Kate’s 2¢: “Blush” by Jamie Brenner

“Blush” by Jamie Brenner

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…

   Julia Whelan did a good job of narrating this interesting, multi-generational story. I enjoyed it and I even liked the ending.

From the WEB:

Jamie Brenner is the author of eight novels including the national bestsellers The Forever Summer and Blush. Her short story “Gold Party” is in development as a feature film. She grew up in suburban Philadelphia and studied literature at The George Washington University, then moved to New York City where she worked in book publishing before becoming a novelist. Her next novel, The Weekend Crashers, is slated for publication on November 4, 2025, from HarperCollins/Park Row Books. It will be her first book set in New Hope, Pennsylvania.

From NLS/BARD/LOC :

Blush: a novel DB114590

Author: Brenner, Jamie

Reading Time: 11 hours, 4 minutes

Read by: Julia Whelan

Subjects: Family, Human Relations

“For decades, the lush vineyards and majestic manor house of the Hollander Estates winery made it the North Fork of Long Island’s premier destination for lavish parties and romantic day trips. Now the Hollander family fortunes have suffered, and as matriarch Vivian Hollander prepares for the arrival of her daughter and granddaughter for their annual summer reunion, she fears it might be their last. Worse, selling the family legacy to strangers might expose the dark secret she’s harbored for thirty-five years…. Visits to the winery have been bittersweet for Leah Hollander Bailey ever since her father refused to let her take her place in the family business. Now a successful Manhattan shop owner, Leah loves the life she’s built with her husband and daughter–but with her store, and her marriage, at a crossroads, she can’t help but view this year’s pilgrimage home as a sorely needed escape. College senior Sadie Bailey has a thesis to write, and the towering shelves of the manor’s library offer endless academic inspiration. But when Sadie discovers evidence that her proper Grandma Vivian once ran a book club dedicated to the scandalous women’s novels of decades past, the shockingly outrageous tomes give her new insight into her family’s glory days. Resurrecting the trashy book club begins as the distraction all three women need. But as they battle to save their birthright and heal old wounds, they just might find that the pages contain everything they need to know about how to fight for what they want–and for the life, and love, they deserve.” — Provided by publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook.

New York : Penguin Audio, 2021.

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Kate’s 2¢: “The Wolf Wants In” by Laura McHugh is the award-winning, internationally-

“The Wolf Wants In” by Laura McHugh is the award-winning, internationally-

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…

   Suzanne Elise Freeman and Tara Turnbull did a great job of narrating various chapters of this book. I enjoyed listening to it.

   This book was one of seven on a cartdrige the NLS sent to me via USPS.

From the WEB:

 bestselling author of The Weight of Blood, Arrowood, The Wolf Wants In, What’s Done in Darkness, and the forthcoming Safe and Sound, which Heather Gudenkauf called “Beautifully written, unflinchingly told, and relentlessly suspenseful.” The Weight of Blood won the …

What inspired Laura McHugh to write?

My novels are often inspired by true crimes, but at the heart of each story, I am writing about families: their secrets, their tragedies, and the powerful, complicated bonds of blood. All of my work is set in the Midwest and the Ozarks, where I was raised.

from NLS/BARD/LOC:

The wolf wants in: a novel DB125482

Author: McHugh, Laura

Reading Time: 8 hours, 11 minutes

Read by: Suzanne Elise Freeman, Tara Turnbull

Subjects: Suspense Fiction, Mystery and Detective Stories, Family

“Sadie Keller is determined to find out how her brother died, even if no one else thinks it’s worth investigating. Untimely deaths are all too common in rural Blackwater, Kansas, where crime and overdoses are on the rise, and the small-town police force is consumed with the recent discovery of a child’s skull in the woods. Sadie is on her own, delving into the dark corners of a life her brother kept hidden and unearthing more questions than answers. Eighteen-year-old Henley Pettit knows more than she’d like to about the seedy side of Blackwater, and she’s desperate to escape before she’s irreparably entangled in her family’s crimes. She dreams of disappearing and leaving her old life behind, but shedding the past is never easy, and getting out of town will be far more dangerous than she ever imagined. As more bones are found in the woods, time is running out for Sadie to uncover the truth and for Henley to make her escape. Both women are torn between family loyalties and the weight of the secrets they carry, knowing full well that while some secrets are hard to live with, others will get you killed.” — Publisher’s description. Unrated. Commercial audiobook.

New York : Penguin Random House, [2019]

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Kate’s 2¢: “The Great Divide:A Novel” by Cristina Henríquez

“The Great Divide:A Novel” by Cristina Henríquez

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…

   Robin Miles did a good job narrating this creative non-fiction story. It focused more on the lives of several people connected to the digging of the Panama Canal, rather than the construction of the canal.

