Kate’s 2¢: “Firestorm” by Iris Johansen

“Firestorm” by Iris Johansen

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

I enjoyed listening to Mary Kane narrate this journey into mind reading, influencing through mental telepathy and, of course, romance.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

www.irisjohansen.com

Iris Johansen (born April 7, 1938 in St. Louis, Missouri) is an American writer of crime fiction, suspense fiction, and romance novels.

Careeredit

Iris Johansen left a job as an airline reservations agent in the early 1980s to begin writing romance novels.[1] She changed direction slightly and began writing historical romantic suspense novels in 1991 with the publication of The Wind Dancer. She settled in to suspense writing as her main genre with the crime fiction thriller Ugly Duckling, published in 1996[2] and soon after became a New York Times bestselling author.

Film adaptationedit

In 2011, the second novel in Johansen’s Eve Duncan series was made in to a Lifetime film adaptation, The Killing Game, starring Laura Prepon as forensic sculptor Eve Duncan. This film adaptation was directed by Bobby Roth.[3]

Awardsedit

• 1996 Romantic Times Historical Romance Winner[4]

• 1999 Romantic Times Suspense Winner[5]

• 2016 Romantic Times Career Achievement – Thriller Winner[6]

Personal lifeedit

Johansen lives in Georgia, and is married. Her son, Roy Johansen, is an Edgar Award–winning screenwriter and novelist. Iris and Roy have written the Kendra Michaels books series together.[7][8][9] Her daughter, Tamara, contributes as her research assistant.[10][11]

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Firestorm DB57890

Author: Johansen, Iris

Reading Time: 8 hours, 30 minutes

Production: National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress

Read by: Mary Kane

Subjects: Bestsellers, Mystery and Detective Stories, Psychological Fiction, Romance, Suspense Fiction

Brad Silver, helping the U.S. president, hires telepathic fire investigator Kerry Murphy to find disgruntled pyromaniac James Trask, who headed a scratched Defense Department project. Brad, in return, helps Kerry identify the arsonist who killed her mother. Violence, strong language, and some explicit descriptions of sex. Bestseller. 2004.

New York : Bantam Books, c2004.

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Kate’s 2¢: “Arcadia” by Tom Stoppard

“Arcadia” by Tom Stoppard

 NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

   This was one of seven books included on one cartridge sent to me from NLS. It did not hold my interest.

 AI Overview

Sir Tom Stoppard (born Tomáš Sträussler; July 3, 1937 – November 29, 2025) was a Czech-born British playwright and screenwriter celebrated for his verbal brilliance, structural ingenuity, and deep-diving exploration of philosophical, political, and scientific themes.

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Arcadia DB133705

Author: Stoppard, Tom

Reading Time: 2 hours, 49 minutes

Production: National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress

Read by: Darren Richardson, John Rubinstein, Kate Burton, Mark Capri, Jennifer Dundas, Gregory Itzin, David Manis, Christopher Neame, Peter Paige, Serena Scott Thomas, Kate Steele, Douglas Weston

Subject: Drama/Plays

“[This is an] inventive play that moves back and forth between centuries, populated by a varied and vastly entertaining cast of characters who discuss such topics as the nature of truth and time, the difference between the classical and the romantic temperament, and the disruptive influence of sex on our orbits in life — according to the author, “the attraction which Newton left out.”” — Http://www.loc.gov/catdir. Unrated. Commercial audiobook.

Venice, Calif. : L.A. Theatre Works, 2009.

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Kate’s 2¢: “Gravel heart: by Abdulrazak Gurnah

“Gravel heart: by Abdulrazak Gurnah

 NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

   I enjoyed listening to David Hartley-Margolin, one of my favorite narrators, read this book.

   A few take-aways:

–Fathers are not always easy. Especially if they, too, grew up without their father’s love.

–I preferred to study literature, not business, law, or medicine.

–Everything is complicated.

–Was Blessing the beginning of love or the other way around?

The whole world ends up in London, somehow.

–Did you ever read “Measure for Measure”?

