Since I've been MIA the last few months, I decided the best way to keep my toe in the proverbial water, is to share shorter reviews/opinions about books I'm reading. I think a 10-book-at-a-time method might work, so here's the first of many quick review pages. Hope you find something of interest to you. Normal People by Sally Rooney Genre: General Fiction Published 2018, 273 pages I listened to this book and the best part was the narrator with her Irish accent. Captivating. T

The Stone Sky (#3 Broken Earth) by N.K. Jemisin Genre: Fantasy Award: Hugo winner and many other nominations Published 2017, 416 pages What an incredibly complex and yet engaging series! Starting with The Fifth Season and The Obelisk Gate, the world building is extraordinary and the magic is unusual and creative. The story flowed well from one book to the next without doing what so many authors do - she didn't retell the events in the earlier books ad nauseum. While there a

The Good Daughter #1 by Karin Slaughter Genre: Mystery Published 2017, 656 pages This reads much faster than the 600 page count would have you think. It's fast paced - not action-packed, but always lots of material to think about. The small mystery revolves around a school shooting. But, the real story is about two sisters who suffer an unspeakable tragedy in their teens. It's revealed right at the beginning, so it's no spoiler to say their mom is murdered in front of them a

The Huntress by Kate Quinn Genre: Historical Fiction Published 2019, 530 pages My sister Donna highly recommended this book to me at the end of last year - I 'd read a couple of WWII books fairly recently so felt like I needed a break from the genre. AND, I was in the midst of a push to finish books for my reading challenges (see my results for the 5 challenges above in the Challenge tab). I'm SO glad I made it one of my early 2021 reads! SYNOPSIS The general plot is that a

The Gilded Ones #1 by Namina Forna Genre: YA Fantasy Publish date Feb. 5, 2021, 432 pages I'm pleasantly surprised by this book. The premise is interesting. In a medieval setting, women are lower than 2nd class citizens and when young girls reach 16, they must go through a purity ritual where they are cut and the color of their blood determines their worth. If they bleed red, they are allowed to stay in the town, marry, and have children. If their blood is gold, they are cons

Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson Genre: Fantasy, YA Published 2019, 453 pages This amazing tale is about Elisabeth Scrivener, a teenage librarian in a library filled with magical books. These books are alive and can speak, move, and do magic. The librarian's job is to keep the books safe but also to keep them locked up so they can't unleash their magic and mayhem into the world. For these were not ordinary books the libraries kept. They were knowledge, given life. Wisd