Other Relaxation

In Unsheltered, Barbara Kingsolver mixes two story lines chapter by chapter. The first focuses on Willa Knox and her present-day family. The second focuses on Thatcher Greenwood, who lived in the same neighborhood as Willa in the 1870s. Both are faced with...

Like imaginative authors everywhere, Ella Carey based Paris Time Capsule on a real-life occurrence. In late 2010, a Paris apartment that had been uninhabited for 70 years was opened after its owner’s death. She had left Paris during World War II and never returned....

In Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore, Matthew J. Sullivan introduces us to Lydia. She’s a bookseller just trying to live an uneventful life. I'm envious of her bookstore life, if not the rest of it!Sadly, one of her customers takes his own life in the store, even...

I feel sorry for author David Lagercrantz, who wrote the fourth book in the Millennium series. The Girl in the Spider’s Web is just an okay thriller. But Lagercrantz could never live up to the trilogy created by Stieg Larsson, who died at just 50 years old. The story...

In Bluebird, Bluebird, Attica Locke introduces us to Darren Mathews, a highly conflicted Texas Ranger. He’s been to law school, but has chosen law enforcement over legal work. He’s married, but separated. He wants to solve two murders in a tiny East Texas town, but...

Hope Never Dies from Andrew Shaffer was my antidote to last week’s fear and tragedy. It’s both mystery and humor, featuring fictional versions of Joe Biden and Barack Obama. If you like all the memes that feature the imagined tomfoolery of those two, you’ll enjoy this...