   I found the several main characters were alone when we met them, learned how they intersected with each other, and how they mostly ended up alone again at the end. They were, of course, a bit changed by the end of the story, so the ending was relatively a happy one.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

cristinahenriquez.com

Cristina Henríquez is an American author best known for her 2014 novel The Book of Unknown Americans.

Early life[edit]

Henríquez’s father is from Panama and immigrated to the U.S. in 1971 for college;[2] her mother is from New Jersey[3] and worked in Delaware public schools as a translator.[4] Henríquez was born in Delaware and attended school in the U.S., but spent summers in Panama.[5] She did not speak Spanish as a child and so on visits “had no choice but to sit there and observe” dynamics she later evoked in her writing, particularly the warmth and joy of family life among her father’s relatives.[6]

In a New Yorker essay, Henríquez has said “the honest-to-goodness and embarrassing story” of how her interest in writing began “is that I started writing in high school, and I did it for a boy.” Uninterested in her frequently-professed affections for him, the boy in question gave her a journal and suggested that she instead write down everything she wanted to tell him and give them to him at the end of a year. She began the journal writing to him,

“But it didn’t take long before I found I was writing for myself, and for the sheer enjoyment of the act of writing. I was hooked. I sat down at the end of each day and scribbled page after page, experimenting with new ways of saying things, and reveling in a feeling of absolute freedom.”

Ardor for writing replaced the unrequited affection. “As soon as I ran out of space in that journal, I started another, and then another after that. I haven’t stopped writing since.”[7]

Education[edit]

Henríquez attended Northwestern University; she majored in English, graduating in 1999.[8] She then earned an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.[9] She has described her time in the Iowa program as “a great experience”,[10] highly valuable both for validating her writing as well as developing her skills: “I have all my notebooks…and I still open them every once in a while to find something that Chris Offutt said about dialogue or something that Sam Chang said about structure or that Marilynne Robinson said about subordinate clauses. I could not have gotten that specific knowledge anywhere else.”[9] At the same time, responding to Junot Diaz’s criticism of the “unbearable too-whiteness” MFA programs,[11] Henríquez notes that while in Iowa, she often spent her own time writing about Panama (which later became the setting for her first two books), but submitted only stories about the United States and American characters to her classes, subsequently wondering whether this choice stemmed from some sense that in the MFA setting, the stories on Panama “weren’t going to be as acceptable, or that maybe they were going to be taken in a different way than the stories that were set in the United States and that I was trying in a way to inoculate myself.”[10]

Career[edit]

Henríquez’s fiction has appeared in various literary magazines. In 2006 she published in The New Yorker.[12]

Books[edit]

Her first book was a collection called Come Together, Fall Apart. Containing eight short stories and a novella, Come Together, Fall Apart was published on April 4, 2006 by Riverhead.[13] Reviewing the collection in The New York Times, Thomas Beller said, “Henríquez’s fiction provides intense close-ups of young Panamanians whose lives are in enormous flux…Always she appears to be probing for rare moments of grace.”[5]

Her debut novel, The World in Half, was published by Riverhead three years later, April 16, 2009.[14] The novel follows a young woman from Chicago who takes a trip to Panama to pursue family ties there. In The Washington Post, Jonathan Yardley described the book as an “engaging if slight first novel…sure to strike a familiar and affecting note with the many other residents of this country who are trying to reconcile divided identities as well as divided loyalties.”[15]

The Book of Unknown Americans, Henríquez’s second novel, was published in 2014 with Knopf.[16] The Daily Beast named it the 2014 novel of the year.[17]

Henríquez’s third novel, The Great Divide, was chosen as a Read with Jenna book club selection for March 2024 along with Sandra Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street for the five-year anniversary of the book club.[18]

Anthologies[edit]

Henríquez has also contributed to the anthologies This Is Not Chick Lit (Random House, 2006)[19] and Thirty Ways of Looking at Hillary: Reflections by Women Writers (Harper, 2008).[20]

Personal life[edit]

Henríquez lives in Chicago, Illinois.[9]

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

The great divide: a novel DB120159

Author: Henríquez, Cristina

Reading Time: 13 hours, 25 minutes

Read by: Robin Miles

Subjects: Historical Fiction, Family

Downloaded: 09/12/2025

“It is said that the canal will be the greatest feat of engineering in history. But first, it must be built. For Francisco, a local fisherman who resents the foreign powers clamoring for a slice of his country, nothing is more upsetting than the decision of his son, Omar, to work as a digger in the excavation zone. But for Omar, whose upbringing was quiet and lonely, this job offers a chance to finally find connection. Ada Bunting is a bold sixteen-year-old from Barbados who arrives in Panama as a stowaway alongside thousands of other West Indians seeking work. Alone and with no resources, she is determined to find a job that will earn enough money for her ailing sister’s surgery. When she sees a young man, Omar, who has collapsed after a grueling shift, she is the only one who rushes to his aid. John Oswald has dedicated his life to scientific research and has journeyed to Panama in single-minded pursuit of one goal: eliminating malaria. But now, his wife, Marian, has fallen ill herself, and when he witnesses Ada’s bravery and compassion, he hires her on the spot as a caregiver. This fateful decision sets in motion a sweeping tale of ambition, loyalty, and sacrifice.”– OCLC. Unrated. Commercial audiobook.