–There was some force behind what she did.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

rcwlitagency.com

Abdulrazak Gurnah FRSL (born 20 December 1948) is a Tanzanian novelist and academic of Yemeni origin. He was born in the Sultanate of Zanzibar and moved to the United Kingdom in the 1960s as a refugee during the Zanzibar Revolution.[1] His novels include Paradise (1994), which was shortlisted for both the Booker and the Whitbread Prize; By the Sea (2001), which was longlisted for the Booker and shortlisted for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; and Desertion (2005), shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize.

In 2021, Gurnah was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature “for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fates of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents”.[1][2][3] On 1 September 2024, Gurnah took up the appointment of the Arts Professor of Literature at New York University Abu Dhabi. He is also Emeritus Professor of English and Postcolonial Literatures at the University of Kent.[4]

Early life and educationedit

Abdulrazak Salim Gurnah was born on 20 December 1948[5][6][7] in the Sultanate of Zanzibar.[8] His father and uncle were businessmen who had immigrated from Yemen.[9] He left the island, which later became part of Tanzania, at the age of 18, following the overthrow of the ruling Arab elite in the Zanzibar Revolution,[1][3] arriving in England in 1968 as a refugee. He is of Arab heritage.[10] Gurnah has been quoted as saying: “I came to England when these words, such as asylum-seeker, were not quite the same – more people are struggling and running from terror states.”[1][11]

He initially studied at Christ Church College, Canterbury, whose degrees were at the time awarded by the University of London.[12] He then moved to the University of Kent, where he earned his PhD with a thesis titled Criteria in the Criticism of West African Fiction,[13] in 1982.[8]

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Gravel heart DB105441

Author: Gurnah, Abdulrazak

Reading Time: 9 hours, 33 minutes

Production: National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress

Read by: David Hartley-Margolin

Subjects: Family, Growing up, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Human Relations, Psychological Fiction, School Fiction

Growing up in Zanzibar in the 1970s, Salim lived in a house full of secrets. When his Uncle Amir, a diplomat, offers Salim a chance to attend college in London, the adjustment to life in England is difficult. The author was awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature. Strong language. 2017.

London : Bloomsbury Publishing, 2017.

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Kate’s 2¢: “8 Sandpiper Way” Cedar Cove(8) by Debbie Macomber

“8 Sandpiper Way” Cedar Cove(8) by Debbie Macomber

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

    I downloaded this book in the Braille format on my HUmanware E-Reader, but I’m such a slow Braille reader, I couldn’t make much sense of it and keep the people straight. So, I downloaded the BARD audio version, thinking I’d read a line, then listen to a line or vice versa.  

   I got caught up in listening to the story being read by Catherine Baiers and still have the Braille version to get through.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Debbie Macomber (born October 22, 1948) is an American author of romance novels and contemporary women’s fiction. Six of her novels have become made-for-TV movies and her Cedar Cove series of novels was adapted into a television series of the same name.[1] Macomber was the inaugural winner of the fan-voted Quill Award for romance in 2005[2] and has been awarded both a RITA Award and a lifetime achievement award by the Romance Writers of America.[3]

She also works as executive producer on the television adaptations of her books.

Careeredit

Early careeredit

Macomber is dyslexic and had a high school education. Determined to be a writer,[4] she sat in her kitchen in front of a rented typewriter to develop her first few manuscripts, while raising four children.[5] After five years and many rejections from publishers, she turned to freelance magazine work.[4]

Macomber attended a romance writers’ conference, where one of her manuscripts was selected to be publicly critiqued by an editor from Harlequin. The editor tore apart her novel and recommended that she throw it away. Undaunted, Macomber spent $10 to mail the same novel, Heartsong, to Harlequin’s rival, Silhouette Books. Silhouette bought the book, which became the first romance novel to be reviewed by Publishers Weekly.[4]

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

8 Sandpiper Way BR24989 DB67608

Series: Cedar Cove

Order in Series: 08

Author: Macomber, Debbie

Length: 4 volumes

Production: National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress

Subjects: Unified English Braille, Human Relations, Religious Fiction, Romantic Suspense

