The Record Keeper (Charles Martin; 2022)
Charles Martin’s The Record Keeper is the third in the Keeper trilogy, meaning I started the book with the realization this wonderful series was coming to an end.
I don’t want to provide spoilers for those who haven’t read the first two books in the series, The Water Keeper and The Letter Keeper, but the protagonist Murphy Shepherd’s journey has morphed from taking him down the Intracoastal Waterway to honor a good friend’s last wishes to an adventure he never saw coming.
Martin continues his marvelous way with words and his ability to deftly add backstory without burdening us with too much narrative. This ties The Record Keeper to the first two books in the series, resulting in
depth and breath the book wouldn’t otherwise have.
We travel with Shepherd through twists and turns accented […]
Wish You Were Here (Jodi Picoult; 2021)
In Jodi Picoult’s novel, Wish You Were Here, Diana O’Toole, an art associate at Sotheby’s, faces what we all dealt with during the Covid pandemic: chaos, uncertainty about the present and the future, family and work disruption, and the threat of contracting a potentially deadly virus. After planning a romantic getaway to the Galapagos with her fiance, Finn, she elects to go alone after he learns he must stay home to help fight the ensuing battle against the virus. Once there, she experiences the isolation and uncertainty of life we all felt in 2020 and much of 2021, albeit in a much more exotic locale. Her predicament causes her to re-examine her professional life and, when she immerses herself into the affairs of an island teenager who’s harboring family secrets, she begins to question her personal life and the validity […]
Deadly Declarations (Landis Wade; 2022)
Craig Travail, a disenchanted and suddenly unemployed attorney, moves into a retirement community and meets Chuck Yeager Alexander and Harriet Keaton. These quirky characters make for an interesting threesome as they go about helping a young friend re-capture her rightful inheritance. In doing so, they also solve a centuries-old controversy concerning the first independence declaration.
Landis Wade, a Charlotte attorney turned novelist, constructs a fun, fast-paced tale with plot twists and turns, and somehow weaves in a healthy dose of U.S. history along the way. You’ll want to keep reading to find out how these older but not out-dated citizens accomplish their task. Wade sets many of his scenes in landmarks and businesses Charlotte residents will easily recognize and identify with.
An added bonus is the Afterword, in which Wade talks about how he […]
The Stranger in the Lifeboat (Mitch Albom; 2021)
Benji is one of several survivors of a shipwreck who find themselves in a lifeboat. Desperate for someone to save them, a stranger appears out of the water, claiming to be the Lord. They can be saved, he says, if they believe in him. Benji journals the experience in a notebook which is later found in an empty lifeboat washed ashore on the Caribbean island of Montserrat.
The diary finds its way to the island’s chief inspector, who is charged with solving its mystery. Albom’s novel weaves a tale of mystery and intrigue, leaving the reader guessing until the final reveal.
Fans of Albom know he is the master at creating stories that involve heavenly issues, and this book is no exception. You will not be disappointed.
(Personal note: I couldn’t wait to read this novel, as […]
The Wish (Nicholas Sparks; 2021)
Fans of Nicholas Sparks are accustomed to his books’ settings in the Carolinas. The Wish deviates from that template, as it’s set in current day New York City, but goes back in time to when Maggie, the protagonist, was a teen. After getting pregnant, she is shipped off by her Southern California parents to her aunt in Ocracoke, on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, where she stays until she delivers her baby. While on Ocracoke, Maggie meets another teen, Bryce, and the inevitable Sparks love story begins.
Maggie, now a world-traveled photographer dealing with metastatic cancer, recounts her memory of that time on Ocracoke to Mark, her young assistant. He becomes increasingly devoted to her as her health declines and Christmas approaches, and is determined to prevent her from being alone over the holidays.
Sparks […]
The Record Keeper (Charles Martin; 2022)
Charles Martin’s The Record Keeper is the third in the Keeper trilogy, meaning I started the book with the realization this wonderful series was coming to an end.
I don’t want to provide spoilers for those who haven’t read the first two books in the series, The Water Keeper and The Letter Keeper, but the protagonist Murphy Shepherd’s journey has morphed from taking him down the Intracoastal Waterway to honor a good friend’s last wishes to an adventure he never saw coming.
Martin continues his marvelous way with words and his ability to deftly add backstory without burdening us with too much narrative. This ties The Record Keeper to the first two books in the series, resulting in depth and breath the book wouldn’t otherwise have.
We travel with Shepherd through twists and turns accented […]
Wish You Were Here (Jodi Picoult; 2021)
In Jodi Picoult’s novel, Wish You Were Here, Diana O’Toole, an art associate at Sotheby’s, faces what we all dealt with during the Covid pandemic: chaos, uncertainty about the present and the future, family and work disruption, and the threat of contracting a potentially deadly virus. After planning a romantic getaway to the Galapagos with her fiance, Finn, she elects to go alone after he learns he must stay home to help fight the ensuing battle against the virus. Once there, she experiences the isolation and uncertainty of life we all felt in 2020 and much of 2021, albeit in a much more exotic locale. Her predicament causes her to re-examine her professional life and, when she immerses herself into the affairs of an island teenager who’s harboring family secrets, she begins to question her personal life and the validity […]
Deadly Declarations (Landis Wade; 2022)
Craig Travail, a disenchanted and suddenly unemployed attorney, moves into a retirement community and meets Chuck Yeager Alexander and Harriet Keaton. These quirky characters make for an interesting threesome as they go about helping a young friend re-capture her rightful inheritance. In doing so, they also solve a centuries-old controversy concerning the first independence declaration.
Landis Wade, a Charlotte attorney turned novelist, constructs a fun, fast-paced tale with plot twists and turns, and somehow weaves in a healthy dose of U.S. history along the way. You’ll want to keep reading to find out how these older but not out-dated citizens accomplish their task. Wade sets many of his scenes in landmarks and businesses Charlotte residents will easily recognize and identify with.
An added bonus is the Afterword, in which Wade talks about how he […]
The Stranger in the Lifeboat (Mitch Albom; 2021)
Benji is one of several survivors of a shipwreck who find themselves in a lifeboat. Desperate for someone to save them, a stranger appears out of the water, claiming to be the Lord. They can be saved, he says, if they believe in him. Benji journals the experience in a notebook which is later found in an empty lifeboat washed ashore on the Caribbean island of Montserrat.
The diary finds its way to the island’s chief inspector, who is charged with solving its mystery. Albom’s novel weaves a tale of mystery and intrigue, leaving the reader guessing until the final reveal.
Fans of Albom know he is the master at creating stories that involve heavenly issues, and this book is no exception. You will not be disappointed.
(Personal note: I couldn’t wait to read this novel, as […]
The Wish (Nicholas Sparks; 2021)
Fans of Nicholas Sparks are accustomed to his books’ settings in the Carolinas. The Wish deviates from that template, as it’s set in current day New York City, but goes back in time to when Maggie, the protagonist, was a teen. After getting pregnant, she is shipped off by her Southern California parents to her aunt in Ocracoke, on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, where she stays until she delivers her baby. While on Ocracoke, Maggie meets another teen, Bryce, and the inevitable Sparks love story begins.
Maggie, now a world-traveled photographer dealing with metastatic cancer, recounts her memory of that time on Ocracoke to Mark, her young assistant. He becomes increasingly devoted to her as her health declines and Christmas approaches, and is determined to prevent her from being alone over the holidays.
Sparks […]