Kate’s 2¢: “An unexpected Amish courtship” by Rachel J. Good

“An unexpected Amish courtship” by Rachel J. Good

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¢ merely shares my thoughts about what I read.  I’m just saying…

   I enjoyed this gentle love story and, yes, I was surprised by the ending.  Even in the best of families, there are ‘skeletons in the closet’ and Sovilla’s family is no exception.

   I, of course, liked that Isaac was rasing puppies to become service animals.

From the web:

USA Today bestselling author Rachel J. Good grew up near Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the setting for many of her Amish novels. Striving to be as authentic as possible, she spends time with her Amish friends, doing chores on their farm and attending family events. Rachel loves to travel and visit many different Amish communities.

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

An unexpected Amish courtship DB109238

Good, Rachel J Reading time: 10 hours, 13 minutes.

Seth Garcia

Religious Fiction

Romance

“Jilted by her first love, Sovilla Mast fled her hometown to live in Pennsylvania with an aunt she’s never met. Only after she arrives does she realize that the cantankerous woman has left the faith and alienated everyone around her. To take her mind off her sadness, Sovilla turns to baking homemade pet food and treats to sell at the Valley Green Farmer’s Market. It’s there she meets dog breeder Isaac Lantz… Shy and kind-hearted, Isaac breeds Labrador retrievers and works as a puppy raiser for assistance dogs. When he and Sovilla bond at the market, he is immediately drawn to her. And when he tells her he needs a new puppy raiser, Sovilla jumps at the chance. But as their friendship deepens, Isaac can’t help but notice that Sovilla keeps herself at a safe distance. Gaining a puppy’s trust and affection has been easy for Isaac, yet he has no idea how to win the heart of the woman he’s fallen in love with—until Sovilla needs advice in dealing with her aunt. Soon, Isaac is putting his l

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Kate’s 2¢: “The crack in the lens” by Steve Hockensmith

“The crack in the lens” by Steve Hockensmith

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¢ merely shares my thoughts about what I read.  I’m just saying…

   The addition of Holmes into this narrative by one of the main characters, is a refreshing twist to a western story.

–Holmes distrusted the softer passions…speaking of them with a jibe and a snear…love might put a crack in one of his own high-powered lenses.  If love could crack a lens, what could a lost love do?

  The other main character is bent on justice wrought on the man he thinks killed his beloved, who was a ‘lady of the night’.  The real culprit is a much more vile character.

   I enjoyed this different take on a western story.

Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia

Steve Hockensmith (born August 17, 1968) is an American author. He was born in Louisville, Kentucky. He currently lives in California’s bay area with his wife, two children, and pet dog.[1]

Biography[edit]

Hockensmith is the author of the Holmes on the Range mystery series. The first book in the series, Holmes on the Range (published in 2006), was a finalist for the Edgar, Shamus[2] and Anthony Awards for Best First Novel.

Several of Hockensmith’s short stories have been nominated for awards in the mystery field. He won the Short Mystery Fiction Society’s Derringer Award for “Erie’s Last Day,” published in the May 2000 issue of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine (AHMM). Two subsequent Larry Erie stories, “Tricks” (AHMM, August 2004) and “The Big Road” (AHMM, May 2005), were finalists for the Shamus Award for Best Short Story from the Private Eye Writers of America (PWA). “The Big Road” was also nominated for the Anthony and Barry Awards.[3] More recently, a Big Red/Old Red story, “Dear Dr. Watson” (published in the February 2007 EQMM), was a finalist for the Anthony Award.

Hockensmith authored the third book in the Quirk Classics series, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls, in 2010, as well as its sequel, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dreadfully Ever After in 2011[4]

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

The crack in the lens DB89414

Hockensmith, Steve. Reading time: 10 hours, 11 minutes.

Read by William Dufris.

Historical Fiction

Mystery and Detective Stories

In 1893, Otto “Big Red” Amlingmeyer and his brother Gustav–“Old Red”–head to the Texas hill country to deal with the greatest tragedy of Old Red’s life. Five years ago, when Old Red was a cowpoke in San Marcos, his fiancée was murdered, and the case was never solved. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2009.

Downloaded: August 21, 2022

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Kate’s 2¢: “Never: A Novel” by Ken Follett

“Never: A Novel” by Ken Follett

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¢ merely shares my thoughts about what I read.  I’m just saying…

   I enjoyed this story read by January LaVoy, but I was disappointed by the ending. Usually, the author will bring the various threads of the initial story together in the end. This story left two couples blithely ignoring the war and the third thread had just begun a world with nuclear war.

   Well, at least the two couples will have each other  for a while.

