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Comments Off on Kate’s 2¢: “Everyone Here Is Lying” by Shari Lapena
Kate’s 2¢: “Everyone Here Is Lying” by Shari Lapena
“Everyone Here Is Lying” by Shari Lapena
January LaVoy did a good job of reading this remarkable story. I suspect many of us know of children like Avery.
A few take-aways:
–Noone ever tells you how complicated it is being a parent. How much energy is sucked out of you. The toll it takes on a marriage.
–Even if you’ve done everything to keep them safe, it’s never enough. Kids turn out the way they’re going to turn out despite their parent’s best efforts and intentions.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Shari Lapena (born 1960) is a Canadian novelist.[1] She is best known for her 2016 thriller novel The Couple Next Door, which was a bestseller both in Canada and internationally.[2]
Lapena, a lawyer and English teacher before beginning her writing career,[3] published her debut novel Things Go Flying in 2008. That novel was a shortlisted Sunburst Award finalist in 2009.[4] Her second novel, Happiness Economics, was a shortlisted Stephen Leacock Award finalist in 2012.[5]
Her fourth novel, A Stranger in the House, was published in 2017.[1]
From NLS/BARD/LOC:
Everyone here is lying: a novel DB115978
Lapena, Shari. Reading time: 9 hours, 31 minutes.
Read by January LaVoy.
Suspense Fiction
Mystery and Detective Stories
Psychological Fiction
“Welcome to Stanhope. A safe neighborhood. A place for families. William Wooler is a family man, on the surface. But he’s been having an affair, an affair that ended horribly this afternoon at a motel up the road. So when he returns to his house, devastated and angry, to find his difficult nine-year-old daughter, Avery, unexpectedly home from school, William loses his temper. Hours later, Avery’s family declares her missing. Suddenly Stanhope doesn’t feel so safe. And William isn’t the only one on his street who’s hiding a lie. As witnesses come forward with information that may or may not be true, Avery’s neighbors become increasingly unhinged. Who took Avery Wooler? Nothing will prepare you for the truth.” — Provided by publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook.
Downloaded: November 12, 2023
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Kate’s 2¢: “Enduring Love” by Ian McEwan
“Enduring Love” by Ian McEwan
I’d never heard of this particular mental illness. It is scary, that’s for sure. I enjoyed listening to James DeLotel reading this story.
A few take-aways:
–This is our mammalian conflict: What to give to the other and what to keep for ourself…keeping that in-check is what we call morality.
–Behind the games we play, lies a purpose that is neither your nor mine to question.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
www.ianmcewan.com
Ian Russell McEwan (born 21 June 1948) is a British novelist and screenwriter. In 2008, The Times featured him on its list of “The 50 greatest British writers since 1945” and The Daily Telegraph ranked him number 19 in its list of the “100 most powerful people in British culture”.[1]
McEwan began his career writing sparse, Gothic short stories. His first two novels, The Cement Garden (1978) and The Comfort of Strangers (1981), earned him the nickname “Ian Macabre”. These were followed by three novels of some success in the 1980s and early 1990s. His novel Enduring Love was adapted into a film of the same name. He won the Booker Prize with Amsterdam (1998). His next novel, Atonement, garnered acclaim and was adapted into an Oscar-winning film featuring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy. His later novels have included The Children Act, Nutshell, and Machines Like Me. He was awarded the 1999 Shakespeare Prize, and the 2011 Jerusalem Prize.
Early life[edit]
McEwan was born in Aldershot, Hampshire, on 21 June 1948, the son of David McEwan and Rose Lilian Violet (née Moore).[2] His father was a working-class Scotsman who had worked his way up through the army to the rank of major.[3]
McEwan spent much of his childhood in East Asia (including Singapore), Germany, and North Africa (including Libya), where his father was posted. His family returned to England when he was 12 years old. He was educated at Woolverstone Hall School in Suffolk; the University of Sussex, where he received a degree in English literature in 1970; and the University of East Anglia, where he undertook a master’s degree in literature (with the option to submit creative writing instead of a critical dissertation).[4]
From NLS/BARD/LOC”
Enduring love: a novel DB45887
McEwan, Ian. Reading time: 8 hours, 43 minutes.