“Pastor Dave and Emily Flemming seem to have the perfect life, so when Emily finds an unfamiliar earring in her husband’s pocket, she’s devastated. He’s a good man and a wonderful father to their two sons. Can their marriage survive the secrets that might be revealed? Pastor Dave must try to clear his name, and the couple will have to learn to trust again. And it’s turning out to be a challenging year for Judge Olivia Lockhart-Griffin. Her health issues are concerning, but with the love and support she needs from her husband, Jack, she’ll continue to soldier on.” — Provided by publisher.

[Place of publication unknown] : MIRA Books., 2021.

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Kate’s 2¢: “Katherine Carlyle” by Rupert Thomson

“Katherine Carlyle” by Rupert Thomson

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

   Natasha DeVoe did a good job of narrating this intriguing story. Kit seems bent on her own destruction and fantasies. Sometimes it is hard to know if she is imagining what is happening to her father or is it actually happening to him. After tragedy catches up to her, she makes a good choice.

A few take aways:

–Like a battery that is going flat. You’ve got less energy and you can’t be recharged as easily. The day will come when you can’t be recharged at all.

–Even negative experiences contribute to the sum of who you are.

–Address one grievance and you create another.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Youth and educationedit

Rupert Thomson was born in Eastbourne, East Sussex, on November 5, 1955, to Rodney Farquhar-Thomson, a War Disability Pensioner, and Wendy Gausden, a nurse.[1] His mother died playing tennis when he was eight.[2] From the age of ten, he attended public school Christ’s Hospital, where he began to write poetry.[3] His early influences were Thomas Hardy and T. S. Eliot. When he was fifteen, he rode his bicycle 150 miles on a “pilgrimage” to Hardy country.[4] He was also influenced by a series called Penguin Modern European Poets – in particular, Eugenio Montale, Rainer Maria Rilke, Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Cesare Pavese and Zbigniew Herbert.[5] In 1972 he was awarded an Exhibition to Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge to study Medieval History and Political Philosophy. While there, he published poems in several small magazines, including The Windless Orchard.[6] He graduated as a Bachelor of Arts in 1976.

Early travels (1976–1977)edit

After leaving university, Thomson flew to New York. He has stated that there were cultural reasons behind choosing America as a destination, since it was linked with artists as diverse as David Bowie and Alexander Trocchi.[7] Thomson spent six weeks living in Hell’s Kitchen with a 63-year-old alcoholic and his family.[8]

Afterwards, he travelled throughout the United States, principally by Greyhound bus. He also visited Vancouver and the Canadian Rockies, and travelled through Mexico. Thomson returned to Eastbourne in November of that year and worked in the Birds Eye factory. In January 1977 he left again – this time for Athens.

Once in Athens, Thomson rented a flat on Iliados Street and made a living by teaching English. He began work on a novel.[9] He met W. H. Auden’s secretary, Alan Ansen, who read his poetry and gave him encouragement. Thomson completed a 160-page first draft of a novel, but it was never finished.

Working in London (1978–1982)edit

In 1978 Thomson moved to London and found a job as a copywriter.[10] He was employed by Robin Wight’s Euro Advertising. Later, he worked for FCB (Foote, Cone and Belding). While working in advertising, he kept notebooks and wrote 50-word short stories.[11]

After four years in advertising, he gave up his job, moved a friend into his South London council flat, and set off for Italy in his Vauxhall Viva. From then onwards, he devoted himself to writing.[12]

Seeing the world (1982–2000)edit

In November 1982, Thomson took a job as winter caretaker of a converted Tuscan farmhouse that belonged to Miriam Margolyes.[13] In the Italian countryside that winter, he wrote the first draft of a book that would become Dreams of Leaving:

There was no heating in the house, and I worked in the kitchen, huddled against a free-standing gas stove. I typed on sheets of yellow foolscap, using a maroon Olympia portable I had inherited from my last agency. I was disciplined about the hours I put in: I would start at three in the afternoon and finish at one in the morning. The routine felt natural, comfortable, even seductive.[14]

The following year, he moved to West Berlin, where he rented an apartment on Sanderstrasse in Kreuzberg and continued to work on the novel he had started in Italy.[15] He was on the point of taking up a job as a cleaner in the Olympiastadion when his father died.[16]

He returned to Eastbourne in February 1984. The seven months Thomson spent with his brothers in the house where he grew up would provide the inspiration for his award-winning 2010 memoir, This Party’s Got to Stop.

