By the author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry – Rachel Joyce’s new novel is as wonderful a read – filled with humour: Byron was given a hundred lines for disturbing a classmate. (“I must endeavor to be no more stupid than God has intended.”)” and wisdom: “Sometimes caring for something already growing is more perilous than planting something new.” A gem!

Vintage Amy Tan – if you liked The Kitchen God’s Wife (a wonderful book) you will love this one – filled with intrigue, lusty characters, improbable but believable outcomes … reminds me of memoirs of a geisha

Don’t tell anybody but I love Lauren Willig! Her books are light, airy, funny, predictable yet engaging… You won’t be able to refrain from getting caught up in the dramas of her two heroines (there are always two!) I always look forward to the next in the series …

Set in Northern Ontario – a family that is messed but lovable – insightful look into the “intricacies and anguish” of family life – how we love and hate the folks that pull at us and how we navigate those relationships while trying to stay true to our “self”. I love Mary Lawson’s non-judgemental and sensitive approach to her characters and the landscape in which they find themselves.

Set in Britain during WW2 and the Cold War – Joan becomes a spy for Soviet Russia. She is apprehended 60 years later when in her eighties. We move back and forth in time as we come to understand why Joan feels it is necessary to pass along some “secrets” to her Soviet friends. Wonderfully written and suspenseful – made me wonder what I would have done given the times and circumstances in which Joan found herself – more than a few moral conundrums in the novel. ‘Twas grand!

Great messed up husband and wife – she’s in more denial than you can image – and he is blissfully allowing life to happen to him without ever having to take responsibility for a single one of his actions. Does she want to kill him as time goes on? Oh yes! Does she – read it and see! Great suspense and fun (if somewhat tidy) ending.

Great read – set in New York, late 1800 – based on real person – midwife and proponent of women’s right to choose at a time when women had little control over their lives – Axie is inspiring, funny and full of p**s (as she is wont to write) and vinegar … great read!

I think that’s the title – it’s his latest and, as all of his books, full of intrigue, suspense – great characters and twisty ending.

Great book – characters are clever, witty, beautifully rendered against a backdrop that is suspenseful and believable – okay the end was a little tidy but no matter – a great read – and it got me over the “I am so sad to have finished Atwood’s new book whatever shall I read next?” hump –

The wicked Borgias in Renaissance Rome – right amount of intrigue, great historical peek at this famous family, very good writing and solid characters – who could ask for more?