New York : HarperAudio, [2024]

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Kate’s 2¢: “At The Foot Of The Rainbow” by Gene Stratton-Porter

“At The Foot Of The Rainbow” by Gene Stratton-Porter

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…

   Grover Gardner did a good job of reading this story written with a heavty Scotish accent.

   When my school aged children were required to read “A Girl of the Limberlost”, I read it and watched the video with them. I did not, at that time, realize how deeply interested Gene was in saving the environment.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gene Stratton-Porter (August 17, 1863 – December 6, 1924), born Geneva Grace Stratton, was an American writer, nature photographer, and naturalist from Wabash County, Indiana. In 1917 Stratton-Porter urged legislative support for the conservation of Limberlost Swamp and other wetlands in Indiana. She was also a silent film-era producer who founded her own production company, Gene Stratton Porter Productions, in 1924.

Stratton-Porter wrote several best-selling novels in addition to columns for national magazines, such as McCall’s and Good Housekeeping, among others. Her novels have been translated into more than twenty languages, including Braille, and at their peak in the 1910s attracted an estimated 50 million readers. Eight of her novels, including A Girl of the Limberlost, were adapted into moving pictures. Stratton-Porter was also the subject of a one-woman play, A Song of the Wilderness. Two of her former homes in Indiana are state historic sites, the Limberlost State Historical Site in Geneva and the Gene Stratton-Porter State Historic Site on Sylvan Lake, near Rome City, Indiana.

Early life and education[edit]

Geneva Grace Stratton, the twelfth and last child of Mary (Shallenberger) and Mark Stratton, was born at the family’s Hopewell Farm on August 17, 1863, near Lagro in Wabash County, Indiana.[1][2] Mark Stratton, a Methodist minister and farmer of English descent, and Mary Stratton, a homemaker of German-Swiss ancestry,[3] were married in Ohio on December 24, 1835, relocated to Wabash County, Indiana, in 1838, and settled at Hopewell Farm in 1848. Geneva’s eleven siblings included Catherine, Mary Ann, Anastasia, Florence, Ada, Jerome, Irvin, Leander, and Lemon, in addition to two sisters, Samira and Louisa Jane, who died at a young age. Geneva’s married sister, Mary Ann, died in an accident in February 1872; her teenaged brother, Leander, whom Geneva called Laddie, drowned in the Wabash River on July 6, 1872.[4]

In 1874 twelve-year-old Geneva moved to Wabash, Indiana, with her parents and three unmarried siblings. They initially lived in the home of Geneva’s married sister, Anastasia, and her husband, Alvah Taylor, a lawyer.[5] Geneva’s mother died on February 3, 1875, less than four months after the move to Wabash. Thereafter, Geneva boarded with various relatives in Wabash until her marriage to Charles Porter in 1886. Geneva, who was also called Geneve during her youth, shortened her name to Gene during her courtship with Porter.[6]

Gene received little formal schooling early in life; however, she developed a strong interest in nature, especially birds. As a young girl, Gene’s father and her brother, Leander, taught her to appreciate nature as she roamed freely around the family farm, observing animals in their natural habitats and caring for various pets.[7]

When her father shot a red-tailed hawk, she rescued it and nursed it back to health. Her family nicknamed her “Little Bird Woman” and her father gave her “the personal and indisputable ownership of each bird of every description that made its home on his land.”[8]

It was said of Stratton-Porter’s childhood that she had been “reared by people who constantly pointed out every natural beauty, using it wherever possible to drive home a precept, the child [Stratton-Porter] lived out-of-doors with the wild almost entirely.”[9] After the family moved to Wabash in 1874, Gene attended school on a regular basis and became an avid reader. She also began music lessons in banjo, violin, and piano from her sister, Florence, and received private art lessons from a local instructor. Gene finished all but the final term of her senior year at Wabash High School. Because she was failing her classes, she made the decision on her own to quit, later claiming that she had left school to care for Anastasia, who was terminally ill with cancer and receiving treatment in Illinois.[10]

Marriage and family[edit]