At the end of the year he moved to New York, where he worked at the Strand Bookstore, running the outdoor bookstall in Bryant Park.[17] In the summer of 1985 Thomson moved to Japan, inspired by his grandfather who lived there for more than thirty years. He spent several months in Tokyo, redrafting his first novel. By 1986, he was back in London.

Dreams of Leaving was picked up by Liz Calder and published by Bloomsbury in June 1987. It prompted the New Statesman to say: “When someone writes as well as Thomson does, it’s a wonder other people bother”,[18] while Nicholas Lezard of The Guardian called it “one of the most haunting, resonant and clever parables about England you’ll ever read”. One of Thomson’s fan letters came from Budgie, the drummer of Souxsie and the Banshees.[19]

Three months after publication, Thomson flew to Sydney. While there, he received a phone-call from a film production company in Los Angeles, optioning Dreams of Leaving.[20] He spent two summers in West Hollywood, writing an adaptation of his novel. The film was never made, but he was paid $50,000 for the screenplay, which financed his second novel, The Five Gates of Hell. This was followed by four more novels – Air and Fire (1993), The Insult (1996), Soft! (1998) and The Book of Revelation (1999).

In 1999, he and his girlfriend, Katharine Norbury, began trying to conceive via in vitro fertilisation.[21] Their daughter, Eva Rae, was born in 2000.

Up north (2000–2004)edit

In the spring of 2000, Thomson moved to a village in Cheshire to be close to his father-in-law, who was dying of cancer.[22] While up north, Thomson wrote in a caravan, which he towed into an orchard next to the cottage where he was living. He was working on the book that would become Divided Kingdom.[23]

Following a review in The New York Times,[24] Thomson received more than a dozen faxes from film-makers and film producers all over the world, including William Friedkin, wanting to option The Book of Revelation .[25] He sold the rights to Australian writer/director Ana Kokkinos. The film of The Book of Revelation was released in 2006.

The Barcelona years (2004–2010)edit

In 2004, Thomson moved to Barcelona, renting a house in Sarrià. A year later, he married his long-term girlfriend, Katharine Norbury, in Las Vegas.[26] While in Barcelona, he published two novels, Divided Kingdom (2005) and Death of a Murderer (2007), which was shortlisted for the Costa Novel of the Year. He also ventured into non-fiction for the first time, with a memoir called This Party’s Got to Stop (2010). “An extraordinary memoir,” wrote Hisham Matar, “one of the best I have read in recent years”, while Hilary Mantel thought it was “very funny”, and Robert Macfarlane called it “completely brilliant, spikily funny, very dark, and beautifully constructed”. A Book of the Year in The Independent, The Guardian, Time Out, the New Statesman, and The Telegraph, Thomson’s memoir went on to win the Writers’ Guild Non-Fiction Book of the Year.[27]

Return to London (2010)edit

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Katherine Carlyle DBC27504

Author: Thomson, Rupert

Reading Time: 9 hours, 1 minute

Production: Minnesota State Services for the Blind, Communication Center

Read by: Natasha DeVoe

Subjects: Medical Fiction, Psychological Fiction

As an IVF baby, Katherine was stored as a frozen embryo for eight years, and then implanted in her mother and given life. By age nineteen, she has lost her mother to cancer, and feels her father to be increasingly distant. Instead of going to college, she disappears, telling no one where she has gone. What begins as an attempt to punish her father for his absence becomes a test of his love for her, coming-to-terms with her mother’s death, and finally a leap to empowerment. Adult. Unrated.