Read by James DeLotel.
Bestsellers
Psychological Fiction
Several men try to rescue a small boy in an escaping helium-filled balloon. The boy lands safely, but the aftermath of the event, in which one man dies, will haunt Joe Rose the rest of his life. For fellow rescuer Jed Parry makes eye contact with Joe and immediately becomes obsessed with love for him, leading Jed to haunt Joe night and day. Some strong language and some explicit descriptions of sex. Bestseller.
Downloaded: November 2, 2023
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Kate’s 2¢: “Dark Roads” by Chevy Stevens
“Dark Roads” by Chevy Stevens
Isabella Star LaBlanc did a good job of reading this story for the NLS. I think Hailey’s teenage crush on Amber will, in time, fade and she’ll realize the precious gift Johnny is as a life-time partner.
The prologue is confusing and mis-leading, until the end of the story makes it clear which character is talking.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Chevy Stevens (born 1973 [1] as Rene Unischewski[2][3]) is a Canadian author of thriller novels. She lives on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.
Stevens was working as a realtor when she got the idea for her novel Still Missing, in which a real estate agent is abducted while holding an open house. Her book Still Missing was a New York Times bestseller, [4] and the winner of the 2011 International Thriller Writers Award for Best First Novel.
From NlS/BARD/LOC:
Dark roads DB104568
Stevens, Chevy. Reading time: 11 hours, 9 minutes.
Read by Isabella Star LaBlanc.
Suspense Fiction
Psychological Fiction
After the death of her father, teenager Hailey McBride is sent to live with her aunt and uncle. To escape her bully of an uncle, she disappears into the wilderness as her father taught her. But a killer haunts the Cold Creek Highway that Hailey calls home. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2021.
Downloaded: October 14, 2023
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Comments Off on Kate’s 2¢: “Broken River” by J. Robert Lennon
Kate’s 2¢: “Broken River” by J. Robert Lennon
“Broken River” by J. Robert Lennon
It was interesting how the omniscient observer was omnipresent to explain what the humans were doing and add philosophical comments about existence and purpose.
Hillary Huber did a good job of narrating this story for us.
A few take-outs:
–The layers of regrets are piling up.
- — The observer’s identity is connected to the self-awareness of the humans and to their awareness of the world around them.
–The observer is struck by how liberating it is for the humans to accept blame for their own misfortunes; to forgive those who have hurt them.
- I like the phrase “…now that the vectors of these lives have converged”. It could also be said that the threads of all the various characters have finally woven together and we know why the were introduced in the first place.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
jrobertlennon.com
John Robert Lennon (born 1970[1]) is an American novelist, short story writer, musician and composer.
Early life[edit]
Lennon was raised in Phillipsburg, New Jersey.[2] He earned a B.A. in English from the University of Pennsylvania (1992) and an M.F.A. (1995) from the University of Montana.[3] He is, as of 2011, an associate professor, and director of the Creative Writing Program, at Cornell University[3][4][5] and resides in upstate New York.[6]
Fiction[edit]
Lennon’s first novel, The Light of Falling Stars (1997), about the aftermath of a plane crash, was the winner of Barnes & Noble’s 1997 Discover Great New Writers Award. His fourth novel, Mailman, was released to critical success in 2003[7] and concerns a mail-carrying protagonist named Albert Lippincott who is clearly losing his mind. The book won praise for its humorous portrayal of the sadness of everyday life.[8]
His other books include The Funnies (1999), a comedy about a would-be cartoonist; On the Night Plain (2001), a noir western set in the 1940s; and Pieces for the Left Hand: 100 Anecdotes (2005), a collection of 100 very short stories. His novel Happyland is roughly based around the American Girl doll company creator Pleasant Rowland. It was dropped by publisher W. W. Norton and subsequently published in serial by Harper’s Magazine.[7] In 2009, Graywolf Press published a new novel, Castle, and reissued Pieces For The Left Hand, which was appearing for the first time in the U.S. His 2008 short story “The Rememberer” is the basis of the CBS television drama Unforgettable.[9] His work has also appeared in The New Yorker. In April 2021, he published both a novel Subdivision and a new collection of short stories, Let Me Think,[10] which was a finalist for The Story Prize.
