Excellent piece of writing. Ingenious. More has a wonderful sense of humor, and is clearly able to reflect on himself and his own society.

Like with any collection of short stories, it can end up being a mixed bag. While I recognized the concept of the tower of Babylon from the Bible, most others were new to me. What also was frustrating was there were few moments in any of the stories laying out what certain things referred to. I went by assuming it was just sci-fi futuristic technology and jargon, but one more paragraph on subjects like the calling “names”, and other things would have been better. The stories straddle sci-fi lines and often had religious undertones, for better or worse. I have never been a big fan of science fiction, but a couple of these stories were worth the read.

I enjoyed this suspense/romance novel by one of my favorite authors. The protagonist, Arden, is an aspiring novelist at the beginning of her career. She attracts the attention of a fan who turns out to be a stalker. Moving to a small town in Oregon, Arden begins a new life with family and new friends. But in the background her stalker is there. When will he strike again?

For a relatively short book, The Things We Never Say packs in plenty of wonderful characters, lots of food for thought and emotion in a small town New England town. Artie Dom is a high school history teacher who loves all his students and has a gift for opening up conversations among his them that otherwise might not be addressed openly. Artie has a loving wife and son, longtime work colleagues, extended family and what he considers his one true friend, yet he grapples with profound loneliness. Just a warning, some very current political and world issues are mentioned in Strout’s work with strong opinions. Artie and his best friend never speak of sensitive political topics with each other.

ALL IN ALL AN ENJOYABLE READ ABOUT A DISFUNTIONAL FAMILY AND A FAMILY WITH SECRETS AND HOW THEY COPE. I DIDN'T FALL IN LOVE WITH ANY OF THE CHARACTERS BUT I WAS HAPPY WITH THE ENDING. I DO LIKE A HAPPY ENDING MOST OF THE TIME. BUT SOME TIME I WOULD LIKE IT IF THE AUTHOR LEFT YOU HANGING AS THOUGH SHE MIGHT WRITE A NEXT BOOK

Disappointing and predictable. It is obvious from the first few chapters. It makes the book hard to enjoy. Virtually no characters to root for. This is only a debut novel, so I am hoping to read more from this author and see the storytelling improve.

Lo is back and so is Carrie from first book. I did not like the woman in cabin 10 since it felt much too long and didn't use the settings well. This book was less isolated, but had a few too many points that could've been a satisfying ending. The ending itself was good but could have come multiple times in the last hundred pages. Not sure I'll be trying for any third (if there is one), but I'm glad I have it a shot.

Elsie Fitzpatrick finds her neighbor and nemesis dead in his kitchen one day which makes the police suspect her of murder. However the truth of who she really is and the past she’s hiding from comes out. She is Mad Mabel Waller, the youngest person convicted of murder in Australian history. Along the way Mabel makes new friends and discovers that maybe she was never mad and people should be careful who is telling the story. This book keeps you wanting more as Elsie/Mabel’s story unwinds between past and present. A must read.

I think I'm in the minority here because I usually love books by Sally Hepworth. While this one was interesting, I only just liked it. This was the story of 81 year old Mabel who was accused of murder as a child and it seemed that people always died around her. And currently she found a neighbor dead in his house and she was looked at for being a killer.

It took me the better part of four years but I finally finished the 14th and final book of The Wheel of Time. This final entry is essentially 1,000 straight pages of The Last Battle, an event the series had been building towards since book 1 and it delivers in the best way possible. The series is hard to recommend just because of how insanely long it is, but it's absolutely one that is worth reading at least one time through for fantasy fans. Robert Jordan's worldbuilding was second to virtually none, and the series has one of the most memorable main casts of characters you are ever likely to get out of this type of series. Brandon Sanderson did about as well as you could reasonably expect, given he was tasked with finishing someone else's life's work. It took me forever, and the series is definitely not without its flaws but I don't regret reading it for a second.