepworth**** | Seattle Book Mama
Sally Hepworth writes creepy, spooky stories involving families, and I have friends that swear by her, but this is the first of her books that I’ve read. My thanks go to Macmillan Audio, St. Martin’s Press, and NetGalley for the invitation to read and review. This book will be available to the public April 23,…
Between Two Trailers, by J. Dana Trent***** | Seattle Book Mama
And you thought your childhood was difficult. Dana Trent is the child of two drug addicted schizophrenics who met and fell in love on the psych ward. The fact that she lived to adulthood is astonishing. Her story is captivating; my thanks go to NetGalley and Random House for the invitation to read and review.…
The Wages of Sin, by Harry Turtledove** | Seattle Book Mama
Before reading this book, I had always enjoyed Harry Turtledove’s alternative history novels, which have a sci fi vibe and usually a good dose of humor, sometimes of the laugh out loud variety. When I saw that this one was available, I leapt on it. What a freaking disappointment! Nevertheless, my thanks go to NetGalley…