Music[edit]
Lennon is also a musician and composer. As a solo artist, recording as Inverse Room, he has released three full-length CDs, Simulacrum (2002), Pieces for the Left Hand (2005) (a companion to the book of the same title), and American Recluse (2007). He is also one half, along with musician Jim Spitznagel, of The Bemus Point, which has released one CD, Infra Dig (2005). In the early 1990s he fronted the band Wicked Bison, playing the Philadelphia bar and fraternity scene.[3]
From NLS/BARD/LOC:
Broken river DB89808
Lennon, J. Robert. Reading time: 11 hours, 31 minutes.
Read by Hillary Huber.
Suspense Fiction
Mystery and Detective Stories
Psychological Fiction
Upstate New York. Karl, Eleanor, and their daughter, Irina, arrive from New York City in the wake of Karl’s infidelity to start anew. While Karl tries to stabilize his flailing art career, twelve-year-old Irina becomes obsessed with the brutal murders that occurred in the house years earlier. And, secretly, so does her novelist mother. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2017
Downloaded: October 5, 2023
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Comments Off on Kate’s 2¢: “Firefly Lane” by Christian Hannah
Kate’s 2¢: “Firefly Lane” by Christian Hannah
“Firefly Lane” by Christian Hannah
I found the ending of this story very difficult to read. It hit close to home in a very personal way. It has started me thinking that maybe I, too, should detail some of the escapades my bff and I had.
I downloaded this story from BookShare. The synthesized voice read page numbers, some punctuation, dashes, and some other distracting composition features, but the well crafted narrative was understandable.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Website www.kristinhannah.com Kristin Hannah was born in California. After graduating with a degree in communication from the University of Washington, Hannah worked at an advertising agency in Seattle. She graduated from the University of Puget Sound law school and practiced law in Seattle before becoming a full-time writer. Hannah wrote her first novel with her mother, who was dying of cancer at the time; the book was never published.[2]
Hannah’s best-selling work, The Nightingale, has sold over 4.5 million copies worldwide and has been published in 45 languages.[3][4]
Hannah lives on Bainbridge Island, Washington,[5] with her husband and their son.
From BookShare:
Synopsis
In the turbulent summer of 1974, Kate Mularkey has accepted her place at the bottom of the eighth-grade social
food chain. Then, to her amazement, the “coolest girl in the world” moves in across the street and wants to be her friend. Tully Hart seems to have it all—beauty, brains, ambition. On the surface they are as opposite as two people can be: Kate, doomed to be forever uncool, with a loving family who mortifies her at every turn. Tully, steeped in glamour and mystery, but with a secret that is destroying her. They make a pact to be best friends forever; by summer’s end they’ve become TullyandKate. Inseparable. So begins Kristin Hannah’s magnificent new novel. Spanning more than three decades and playing out across the ever-changing face of the Pacific Northwest, Firefly Lane is the poignant, powerful story of two women and the friendship that becomes the bulkhead of their lives. From the beginning, Tully is desperate to prove her worth to the world. Abandoned by her mother at an early age, she longs to be loved unconditionally. In the glittering, big-hair era of the eighties, she looks to men to fill the void in her soul. But in the buttoned-down nineties, it is television news that captivates her. She will follow her own blind ambition to New York and around the globe, finding fame and success . . . and loneliness. Kate knows early on that her life will be nothing special. Throughout college, she pretends to be driven by a need for success, but all she really wants is to fall in love and have children and live an ordinary life. In her own quiet way, Kate is as driven as Tully. What she doesn’t know is how being a wife and mother will change her . . . how she’ll lose sight of who she once was, and what she once wanted. And how much she’ll envy her famous best friend. . . . For thirty years, Tully and Kate buoy each other through life, weathering the storms of friendship—jealousy, anger, hurt, resentment. They think they’ve survived it all until a single act of betrayal tears them apart . . . and puts their courage and friendship to the ultimate test.