New York : Other Press, 2015.

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Kate’s 2¢: “Ironwood Detective Stilwell(2)” by Michael Connelly  

“Ironwood Detective Stilwell(2)” by Michael Connelly  

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

   Will Damron has narrated other Connelly books and I enjoyed listening to him narrate this Catalina story, also. I looked up what an Ironwood tree was, as I’d never heard of it before.   I enjoyed listening to narrate

AI Overview

Best-selling detective author Michael Connelly talks career and crime novels

Michael Connelly is an American author of best-selling crime novels, known for the Harry Bosch and Mickey Haller (The Lincoln Lawyer) series. Born on July 21, 1956, in Philadelphia, PA, he became a successful journalist before publishing his first novel, The Black Echo, in 1992, which won the Edgar Award. His more than 40 novels have sold over 85 million copies worldwide and have been adapted into successful television series, which he also produces.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Connelly was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the second eldest child of W. Michael Connelly, a property developer, and Mary Connelly, a homemaker.[4] He is of Irish ancestry.[5] According to Connelly, his father was a frustrated artist who encouraged his children to want to succeed in life[6] and was a risk taker who alternated between success and failure in his pursuit of a career. Connelly’s mother was a fan of crime fiction and introduced her son to the world of mystery novels.[4]

At age 12 Connelly moved with his family from Philadelphia to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he attended St Thomas Aquinas High School. At age 16 Connelly’s interest in crime and mystery escalated when, on his way home from his work as a hotel dishwasher, he witnessed a man throw an object into a hedge. Connelly decided to investigate and found that the object was a gun wrapped in a lumberjack shirt. After putting the gun back he followed the man to a bar and then left to go home to tell his father. Later that night Connelly brought the police down to the bar but the man was already gone. This event introduced Connelly to the world of police officers and their lives, impressing him with the way they worked.[4]

Connelly had planned on following his father’s early choice of career in building construction and started out at the University of Florida in Gainesville, at the Rinker School of Building Construction, studying construction management. After earning grades that were lower than expected, Connelly went to see Robert Altman’s film The Long Goodbye (1973). The film, based on Raymond Chandler’s eponymous 1953 novel, inspired Connelly to want to become a mystery writer. Connelly went home and read all of Chandler’s works featuring Philip Marlowe and decided to transfer to the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications, major in journalism and minor in creative writing.[4]

Early career[edit]

After graduating from the University of Florida in 1980, Connelly got a job as a crime beat writer at the Daytona Beach News-Journal, where he worked for almost two years until he went to the Fort Lauderdale News and Sun-Sentinel in 1981. There, he covered the crime beat during the South Florida cocaine wars.[3] He stayed with the paper for a few years and in 1986 he and two other reporters spent several months interviewing survivors of the 1985 Delta Flight 191 plane crash, which story earned Connelly a place as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.[7] The honor also brought Connelly a job as a crime reporter at the Los Angeles Times. He moved to California in 1987 with his wife, Linda McCaleb, whom he had met while in college and married in April 1984.[4]

After moving to Los Angeles, Connelly went to see High Tower Court[8] where Raymond Chandler’s character Philip Marlowe had lived (in his 1942 novel The High Window), and Robert Altman had used for his film The Long Goodbye (1973). Connelly got the manager of the building to promise to phone him if the apartment ever became available. Ten years later the manager tracked Connelly down and Connelly decided to rent the place. This apartment served as a place to write for several years.[6][9]

After three years at the Los Angeles Times Connelly wrote his first published novel, The Black Echo (1992), after previously writing two unfinished novels that he did not attempt to get published.[6] He sold The Black Echo to Little, Brown to be published in 1992 and won the Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Award for Best first Novel.[7] The book is partly based on a true crime and is the first one featuring Connelly’s primary recurring character, Los Angeles Police Department Detective Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch,[3] a man who, according to Connelly, shares few similarities with the author himself.[6] Connelly named Bosch after the Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch, known for his paintings full of sin and redemption, such as the painting Hell, a copy of which hangs on the office wall behind Connelly’s computer.[2][4] Connelly describes his own work as a big canvas with all the characters of his books floating across it as currents on a painting. Sometimes they are bound to collide, creating cross currents. This is something that Connelly creates by bringing back characters from previous books and letting them play a part in books written five or six years after first being introduced.[4]