In 1884 thirty-four-year-old Charles Darwin Porter saw Gene Stratton during her trip to Sylvan Lake, Indiana, where she was attending the Island Park Assembly, a Chautauqua gathering. Porter, a druggist, was thirteen years older than Stratton, who was not yet twenty-one.[11] After ten months of regularly exchanging letters, the couple met at another gathering at Sylvan Lake, during the summer of 1885. They became engaged in October 1885 and were married on August 21, 1886. Gene Stratton-Porter kept her family surname and added her husband’s after her marriage.[12]

Charles Porter, who had numerous business interests, became a wealthy and successful businessman. Of Scots-Irish descent, he was the son and oldest child of Elizabeth and John P. Porter, a doctor. Charles owned an interest in a drugstore in Fort Wayne, Indiana, which he sold soon after his marriage, and also owned drugstores in Decatur and Geneva. He also owned and operated farms, a hotel, and a restaurant. Porter and other investors organized the Bank of Geneva in 1895. He also became a Trenton Oil Company investor. At one time he had more than sixty oil wells drilled on his land.[13][14]

Gene and Charles Porter’s only child, a daughter, named Jeannette, was born on August 27, 1887, when the Porters were living in Decatur, Indiana. The family moved to Geneva, in Adams County, Indiana, in 1888. Charles pursued various business interests and traveled extensively, while Gene stayed at home.[15] Gene took pride in her family and maintaining a home, but she opposed the restrictive, traditional marriages of her era and grew bored and restless. She maintained her independence through the pursuit of her lifelong interests in nature and birdlife, and began by writing about these subjects to earn her own income. In time, she became an independently wealthy novelist, nonfiction writer, and film producer.[16]

Stratton-Porter had four grandchildren, two granddaughters, and two grandsons. The Porters’ daughter, Jeannette, married G. Blaine Monroe in 1909 and had two daughters: Jeannette Helen Monroe was born on November 27, 1911; Gene Stratton Monroe was born on March 22, 1914, and became a film actor under the stage name Gene Stratton, starring in silent films based on three of her grandmother’s books.[17] The Monroes divorced in 1920, and then Jeannette and her two daughters moved to Los Angeles, California, to live with Stratton-Porter, who had moved there in 1919. On June 6, 1923, Jeannette married James Leo Meehan, a film producer, who was Stratton-Porter’s business associate. Meehan attempted to help the daughter Gene Stratton Monroe find work in talking pictures by encouraging her to act on stage at Harold Lloyd’s showcase, Beverly Hills Little Theatre for Professionals, and naming her in his column for the Motion Picture Herald called “From Hollywood,” saying she wanted more film work, particularly in new films based on her grandmother’s books.[17]

After the death of her brother, Lemon Stratton, in late 1915, Stratton-Porter became the guardian of his daughter, Leah Mary Stratton. Leah lived with Stratton-Porter for several years after Leah’s father’s death.[18]

Major residences[edit]

In 1888 Stratton-Porter persuaded her husband, Charles, to move their family from Decatur to Geneva in Adams County, Indiana, where he would be closer to his businesses. He initially purchased a small home within walking distance of his drugstore;[19] however, when oil was discovered on his land, it provided the financial resources needed to build a larger home.[14] The Limberlost Cabin at Geneva served as Stratton-Porter’s home from 1895 to 1913.[20][21] In 1912, with the profits she made from her best-selling novels and successful writing career, Stratton-Porter purchased property along Sylvan Lake, near Rome City in Noble County, Indiana, and built the Cabin at Wildflower Woods estate, which eventually encompassed 150 acres (61 hectares). Both of these properties are preserved as state historic sites.[22]

Stratton-Porter moved to southern California in 1919 and made it her year-round residence. She purchased homes in Hollywood and built a vacation home that she named Singing Water on her property on Catalina Island. Floraves, her lavish mountaintop estate in Bel Air, was nearly completed at the time of her death in 1924, but she never lived in it.[23]

Limberlost Cabin (Geneva, Indiana)[edit]

Construction on a two-story, 14-room, cedar-log Queen Anne style rustic home in Geneva began in 1894 and was completed in 1895. The Porters named their new home the Limberlost Cabin in reference to its location near the 13,000-acre (5,300-hectare) Limberlost Swamp, where Stratton-Porter liked to explore and found the inspiration for her writing. Stratton-Porter lived in the cabin until 1913.[24][25]

While residing in Geneva, Stratton-Porter spent much time exploring, observing nature, sketching, and making photographs at the Limberlost Swamp. She also began writing nature stories and books. The nearby swamp was the setting for two of her most popular novels, Freckles (1904) and A Girl of the Limberlost (1909). In addition, the swamp was the locale for many of her works of natural history. Stratton-Porter became known as “The Bird Lady” and “The Lady of the Limberlost” to friends and readers.[26][27]