Ken Follett – Wikipedia:

Kenneth Martin Follett, CBE, FRSL (born 5 June 1949) is a British author of thrillers and historical novels who has sold more than 160 million copies of his works. Many of his books have achieved high ranking on best seller lists.

Early life and education[edit]

Follett was born on 5 June 1949 in Cardiff, Wales. He was the first child of Martin Follett, a tax inspector, and Lavinia (Veenie) Follett, who went on to have two more children, Hannah and James.[5][6] Barred from watching films and television by his Plymouth Brethren parents, he developed an early interest in reading but remained an indifferent student until he entered his teens.[5][6] His family moved to London when he was ten years old, and he began applying himself to his studies at Harrow Weald Grammar School and Poole Technical College.

He won admission in 1967 to University College London, where he studied philosophy and became involved in centre-left politics. He married Mary, in 1968, and their son Emanuele was born in the same year. After graduation in the autumn of 1970, Follett took a three-month post-graduate course in journalism and went to work as a trainee reporter in Cardiff on the South Wales Echo. In 1973 a daughter, Marie-Claire, was born.  

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Never: a novel DB106301

Follett, Ken Reading time: 24 hours, 0 minutes.

January LaVoy

Suspense Fiction

Spy Stories

A shrinking oasis, stolen Army drone, uninhabited Japanese island, and secret stash of deadly chemicals all play roles in an escalating crisis. Meanwhile, a young intelligence officer, a spy undercover with jihadists, a Chinese spymaster, and a politician struggle to prevent the outbreak of world war. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2021.

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Kate’s 2¢: “11/22/63” by Stephen King

“11/22/63” by Stephen King

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¢ merely shares my thoughts about what I read.  I’m just saying…

   I’ve always been intrigues by parallel universes and back and forth time travel. I suspect there is a parallel universe where I’m still sighted and another  where I’m a spinster school teacher and other possibilities.

   “11/22/63” not only takes us back to 1958 and 1963, but it also gives us a glimpse of an awful future.

   It was fun to revisit the ‘58’s and it brought back a lot of memories. I really like the ending…the last dance. Awesome.

From Ranker Logo

You know Stephen King as the master of horror, a writer whose work is synonymous with fear, and the brain behind chilling books like It, The Shining, and Pet Sematary – but what drives King to create such terrifying tales? Any Stephen King trivia buff will tell you the key to his craft can be found by looking to his childhood. King grew up with his mother and brother – his father split shortly after his birth – and his life didn’t get more peachy as he matured. 

Aside from the normal hardships many single-parent families endure, King’s young life was full of horrific events that informed many of his stories. He witnessed the passing of one of his friends and lived through several other harrowing events. King has said he doesn’t believe the grim facts about his upbringing have anything to with his stories, but it’s arguable his childhood formed the basis for much of his work. 

From bookshare.org

11/22/63 | Bookshare

Stephen King

2–3 minutes

ON NOVEMBER 22, 1963, THREE SHOTS RANG OUT IN DALLAS, PRESIDENT KENNEDY DIED, AND THE WORLD CHANGED. WHAT IF YOU COULD CHANGE IT BACK?

In this brilliantly conceived tour de force, Stephen King–who has absorbed the social, political, and popular culture of his generation more imaginatively and thoroughly than any other writer–takes readers on an incredible journey into the past and the possibility of altering it.

It begins with Jake Epping, a thirty-five-year-old English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine, who makes extra money teaching GED classes. He asks his students to write about an event that changed their lives, and one essay blows him away–a gruesome, harrowing story about the night more than fifty years ago when Harry Dunning’s father came home and killed his mother, his sister, and his brother with a sledgehammer. Reading the essay is a watershed moment for Jake, his life–like Harry’s, like America’s in 1963–turning on a dime.

Not much later his friend Al, who owns the local diner, divulges a secret: his storeroom is a portal to the past, a particular day in 1958. And Al enlists Jake to take over the mission that has become his obsession–to prevent the Kennedy assassination. So begins Jake’s new life as George Amberson, in a different world of Ike and JFK and Elvis, of big American cars and sock hops and cigarette smoke everywhere.

From the dank little city of Derry, Maine (where there’s Dunning business to conduct), to the warmhearted small town of Jodie, Texas, where Jake falls dangerously in love, every turn is leading eventually, of course, to a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald and to Dallas, where the past becomes heart-stoppingly suspenseful, and where history might not be history anymore. Time-travel has never been so believable. Or so terrifying.

One of the Ten Best Books of The New York Times Book Review

Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize

Soon to be a mini-series from Hulu starring James Franco