Connelly went on to write three more novels about Detective Bosch—The Black Ice (1993), The Concrete Blonde (1994) and The Last Coyote (1995)—before quitting his job as a reporter to

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Ironwood DB137790

Series: Detective Stilwell

Order in Series: 02

Author: Connelly, Michael

Reading Time: 7 hours, 50 minutes

Production: National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress

Read by: Will Damron

Subjects: Mystery and Detective Stories, Suspense Fiction

Downloaded: 08/29/2026

“Sworn to protect a scenic island meant to be far from the evils of the mainland, Detective Sergeant Stilwell can feel danger closing in. Detective Sergeant Stilwell knows that his posting on Catalina Island is no paradise, but to most residents, it seems blissfully separated: by twenty-two miles of ocean: from the troubles of Los Angeles County. But now a threat is coming to his safe haven. Acting on a tip from a confidential informant, Stilwell and his deputies watch a plane land in the middle of the night at the Airport in the Sky, a remote airstrip in the mountains. A duffel bag of drugs is dropped and the deputies move in, but things quickly go sideways. While Stilwell chases the fleeing pickup man into the mountainside brush, shots are fired on the runway and the plane flies off. An internal inquiry follows, putting Stilwell on the bench until he is cleared of responsibility for the disastrous operation. But he is determined to find out who brought deadly violence to his island, and begins his own secret investigation into the drug deal gone wrong. While under orders to remain in the sheriff’s substation, he finds in the lost and found a valuable backpack that was never claimed. He traces it to a woman who disappeared while hiking on the island four years ago. But then why was the pack only turned in two months back? Now thoroughly intrigued, he follows the mystery all the way to the LAPD’s Open-Unsolved Unit and Detective Renee Ballard. Stilwell and Ballard work the case from both sides of the channel, and soon realize they are on the trail of a criminal who revels in taunting the authorities. Meanwhile, frustrated at being shut out of an investigation on his own island, Stilwell risks his already shaky standing in the department to pursue a case whose reach is wider than he ever imagined.” — Jacket flap. Unrated. Commercial audiobook.

New York, NY : Hachette Book Group, 2026.

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Nightshade DB130298

Series: Detective Stilwell

Order in Series: 01

Author: Connelly, Michael

Reading Time: 9 hours, 7 minutes

Production: National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress

Read by: Will Damron

Subjects: Bestsellers, Mystery and Detective Stories, Suspense Fiction

Downloaded: 08/19/2025

“Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Detective Stilwell has been “exiled” to a low-key post policing rustic Catalina Island, after department politics drove him off a homicide desk on the mainland. But while following up the usual drunk-and-disorderlies and petty thefts that come with his new territory, Detective Stilwell gets a report of a body found weighed down at the bottom of the harbor–a Jane Doe identifiable at first only by a streak of purple dye in her hair. At the same time, a report of poaching on a protected reserve turns into a case fraught with violence and danger as Stilwell digs into the shady past of an island bigwig. Crossing all lines of protocol and jurisdiction, Stilwell doggedly works both cases. Though hampered by an old beef with an ex-colleague determined to thwart him at every turn, he is convinced he is the only one who can bring justice to the woman known as “Nightshade.” Soon, his investigation uncovers closely guarded secrets and a dark heart to the serene island that was meant to be his escape from the evils of the big city.”– From publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. Bestseller.

New York : Hachette Book Group, 2025.

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Kate’s 2¢: “Home, siege home: a litrpg/gamelit novel”, Good Guys(06) by Eric Ugland

“Home, siege home: a litrpg/gamelit novel”, Good Guys(06) by Eric Ugland

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

   This is one of seven stories on one cassette NLS mailed to me.

