Monday, June 27, 2016

The Good Girl by Mary Kubica



This debut thriller by Mary Kubica has been proclaimed as the next Gone Girl.  While I don’t think it was quite that caliber, it did make for a good read on my weekend getaway.   I recommend the audiobook, which is available for download from the library overdrive site. 

Mia is a young  teacher  who is kidnapped by her supposed one-night-stand, Colin. Eve, her mother, is beside herself with worry while grappling with her daughter's disappearance. Gabe is the investigator assigned to Mia's case.  Mia’s story is told from the points of view of each of these characters. 

While the action can be suspenseful at times, other parts are a bit slow.  Keep plowing through.  When you find out what’s really going on in the end, you’ll find it worth the wait. 

Reviewed by Kimberly White
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Monday, June 13, 2016

All the President's Gardens: Madison's Cabbages to Kennedy's Roses - How the White House Grounds have Grown with American by Marta McDowell



Gardening season is in full swing and this charming book will appeal both to gardeners and to historians.

Beginning in the 1790s with George and Martha Washington and continuing through the 1990s and beyond, McDowell makes her historical canvas come alive through the paintbrush of flowers, plants, trees and shrubs.  Her ability to make what might have become a dull recitation of botanical facts fascinating lies not only in masterful writing but in her deep understanding of the human and family lives of the Presidents and how they influenced and developed the White House grounds.  Readers will also enjoy the plentiful and well-chosen illustrations, which are a delight.

Perhaps the best lesson to be taken from this thoroughly enjoyable book comes from the preface, in which McDowell writes:  “…whether gardeners lean right or left, blue or red, we are united by a love of green growing things and the land in which they grow.”

Reviewed by Kate Tesdell
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Monday, June 6, 2016

The Passenger by Lisa Lutz



This book starts with Tanya Dubois discovering her husband dead at the bottom of the stairs.  He fell while she was in the shower.  She knows the police will be suspicious and she doesn’t want them to look too closely at her past, so she packs a couple of suitcases and goes on the run.  She turns into Amelia and makes her way to Austin.  There she meets Blue, who convinces her to swap identities.  They go their separate ways.  It turns out Blue’s identity is a little more complicated than she let on, so she ends up on the run again.  She is really forced to live off her wits as her money runs low and she has no permanent name.  Meanwhile, her secret past is revealed very slowly.  Would it ever be possible to go home again?  

Reviewed by Fiona Swift
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