ginasbookreport

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus Publisher:  Doubleday Books Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre:  Literature Read This If You Love:  Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine Elizabeth is a scientist, and society and men aren’t happy about it. They can try to “put her in her place,” but she is still going to set up her lab and do the work. She is a force that will not be stopped no matter what life throws her way. When she finds herself raising a daughter alone, she puts her own brand of Elizabeth into parenting. You will laugh and cry along with Elizabeth and her loved ones. (I was especially partial to Six Thirty.) Lessons in Chemistry is an exploration of the repression of women and the spine of steel that it takes to persevere anyway. It’s easy to see why so many have fallen in love with this book and Elizabeth. I, for one, can’t wait to see how this translates to the screen in the Apple TV+ series. I enjoyed reading this book beachside and will always remember how entertaini

The Paris Mystery by Kirsty Manning Publisher:  Vintage Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre:  Mystery / Cozy Mystery Read This If You Love: Agatha Christie / cozy mysteries “Check your facts…then check them again.” Charlotte “Charlie” James is a new journalist for The Times of London, and she finds herself assigned to cover the Paris elite. On her first assignment, she attends the Circus Ball hosted by Lord and Lady Ashworth. While Charlie is there to get background information and make connections, she soon finds herself covering a murder when a scream rings out and a bloody knife makes an appearance.   One tiny criticism about this book and cozy mysteries in general: I REALLY wish more books included a dramatis personae at the beginning of the books. It just really helps to have a list of characters in these cozy mysteries that are set in a time or place where naming conventions vary from our current conventions. I really enjoyed this cozy little mystery, and it’s perfect for

Fodor’s Travel Puerto Rico by Fodor’s Travel Publications Inc. Publisher:  Fodor’s Travel Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre:  Non-Fiction Read This If You Love:  Love to travel To celebrate a milestone birthday, we headed off to Puerto Rico in May. We picked up the Fodor’s Travel Puerto Rico  guide to help plan our visit…where to stay, what to do, where to eat, what foods to try, shopping, outings, etc. There were some hits and some misses, but overall the guide was a good way to build our vacation. Stay… We booked our stay at La Concha Resort and while the guide did mention that is a club spot, I had no clue it was going to be such a party place. Not having children, we were looking for a place with minimal little ones. While there were a few families with kids at the resort, it was mostly 20-40 year olds and LOTS of loud thumping music at all hours. If this is what you are looking for, great. If you need some sleep and quiet time, book another place. On the positive side, the f

The Block Party by Jamie Day Publisher:  St. Martin’s Press Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre:  Domestic Thriller / Thriller / Mystery / Family Drama Read This If You Love:  Samantha Downing’s He Started It  and For Your Own Good  / fans of Desperate Housewives / fans of Big Little Lies “If there’s one thing I’ve learned, doing what I do…it’s that everyone has secrets.”—Jay On Alton Road, no one keeps to their own business. During their annual summer block party, all the building drama comes to an explosive end. What happened? To whom? Who did it and why? The members of the Meadowbrook community Facebook page have all the same questions you will as they exchange flippant comments about their neighbors.  The neighbors on Alton Road are MESSY!!!! If you love a messy, gossipy, soapy book with lots of twisted characters, The Block Party is for you. It has that “oh what happened” gossipy moody neighborhood vibe. Not to repeat everyone else’s comparisons, but this really is a contempor

The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton Publisher:  Grand Central Publishing Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre:  Fiction / Literature / Post Apocalyptic / Climate Change Read This If You Love:  We Are the Light  / Sea of Tranquility / Life of Pi “Ever since they met, the structures of civilization have been deteriorating more quickly than ever before, falling to unprecedented pieces month by month.”   Wanda is born into a world that is changing. Changing weather pattens, changing ways of living, changing landscape, and a changing family. Wanda harnesses her connection to this world, to her family, and to nature. Transported throughout her life, we watch her story and the story of this new world unfold. “It’s as though the water has swallowed a swirling living galaxy; a trillion stars, burning cool blue or pale yellow, or a hot flickering violet.” Brooks-Dalton’s writing style possesses an eloquent and majestic quality that is painted with vibrant pictures of destruction and vivi

What Never Happened by Rachel Howzell Hall Publisher:  Thomas & Mercer Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.75 Genre:  Mystery / Thriller / Suspense Read This If You Love: Lisa Unger books “Colette Sienna Weber of Los Angeles California, is no more…We warned you, Colette. You f@#ked around, and you found out.” Sometimes you read just the right book at just the right time. This was one of those books for me. The day was a strange thunderstorm in the middle of winter and I wanted to curl up in the dark with a creepy read. What Never Happened was perfect reading for a spooky storm.  Colette “Coco” Weber returns to Santa Catalina island 20 years after she was the only survivor of a horrific murder. She’s back to escape a bad relationship and rebuild her life. Her new job has her writing obits for the local paper and she quickly starts to see suspicious deaths of elderly women. She’s not sleeping, her paranoia is building, and she sets out to prove that just because you are paranoid, it do

Fatal Betrayal by Barbara Freethy Publisher:  Fog City Publishing Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 Genre:  Suspense / Thriller  Read This If You Love: Fans of David Baldacci and Vince Flynn ‘“It’s going to be okay,” he said. She really wanted to believe him.’   Andi Hart has been solving mysteries since she was a kid and now she is an FBI agent who specializes in finding lost children. When a baby is abducted, Andi is called in and comes face-to-face with her former best friend, Cooper. Why is there so much animosity there? Who took baby Elisa and why? And can Cooper and Andi find her in time?  Fatal Betrayal  is a fast and action-packed FBI suspense thriller. The twelfth book in the Off the Grid FBI series, it still can be read as a stand-alone novel. If you enjoy it, you have an entire backlist of books to read!  As a childhood fan of Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys books, I loved the concept that Andi and Cooper used to solve their own neighborhood mysteries. The older years in the b

An Elderly Lady Is Up to Know Good / An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed by Helene Tursten & Translated by Marlaine Delargy Publisher:  Soho Crime Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre: Cozy Mystery / Mystery / Humor Read This If You Love: Fans of the Thursday Murder Club series / Fans of dark humor “Memories rise to the surface. That’s what happens when you get older.” In these two An Elderly Lady books, we meet Maud…an elderly lady of 88 who isn’t the stereotypical octogenarian you find in mystery novels. Nope. Maud has preferences for her life and damn whoever gets in the way of what she believes. Maud is a retired teacher who is content living in her apartment and traveling the world. That’s what the world sees, or perhaps they don’t notice her at all. Their mistake! She might be “elderly,” but she is DEFINITELY up to no good.  An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good  is the first collection of short stories and you will quickly be gasping at Maud’s actions. If you are like me, you