** ½ Part of my Mysterious USA Challenge Macavity Award Nominee for Best First Mystery Novel (2005), Anthony Award Nominee for Best First Novel (2005) Maybe I’m being a little unfair. It’s not that Uncommon Grounds as a mystery novel is boring, it’s more that Wisconsin is not depicted as a very fun or interesting place. […]
Tag Archives: books
September
29
Kind of boring Wisconsin but keeps you guessing: Uncommon Grounds by Sandra Balzo
posted by lasesana
August
07
Gritty Maryland: What the Dead Know, Laura Lippman
posted by lasesana
***½ Part of my Mysterious USA Challenge William Morrow, 2007 ISBN 0061128856 (ISBN13: 9780061128851) Literary awards: Barry Award for Best Novel (2008), Macavity Award for Best Mystery Novel (2008), Anthony Award for Best Novel (2008) Two young teenage sisters go missing in the mid- 1970s after their father drops them off at the mall on a Saturday afternoon. […]
August
03
Majestic Alaska: A Cold Day for Murder, Dana Stabenow
posted by lasesana
*** 1/2 Part of my Mysterious USA Challenge Berkley, 1992 042513301X (ISBN13: 9780425133019) Winner, Edgar Award, 1993 A Cold Day for Murder introduces Kate Shugak, a young Aleut woman who worked in the Anchorage D.A.’s office, but has returned to her home in a fictional park in northern Alaska after a horrifying experience with a child molester. […]
August
03
Mysterious USA Reading Challenge
posted by lasesana
Inspired by an article about a writer who read books from 196 countries to broaden her horizons, I decided to challenge myself as well. Not being a native of the USA, but living here for the past 16 years, I want to read and review one mystery novel from each of the 50 states. I’m […]
August
02
Mary L. Tabor, Who by Fire
posted by lasesana
***** ISBN 0982993145 (ISBN13: 9780982993149) I absolutely LOVED this book. In fact, it has been the best book I’ve read in a long time and wished I hadn’t finished it as quickly as I did. I feel lucky to have discovered this author and can’t wait to read her next piece of work! Mary L. […]
July
10
Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ray Bradbury
posted by lasesana
**** Avon, 1962 ISBN 0380729407 Known as Bradbury’s “masterpiece of Gothic literature,” Something Wicked This Way Comes is the story of two boys and the evil carnival that comes into their town one night. The carnival seems to offer everyone their wildest dreams while trapping them inside it forever. Throughout the novel Bradbury reveals […]
July
02
On Writing, Stephen King
posted by lasesana
***** Pocket Books, 2002 ISBN 0743455967 This is the book everyone asks if you’ve read when you say that you write for a living. Embarrassingly, I hadn’t read it. Now I’ve read it twice in less than two weeks. And will probably read it many more times. This book surprised me, amazed me, and kicked […]
June
25
The Button Collector, Elizabeth Jennings
posted by lasesana
***** Page Spring Publishing, 2013 ISBN-10: 1939403081 The Button Collector is a book about little things that can come to stand for big ideas and anchor us to life and to who we are. In a beautifully written novel, Elizabeth Jennings presents a woman’s history and life choices through a jar of buttons she inherited from […]
June
19
Inferno, Dan Brown
posted by lasesana
*** Doubleday, 2013 ISBN 0385537859 Robert Langdon is poised to save the world again in Dan Brown’s latest in the Langdon series, Inferno. In the highly awaited novel, Brown explores new questions while retaining his unique mix of action, history, and cutting-edge science. With Dante’s Inferno as backdrop, Dan Brown’s novel is what readers have […]
June
11
Reconstructing Amelia, Kimberly McCreight
posted by lasesana
*** Harper Collins, 2013 ISBN 006222543X I immediately downloaded this book into my Kindle because the Goodreads recommendations said something like “If you liked Gone Girl, you’re going to love this book.” I disagree. New York attorney and busy single mother, Kate Baron always thought that she and her teenage daughter Amelia had the perfect […]
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