Between 1888 and 1910, the area’s wetlands around Stratton-Porter’s home were drained to reclaim the land for agricultural development and the Limberlost Swamp, along with the flora and fauna that Stratton-Porter documented in her books, was destroyed. In 1912 she purchased property for a new home at Sylvan Lake in Noble County, Indiana. The Porters sold the Limberlost Cabin in 1923.[28] In 1947 the Limberlost Conservation Association of Geneva donated it to the State of Indiana. Designated as the Limberlost State Historic Site, the Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites operates the site as a house museum. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.[25][29][30]

Cabin at Wildflower Woods[edit]

Gene’s Cabin at Wildflower Woods is the present-day Gene Stratton-Porter State Historic Site on Sylvan Lake in Rome City, Noble County, Indiana.

After the Limberlost Swamp was drained and its natural resources developed for commercial purposes, Stratton-Porter sought alternate locations for inspiration. She initially purchased a small home on the north side of Sylvan Lake, near Rome City, in Noble County, Indiana, as a summer home while she looked for property to build a new residence. In 1912 she purchased lakeside property using her own funds and designed and had a new home built there in 1913. Stratton-Porter named her new home the Cabin at Wildflower Woods, which she also called Limberlost Cabin because of its similarity to the Porters’ home in Geneva.[31] While her Sylvan Lake home was under construction, Stratton-Porter found time to write Laddie (1913), her sixth novel. She moved into the large, two-story, cedar-log cabin in February 1914; her husband, Charles, who remained at their home in Geneva, commuted to the lakeside property on weekends.[32]

Stratton-Porter assisted in developing the grounds of Wildflower Woods into her private wildlife sanctuary. Its natural setting provided her with the privacy she desired, at least initially; however, her fame attracted too many unwanted visitors and trespassers. The property’s increasing lack of privacy was one of the reasons that caused her move to California in 1919. Stratton-Porter offered to sell her property to the State of Indiana in 1923 to establish a state nature preserve, but representatives of the state government did not respond. She retained ownership of Wildflower Woods for the remainder of her life.[33] Scenes from a movie based on Stratton-Porter’s book, The Harvester, were filmed there in 1927.[34]

In 1940 the Gene Stratton-Porter Association purchased Wildflower Woods from Stratton-Porter’s daughter, Jeannette Porter Meehan; in 1946 the association donated the 13-acre (5.3-hectare) property to the State of Indiana, including the cabin, its formal gardens, orchard, and pond. Designated as the Gene Stratton-Porter State Historic Site, the present-day 148-acre (60-hectare) property, including 20 acres (8.1 hectares) that were part of her original purchase, is operated by the Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites and open to the public. The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.[35][36] In addition to the cabin, guests can explore a one-acre formal garden, wooded paths, and a 99-acre (40-hectare) wetland and prairie that is undergoing restoration.[37] The Gene Stratton-Porter State Historic Site is supported by the Gene Stratton-Porter Memorial Society, Inc.

California homes[edit]

Stratton-Porter initially purchased a small home between Second and Third Streets in Hollywood, not far from where her Stratton relatives lived. (Stratton-Porter’s sister, Catherine, and two of Stratton-Porter’s nieces were already living in southern California when she moved there. Her brother, Jerome, and his wife later retired nearby.) In 1920, when Stratton-Porter’s recently divorced daughter, Jeannette, and Stratton-Porter’s two granddaughters relocated to California to live with her, she purchased a larger home at the corner of Serrano and Fourth Street, while Charles remained at Geneva, still active in the town’s bank. After the Porters sold the Limberlost Cabin in 1923, he stayed at a Geneva boardinghouse when he was not traveling.[39]

In early 1924 Stratton-Porter purchased two lots on Catalina Island to build a 14-room vacation retreat. The grounds of the 5-acre (2.0-hectare) property included a fountain constructed of local stone and seashells. Stratton-Porter moved into the wildlife haven in June 1924 and named it Singing Water because of the sounds emitting from the elaborate fountain. She completed her last novel, The Keeper of the Bees (1925) at Catalina Island in 1924.[40]

By March 1924 Stratton-Porter had selected a site for an estate home in southern California in an undeveloped area west of present-day Beverly Hills that became Bel Air. Stratton-Porter was the first to build a residence there. The 22-room, English Tudor-style mansion included approximately 11,000 square feet (1,000 m2) of living space and was set on a small mountaintop. The property also included a 4-car garage with servants’ quarters above it, a greenhouse, outdoor ponds, and a tennis court. Stratton-Porter named her estate Floraves for flora (meaning flowers) and aves (meaning birds). She died on December 6, 1924, a few weeks before the home was completed. Her daughter, Jeannette, was the sole heir of her mother’s estate.[41]

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

At the foot of the rainbow DB21634

Author: Stratton-Porter, Gene

Reading Time: 4 hours, 48 minutes

Read by: Grover Gardner

Subject: Romance

The Wabash valley and the fields of rural Indiana provide the setting for a bittersweet love story, the tale of a fine woman loved by two men, a heroic Scotsman and the dissipated Irishman who betrays him.