   Neil Hellegers did a good job of narrating this off-world story. I think my favorite character might be Mole.

From the web:

Oct 19, 2026 — Eric Ugland is a prolific author specializing in LitRPG and GameLit genres, known for his immersive storytelling and engaging narratives.

Eric Ugland

Fantastic Fiction

https://www.fantasticfiction.com › eric-ugland

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Home, siege home: a litrpg/gamelit novel DB134074

Series: Good guys

Order in Series: 06

Author: Ugland, Eric

Reading Time: 8 hours, 55 minutes

Production: National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress

Read by: Neil Hellegers

Subjects: Adventure, Fantasy Fiction, Science Fiction

Downloaded: 10/25/2026

“Montana Coggeshall is feeling the squeeze-and not just because of his new leather pants from the goddess Eona. His little safeholding in the ruthless world of Vuldranni is under siege. On both sides. At the front is Lord Caticorix, a grade-A Imperial flunkey if there ever was one. He’s clearly ridiculous, but the army he brought with him might not be. Plus they’re bent on blocking Coggeshall from getting any food or supplies from the outside world. And at the back are the ursus, the larger-than-life bear people who’ve traditionally called this valley home. They’re none too pleased with Montana for taking in a few ursus refugees, and would like the 400-lb Goldilocks and her followers out of their house now, thankyouverymuch. Battles are brewing, and the entire town is being held hostage. And despite all his strength and ability, Montana needs to do some serious training to get Coggeshall out of this. There are actual stakes this time-children could starve, his friends have gone missing-and Montana’s not sure he has what it takes to save everyone. This video game world is starting to feel way too much like reality.” — From publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook.

Old Saybrook, Conn. : Tantor Media, Inc, 2019.

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Kate’s 2¢: “Kate Vaiden” by Reynolds Price

“Kate Vaiden” by Reynolds Price

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

   I enjoyed listening to Anne Chodoff narrate this story.

   I’m not sure, as an adult woman, if  I’d appreciate receiving and reading an autobiography of such a detailed excuse of why my mother abandoned me when I was an infant.

   I can understand why the mother would feel the need to write such an exposé to feel she’d leaving a legacy for her son, sordid as it may be.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Edward Reynolds Price (February 1, 1933 – January 20, 2011) was an American poet, novelist, dramatist, essayist and James B. Duke Professor of English at Duke University. Apart from English literature, Price had a lifelong interest in Biblical scholarship. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.[1]

Biographyedit

Price was born Edward Reynolds Price in Macon, North Carolina, on February 1, 1933, the first of two sons of William Solomon and Elizabeth Price. Both he and his mother narrowly survived an extremely taxing childbirth; family legend states that during these circumstances, Will Price prayed and made a promise to God that if his wife and son survived, he would quit drinking alcohol.[2] Price’s family, struggling under the economic climate of the Great Depression, resided in the rural North Carolina towns of Macon, Henderson, Warrenton, Roxboro, and Asheboro throughout his childhood. Rather than joining other boys his age in sports and outdoor activities, Price developed a childhood fondness for the arts – reading, writing, painting, and opera included.[2] He attended Broughton High School in Raleigh, North Carolina and eventually received a full scholarship to Duke University, where he continued writing, served as the editor of Duke’s literary magazine, The Archive, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa his junior year and graduated summa cum laude. After graduating in 1955, Price received a Rhodes Scholarship and attended Merton College, Oxford.[3] While at Oxford, Price formed important friendships with the poet W. H. Auden, Stephen Spender, Sir Neville Coghill and the biographer Lord David Cecil.[1] He devoted a significant portion of his literary studies, as well as his thesis, to English poet John Milton.[2] Upon graduation with a B.Litt. in 1958, Price secured a position in the Duke University English department, where he stayed for the rest of his career, often teaching courses on Milton, creative writing, and the Gospels.[1] Price made no secret from his close friends and colleagues that he was gay, but he was not open about the fact until the gay rights movement was in full swing and friends began to die of AIDS. He preferred to say he was “queer” in lieu of gay.