Copyright:
2008
Book Details
Book Quality:
Excellent
Book Size:
472 Pages
Publisher:
N/A
Date of Addition:
07/07/08
Copyrighted By:
Kristin Hannah
Adult content:
No
Language:
English
Has Image Descriptions:
No
Categories:
Romance, Literature and Fiction
Submitted By:
solstice singer
Proofread By:
Pam Quinn
Usage Restrictions:
This is a copyrighted book.
Kate’s 2¢: “Cul-de-sac” by Joy Fielding
With five homes around the deadend street, there are many characters to be introduced and, eventually, their dark, little secrets emerge. This is the second book I’ve read recently that places the story in a cul-de-sac, “The New Neighbor” by Karen Prevland.
Take away:
–To an outsider, the street looks essentially the same. A tree lined horseshoe shaped cul-de-sac containing five identical two story homes in a variety of pastel shades, each with a double car attached garage on the left. But, of course, what lurks behind closed doors is terrifying.
–the problem with lying, is that you had to be ready with a quick follow-up.
–I can’t let that fear define my life any longer.
–It appears to be such a peaceful street.
Lauren Fortgang did a good job of reading this story for the NLS.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Born in Toronto, Ontario, she graduated from the University of Toronto in 1966, with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature. As Joy Tepperman, she had a brief acting career, appearing in the film Winter Kept Us Warm (1965) and in an episode of Gunsmoke. She later changed her last name to Fielding (after Henry Fielding) and began writing novels.
Fielding is also the screenwriter of the television film Golden Will: The Silken Laumann Story.
In the 1980s, she was also a regular contributor of book reviews to Jack Farr’s CBC Radio program The Radio Show.
Personal[edit]
At the age of 8, Tepperman wrote her first story and sent it into a local magazine, and at age 12 sent in her first TV script, however both were rejected. She had a brief acting career, eventually giving it up to write full-time in 1972.[1] She has published 30 novels and 1 Novella (as of September 2022), two of which were converted into film. Fielding’s process of having an idea to the point the novel is finished generally takes a year, the writing itself taking four to eight months.[2]
Fielding sets most of her novels in American cities such as Boston and Chicago. She has said that she prefers to set her novels in “big American cities, [as the] landscape seems best for [her] themes of urban alienation and loss of identity.”[2]
Fielding is a Canadian citizen. Her husband is noted Toronto attorney, Warren Seyffert.[3][4] They have two daughters, Annie and Shannon,[5] and own property in Toronto, Ontario, as well as Palm Beach, Florida.[2]
From NLS/BARD/LOC:
Cul-de-sac DB104565
Fielding, Joy. Reading time: 10 hours, 44 minutes.
Read by Lauren Fortgang.
Suspense Fiction
Psychological Fiction
The residents of a cul-de-sac in Palm Beach Gardens hide secrets. Maggie and husband Craig left their California home for a new life in Florida. The troubled grandson of elderly widow Julia has just moved in. Even more secrets are hidden–and someone will die. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2021.
Downloaded: October 14, 2023
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Comments Off on Kate’s 2¢: “Dahlia’s gone: a novel” by Katie Estill
Kate’s 2¢: “Dahlia’s gone: a novel” by Katie Estill
“Dahlia’s gone: a novel” by Katie Estill
The thread of water runs throughout this story as Nora and her neighbor, Sand, learn to live with a truce after the brutal murder of the stepdaughter by her mentally challenged son. The sub-plot follows the female investigator and how she gains acceptance and a new love.
I enjoyed this book, which was read by Grace Rogers.