Mattituck, N.Y. : American Reprint Co., [1976] c1907.

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Kate’s 2¢: “Heir of Novron(3), Riyria Revelations series” by Michael J. Sullivan   

“Heir of Novron(3), Riyria Revelations series” by Michael J. Sullivan   

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…

   Tim Gerard Reynolds did a great job of narrating this lengthy sci-fi story. The was one of seven books the NLS sent to me on one cartridge. I probably wouldn’t have down-loaded this on my own, but once I began to listen and let myself enter the sci-fi world of the Empire, I enjoyed the tale. I liked the characters and approved of the ending.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

riyria.blogspot.com

Michael J. Sullivan (born September 17, 1961) is an American writer of epic fantasy and science fiction, best known for his debut series The Riyria Revelations, which has been translated into fourteen languages.[1][2] In 2012 io9 named him one of the “Most Successful Self-Published Sci-Fi and Fantasy Authors”.[3] His books have been translated into French, German, Spanish, Czech, Dutch, Polish, Hungarian, Japanese, Georgian, Bulgarian, Russian, Portuguese, Italian and Turkish.

Career[edit]

Sullivan started writing books at a young age in order to entertain himself.[4] He started The Riyria Revelations to teach his daughter, who suffered from dyslexia, how to read.

Sullivan has written four series. The Riyria Revelations and The Riyria Chronicles were published by Orbit Books (fantasy imprint of Hachette Book Group) and The Legends of the First Empire released by Del Rey Books (owned by Random House). The Riyria Revelations is a six-book epic fantasy series while the Riyria Chronicles is an ongoing series that centers on the early adventures of the two main protagonists of the former series.[5] The Legends of the First Empire is a six-book epic fantasy series set in the same world as the Riyria books, but in the distant past, making it a standalone series. His first science fiction novel, Hollow World, was released by Tachyon Publications in April 2014.[6] His most recent project, The Rise and Fall, is a trilogy set in the world of Elan and falls chronologically between Legends of the First Empire and the Riyria Chronicles.

Reception[edit]

Sullivan has two New York Times bestsellers (Age of War and Age of Legend), and three books on the USA Today bestseller list (Age of Swords, Age of War, Age of Legend). He has had seven works selected for the Goodreads Choice Award, six for Best Fantasy: The Emerald Storm in 2010,[7] Percepliquis[8] in 2012, and The Crown Tower[9] in 2013, Age of Myth in 2016, Age of Swords in 2017, Age of War in 2018 and one for Best Science Fiction: Hollow World in 2014.[10] Theft of Swords was selected as one of Barnes & Noble’s 2011 Best Fantasy Books,[11] shortlisted for the 2013 Audie Award for Fantasy,[12] and also one of Library Journal’s 2011 Best SF/Fantasy Books.[13] Age of Myth was a 2016 Amazon’s Best Books of the Year selection in the Science Fiction and Fantasy category.[14]

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Heir of Novron DB125329

Series: Riyria Revelations

Order in Series: 03

Author: Sullivan, Michael J.

Reading Time: 31 hours, 51 minutes

Read by: Tim Gerard Reynolds

Subjects: Fantasy Fiction, Adventure

“Royce and Hadrian discover the true Heir of Novron on the day the New Empire celebrates its victory over the Nationalists by executing the fake heir.”– From publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook.

New York : Recorded Books, Inc., 2012.

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Kate’s 2¢: “The Backyard Gardener” by Kelly Orzel

“The Backyard Gardener” by Kelly Orzel

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 informative resource of the home Backyard gardener from BookShare™. I enjoyed listening to the many suggestions Kelly made and think this book would make a good “new home” hostess gift.

Featured snippet from the web

About the author

Hi Friend, I’m Kelly, a small-scale, organic herb farmer, author and speaker growing in coastal Maine. You can find me in the greenhouse, looking slightly rumpled. Besides dirt, I’m obsessed with bread and cheese, over-sized sweaters and Jane Austen novels. Let’s sow and grow together!

