A book out of my typical Genre. An Allegory. Lessons of Life taught by the sun and the moon to a young boy, through storytelling. There is also an overall plot. Very short book. Interesting. Sort of like Aesop’s Fables. Well written, made me emotional at times. Felt that the author was in some way reflecting on the times we are living through. Glad I read it, not sure if it is for everybody.

I listened to the audible version read by Jeremy Sisto. Wow, It was unputdownable and very moving but also sad and disturbing.

Insight into war and what Post Traumtic Stress can do and how it is handled

This was another amazing book by Kristin Harmel. It’s a dual timeline set in the time leading up to WWII and WWII itself in Paris and 2018 in Boston. It explores an intriguing theme of moral ambiguities. What if someone is doing what’s considered immoral but for a good cause? In this book, the main character, Collette’s family is descended from the legendary Robin Hood. They have succeeded in following Robin Hood’s mission from stealing from the rich to give to the poor. At the age of 10, Collette learns the family trade of being a jewel thief. It all seems to go well for her and her mother Annabel until a tragic event that shakes the family to the core during WWII. It was a mission to steal some jewelry back for their Jewish friends who were sent away to the death camp. But, it ends up going horribly wrong and has Collette losing her mother and 4 year old sister, Liliane in one instant. Flash forward to 2018 in Boston and at 89, Collette is still a successful jewel thief, still stealing from evil people with wealth, to benefit the disadvantaged or for a mission to fund a Holocaust education center in Boston. What she didn’t expect was one of the bracelets of the dear friends her family lost in the war on that tragic night to turn up again. The same one her sister had on her person all those years ago when she disappeared. This leads to the mystery of where it came from and the story flashes between two timelines to fill in the gaps of what happened all those years ago. Like many of her other books, this was a quick read. In fact, I finished it in a day. It’s a testament to her engaging characters and compelling storytelling that tugs at your heartstrings. I highly recommend this book.

I enjoyed the first one more because of the comedic aspect of it, but the second one was just as steamy. It was an old friends-ish to lovers trope.

I was really impressed. I never got to read this book in high school, and I am glad I got to it now. It was a little disjointed, but I realized that is what made it work. It was half story, half memoir, and it made it very interesting and feel authentic. I still do not understand the point of the time travel and alien encounters, but I liked the book overall and am curious to read more of his work.

I really enjoyed this book about social media influencers, which I don’t follow and don’t know much about. It kept my interest and had a lot of twists and turns especially in the epilogues.

With NOBODY'S FOOL, Harlan Cohen has once again written a marvelous, witty, thoughtful mystery filled with many twists and turns. Sami Kierce, a disgraced former New York City cop, has picked up the pieces of his life and is now moving on with his loving wife and new baby. Suddenly he is confronted by his post college past from two decades ago. A past that featured a dead body - or did it? The truth unfolds page by wonder ful page. I loved it!

Flashback, Jill and David’s daughter Sophia goes missing at the park, she is found 40 minutes later, fine, but with bug bites, or are they needle puncture marks in her arm? Blood tests reveal no drugs, no harm done. Or so they think. Then three months later Sophia disappears again. The parents are now suspects. Interesting premise. Kept me guessing as to what happened.

This novel takes place in Italy during WWII and follows Lili's journey to survive in the occupied country.