Take aways:
–You don’t show fear. Stand still. Talk to them in a commanding, even voice. Don’t ever run or they’ll attack. If that doesn’t work, lie on the ground and roll into a ball to protect yourself.
–Touch is the most important thing between two people.
— The fetal curl: When the father betrays, the body rolls over to unconsciously protect the remended birth, attaching it to the mother.
–What does a promise involve? Your word was your power, your integrality. If your word meant nothing, then you meant nothing.
–The world is always evolving beneath the surface of things.
–What she hates about Nora are all the pieces of herself she thought she’d cast out.
Author. Has worked as an English tutor in Greece and taught at the collegiate level in the United States.
Author’s works have been translated into Norwegian and Swedish.
Also, author of short stories.
From NLS/BARD/LOC:
Dahlia’s gone: a novel DBC01432.
Estill, Katie. Reading time: 8 hours, 29 minutes.
Read by Grace Rogers.
Psychological Fiction
Horrified when the daughter of fundamentalist neighbors is brutally murdered while in her care, Sand Williams forges a tenacious but healing relationship with the girl’s mother and a woman sheriff who investigates the case. Some descriptions of sex, some strong language, and some violence.
Downloaded: October 14, 2023
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Comments Off on Kate’s 2¢: “The Dark House” by John Sedgwick
Kate’s 2¢: “The Dark House” by John Sedgwick
Kate’s 2¢: “The Dark House” by John Sedgwick
What sordid lives some people live and the ripple effects that cause such havoc.
–So much of life is just getting started.
–Objectively, things may not have changed a great deal, but he had adjusted to them so much better.
Joshua Seeger did a good job of narrating this story and I love the ending: …He kissed her forehead and her lips and her big hat flew right off her head.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
johnsedgwick.biz
Sedgwick was born in 1954, the youngest child of Boston investment advisor R. Minturn Sedgwick, and his wife, Emily Ames Sedgwick (née Lincoln). He grew up in the Boston suburb of Dedham, MA, and earned his high school diploma from Groton School. In 1977, Sedgwick graduated Harvard University with an A.B. in English.[1] While at Harvard, Sedgwick wrote for the Harvard Crimson.[2]
John Sedgwick is a member of the prominent Sedgwick family. His forebears first landed on America’s shores in 1636, and contain in their multitude such historical figures as House Speaker Theodore Sedgwick, novelist Catherine Maria Sedgwick, and sixties cultural icon Edie Sedgwick, among others.[3]
Career[edit]
Sedgwick began his writing career as a senior at Harvard University, when he published two articles: one in Harvard Magazine about Minoan archaeology, and another in Esquire co-written with Anne Fadiman about graffiti in Harvard bathroom stalls. Since then Sedgwick has served as an editor at Newsweek and at Self Care, and has frequently published essays and stories in numerous magazines, including The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Esquire, GQ, and many others. Sedgwick’s forthcoming work of literary nonfiction, From the River to the Sea: The Untold Story of the Railroad War That Made the West tells the story of competition between the Rio Grande and Santa Fe railroads as they charted paths across largely undeveloped lands of the Old American West.[4]
Sedgwick is best known for his family memoir, In My Blood: Six Generations of Madness and Desire in an American Family and his co-biography, War of Two: Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr and the Duel that Stunned the Nation, which won the Society of Cincinnati Prize and was a finalist for the George Washington Prize.[5][6][7] Sedgwick is also known for his biography of two rival Cherokee Chiefs, Blood Moon: An American Epic of War and Splendor in the Cherokee Nation.[8]
From NLS/BARD/LOC:
Dark house: a novel DBC04323
Sedgwick, John. Reading time: 12 hours, 54 minutes.
Read by Joshua Seeger.
Psychological Fiction
Edward Rollins, scion of a notable Boston family, has an obsessive fascination in strangers’ habits. This leads him to a mystery involving a vanishing heiress. Explicit descriptions of sex, strong language, violence.
Downloaded: October 14, 2023
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