From BookShare™

Synopsis

A beautiful and simple guide to edible gardeningThe &“garden to table&” movement is inspiring another generation of gardeners but many of them have questions. How important is composting? Is seed saving really worth it? Focusing on sustainable, organic growing practices and plants, The Backyard Gardener is a comprehensive handbook that will help get them started. Kelly Orzel covers everything from soil selection to growing and harvesting. Sidebars such as &“garden center survival tips&” offer useful advice to help readers build their confidence and know-how. This guide also features photographs of beautiful plant bed designs, propagation techniques, and much more.

Copyright: 2017

Book Details

Book Quality: Publisher Quality

Book Size: 256 Pages

ISBN-13: 9781493026586

Publisher: Globe Pequot Publishing

Date of Addition: 10/07/25

Copyrighted By: Kelly Orzel

Adult content: No

Language: English

Has Image Descriptions: No

Categories: Nonfiction, Home and Garden, Outdoors and Nature

Submitted By: Bookshare Staff

Usage Restrictions: This is a copyrighted book.

Kate’s 2¢: “Stolen Angels (5)” by Rita B. Herron

“Stolen Angels (5)” by Rita B. Herron

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…

   Gabriella Cavallero is another of my favorite narrators and she did a great job with this story. It goes without saying that to have your child abducted is a parents nightmare.

   Herron does a good job of heightening the suspense with the child trafficking thread in the narrative arc. The abductor’s reason for taking the girls is understandable, but at the same time wrong and the acts of a psychotic person.

From the web:

USA Today Bestselling and award-winning author Rita Herron fell in love with books at the ripe age of eight when she read her first Trixie Belden mystery. But she didn’t think real people grew up to be writers, so she became a teacher instead. Now she writes so she doesn’t have to get a real job!

With over ninety books to her credit, she’s penned romantic suspense, romantic comedy, and YA stories, but she especially loves writing dark romantic suspense tales set in southern small towns.

Rita is represented by Jenny Bent with the Bent Agency.

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Stolen angels DB110951

Series: Detective Ellie Reeves; Herron, Rita B. Detective Ellie Reeves

Order in Series: 05

Author: Herron, Rita B.

Reading Time: 10 hours, 50 minutes

Read by: Gabriella Cavallero

Subjects: Mystery and Detective Stories, Suspense Fiction

Downloaded: 09/10/2025

“Lara is baking cupcakes when her six-year-old daughter Ava runs to catch the school bus just one block away. Chasing after her, Lara sees the bus tumbling past, and waves. But Ava never turns up at school. Detective Ellie Reeves is in a race against time to find her––in missing child cases, every second counts. Searching the small town of Crooked Creek, she finds the girl’s bunny in the local park, the toy Ava carried around everywhere. Did Ava ever get on the bus? While Ellie works around the clock, a local reporter gets a message: There are other missing girls out there. Digging into previous cases, Ellie discovers that another girl went missing on the same day the previous year. How many more could there be? Ellie is certain that the date means something––and that the person who sent the message is the key. But the community is up in arms, everyone worried that their daughter will be next, and blaming Ellie. The pressure is mounting, and time is running out to bring little Ava home. Can Ellie solve the toughest case of her career––and save Ava––before it’s too late?” — Provided by publisher. Violence and some strong language.

London : Bookouture, 2022.

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Kate’s 2¢: “Where the Rivers Merge” by Mary Alice Monroe

“Where the Rivers Merge” by Mary Alice Monroe

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…

   The multiple readers did a good job of narrating this dual-time historical novel.Beware though, the ending is in Book 2, “The River’s End” (which I could not find).

A few Take-aways:

–When Mother has her mind made up, Hevan help anyone who gets in her way.

–Why was it at the end of one’s life when time was so precious, that one understood the importance of legacy…and a steward to protect that legacy.

–Must take care of the root to heal the tree.

–I knew the names of my ancestors, but that’s all they were: names.

–I wanted to defend and protect this land.

–The young can be quite good at adapting to change.

–I was all the more determined not to allow hate to separate us.

–Getting old was a series of challenges and humiliations.

–…for everything there is a season…

From the web:

Mary Alice Monroe is a bestselling author known for her engaging novels that often explore themes of nature, family, and environmental conservation.

Background

Mary Alice Monroe, born on May 25, 1960, in the United States, is a prominent author recognized for her contributions to contemporary fiction. She has published over 30 books, with more than 7.5 million copies sold worldwide. Monroe’s writing is deeply influenced by her experiences living in coastal South Carolina, where she developed a profound appreciation for nature and environmental issues. View source at maryalicemonroe.com

Notable Works and Themes

Monroe’s novels frequently delve into the complexities of human relationships and the environment. Her most famous series, The Beach House, follows the life of Cara Rutledge, who returns to her childhood home to reconnect with her roots and the natural world. The first book in this series was published in 2002 and has been adapted into a Hallmark movie. View source at wikipedia.org

   Conclusion

Mary Alice Monroe’s work not only entertains but also inspires readers to appreciate and protect the natural world. Her storytelling, rich with emotional depth and intricate relationships, continues to resonate with audiences, making her a beloved figure in contemporary literature. For more information, you can visit her official website here. View source at maryalicemonroe.com

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Where the rivers merge DB130034

Monroe, Mary Alice. Reading time: 12 hours, 25 minutes.