In the spring of 1984, a life-altering medical event occurred when Price reported difficulty walking and underwent testing at Duke University Hospital. James Schiff describes, “He soon learned of a ‘pencil-thick and gray-colored’ tumor, ten inches long and cancerous, which was ‘intricately braided in the core of [his] spinal cord’.”[2] Although surgery and radiation managed to remove the tumor from his spine, Price became a paraplegic and required a wheelchair for the rest of his life. After enduring these initial years, Price emerged from this trying period “a more patient and watchful person and a dramatically more prolific writer.”[2] He still bore, however, “colossal, incessant pain”, as he described.[4] He wrote about his experience as a cancer survivor in his memoir A Whole New Life. Regarding his life after this tragedy, Price explains, “I’d have to say that, despite an enjoyable fifty-year start, these recent years since full catastrophe have gone still better. They’ve brought more in and sent more out – more love and care, more knowledge and patience, more work in less time.”[5]

In 1987, Duke University gave Price its highest honor when it awarded him the University Medal for Distinguished Meritorious Service.[1]

Price died at the age of 77 on January 20, 2011, as a result of complications from a heart attack.[6] The third volume of his three volumes of autobiography, Midstream, (Simon & Schuster, 2012) was completed by his long time friend Wallace Kaufman using his journals and a large archive of Price’s letters.

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Kate Vaiden DB24600

Author: Price, Reynolds

Reading Time: 12 hours, 3 minutes

Production: National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress

Read by: Anne Chodoff

Subject: Psychological Fiction

Downloaded: 11/06/2026

In middle-age, plucky Kate Vaiden looks back at her life, shattered at the age of eleven by the suicide-murder of her parents and raised by her loving aunt and uncle. When she has a son out of wedlock, she lacks the maternal urge and abandons him to the same relatives who raised her. Thirty-five years later she tries to discover his fate. Strong language and some explicit descriptions of sex.

New York : Atheneum, 1986.

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Kate’s 2¢: “

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NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

      Loretta Broker did a dramatic reading of this illustrated storybook for young children. It addresses self-esteem.

   The book includes bios of the two authors and the illustrator.

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Loud mouse DBC31066

Authors: Mentzel, Cara, Menzel, Idina

Reading Time: 0 hours, 12 minutes

Production: Wolfner Talking Book and Braille Library

Read by: Loretta Broker

Subject: Animals and Wildlife

Downloaded: 10/25/2026

Dee loves to sing. She sings during her morning yoga. She even sings while practicing her math facts. She usually sings to herself. But when her teacher asks everyone to share something with the class, Dee knows just what to bring: a song. And as Dee sings la, la, la, la,LOUDly in front of her class for the first time, something extraordinary happens. . .For preschool to grade 2.

Los Angeles ; Disney-Hyperion, 2022.New York :

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Kate’s 2¢: “Proud Mouse” by Cara Mentzel and Idina Menzel

“Proud Mouse” by Cara Mentzel and Idina Menzel

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

   Loretta Broker did a dramatic reading of this illustrated storybook for young children. It addresses self-esteem.

   The book includes bios of the two authors and the illustrator.

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Proud mouse DBC30996

Authors: Mentzel, Cara, Menzel, Idina

Reading Time: 0 hours, 14 minutes

Production: Wolfner Talking Book and Braille Library

Read by: Loretta Broker

Subjects: Animals and Wildlife, Family, Growing up, Fiction, School Fiction

Downloaded: 10/25/2026

Cara Lee is a proud mouse. She is proud of her big sister Dee. She is proud of her specially decorated journal. And now she’s proud to become what she’s always wanted to be: a student. But her first day of school is different than she imagined. Everyone keeps comparing her to Dee. But who is Cara Lee? When you have a big sister with such a LOUD talent, how can you find room to shine in your own way? For preschool to grade 2.

Los Angeles : Disney Hyperion, 2023.

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