Read by Lamia, Jenna; Campbell, Cassandra.

Historical Fiction

“1908: The Lowcountry of South Carolina is at the cusp of change. Mayfield, the grand estate held for generations by the Rivers family, is the treasured home of young Eliza. A free spirit, she refuses to be confined by societal norms and spends her days exploring the vast property, observing wildlife, and riding horses. But the Great War, coastal storms, and family turmoil bring unexpected challenges to Eliza, putting her on a collision course with the patriarchal traditions of a bygone era. 1988: At 88, Eliza is the scion of the Rivers/DeLancey family. She’s fought a lifetime to save her beloved Mayfield and is too independent and committed to quietly retire and leave the fate of the estate to her greedy son. She must make decisions that will assure the future of the land and her family–or watch them both be split apart. Set against the evocative landscape of the twentieth-century Lowcountry, Where the Rivers Merge is a dramatic and sweeping multigenerational family story of unyieldi

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 Sequel: The River’s End

Kate’s 2¢: “When the Cook Can’t Look” by Ralph Read

v“When the Cook Can’t Look” by Ralph Read

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 down-loaded this book from BookShare™ and listened to the synthesized speech. It is for a sighted person who wants to teach a blind person how to cook…assuming the blind person wants to learn to cook.  At first it seems to be rather condescending to the blind community, but it does so with humor and, maybe the sighted person really is the one who needs the training in techniques.

   I’d been cooking for decades before I went blind and I agree with many of Ralph Read’s suggestions, such as know your kitchen and where things are; tell helpers to return things to where they were; and remember that with practice, you will get better at it.

   The author seems to use a lot of fats and butter, where I’d prefer to use olive oil. Instead of flour for creams and gravies, I use cornstartch.

   He made me laugh when he admitted to alphabetizing items, because I’ve taken a lot of flack for doing just that with about everything.

   The author eschews listing ingredients before preparation directions, but I like to get all the ingredients out and ready to go, just be sure I have them all and won’t get caught short in the middle of the mixing recipe.

   This book was published in 1981 and since then, there are numerous websites that tell you the ingredients and directions for preparing many box mixes  and how to cook almost everything.

   I like all of his basic recipes and would encourage blind folks to give it a try.

A few take-aways:

–The problem of safety is, after all, isonly a problem of technique.

–One technique is to remember exactly where you left it.

–The only appliance you’ll need for the preparation of food in this book is a toaster. Others may be handy are a slow cook pot, electric coffee maker, and electric can opener.

From BookShare™:

Synopsis

This cooking handbook, designed to be read to the blind and visually impaired by a relative or friend, is written by one who is most qualified– a blind person.

Ralph Read lost his sight in adulthood and now, from personal experience, makes available to other sightless individuals his innovative, sensible and safe methods for coping in the kitchen.

Copyright: 1981

Book Details

Book Quality: Excellent

Book Size: 113 Pages

ISBN-13: 9780826400345

Publisher: Continuum International Publishing Group, Limited

Date of Addition: 11/13/09

Copyrighted By: Ralph Read

Adult content: No

Language: English

Has Image Descriptions: No

Categories: Nonfiction, Disability-Related, Cooking, Food and Wine, Medicine

Submitted By: Hadley School Volunteering

Proofread By: Hadley School Volunteering

Usage Restrictions: This is a copyrighted book.

Kate’s 2¢: “The Big Cake Mix-up” by Catherine Baker

“The Big Cake Mix-up” by Catherine Baker

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 down-loaded this story from BookShare™ and was read by synthesized speech. It was a cute story, demonstrating how, even though the pipes got mixed-up  by accident,  cooperation can benefit evrybody.

Featured snippet from the web

Catherine Baker is a writer for ReadTheory focusing on grades 3-5 and 9-12. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in English Literature and Education from ECU and is also a Stanford University Hollyhock Fellow and Leading Fellow.

From BookShare™:

Synopsis

Rising Stars – The Big Cake Mix-Up!

Copyright: 2019

Book Details Book Quality:

Publisher Quality ISBN-13:

9781510442122

Publisher: Rising Stars

Date of Addition: 11/06/21

Copyrighted By: Rising Stars UK Ltd

Adult content: No

Language: English

Has Image Descriptions: No

Categories: Nonfiction

Submitted By: Bookshare Staff

Usage Restrictions: This is a copyrighted book.