Books so far 2023:

Kantika by Elizabeth Graver
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a wonderful book. I believe I identified with the characters. My family’s journey to America was less convoluted but equally interesting.
I love the intergenerational story. Strong characters with strong character. I sometimes wonder where people get this extraordinary strength. This is a story about America. Imagine if we had no immigrants. What an empty, boring place this would be.
Look how immigrants made the country and continue to revitalize it with new ideas and culture.


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The Collector by Daniel Silva
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

As usual, Daniel Silva does not dissappoint. The old characters are back and the new ones fit right in. The story is complicated but it is engrossing.
The action is non-stop and realistic. I followed some of the action on a map and Silva's locations are exceptionally accurate.
The story is ripped from the headlines. I don't want to spoil this story. The question I kept asking was how close to war are we every day that the war in Ukraine continues.

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The Other Dr. Gilmer: Two Men, a Murder, and an Unlikely Fight for Justice by Benjamin Gilmer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read this for book club. An intriguing story idea, just so happens to be true. The book is a bit preachy and more about mental illness in prison than about a murder. Unless you consider putting a mentally ill person in prison murder.
The shortcomings of our judicial and prison system are well known. You are better off to commit your crimes in some states than in others. Best you have reasonably intelligent judges and lawyers. In the wrong place, with the wrong legal help and supervision, you may find yourself locked up with a lost key.
That's really what this book is about. It makes me want to vomit. If you are rich and well connected you can do and say anything, matters not, you will never get to trial. If you do your high priced attorneys working with well-placed judges will get you off. There is no law if it not swift and equal.


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Künstlers in Paradise by Cathleen Schine
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It might be too soon. The pandemic is still a raw sore for many of us and me included. This is a book that takes place during the pandemic.
It is a story about identity and how it is passed on to children, even grown children. The writing is beautiful and it is a wonderful read but for me it brought up memories of the quiet streets, wiping groceries and feeling isolated.
Not being able to get that image, the pandemic, out of my mind made this a somewhat depressing book for me, maybe not for everyone. After all, the Kunstlers did go from hell to paradise and flourished there.
The history is beautiful and the stories in the story are heartwarming.
Read it. It may be worth the aggravating memories.

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Next in Line by Jeffrey Archer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a typical Jeffrey Archer. A couple of clever twists and lots of action. I love it give me more.
The Warwick characters are easy to understand and a pleasure to read about.

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This Time Next Year We'll Be Laughing: A Memoir by Jacqueline Winspear
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Helps to help me understand why I love Maisie Dobbs so much. Its the writing. It is from a place of knowledge about the environment that Maise lived in.
Jaqueline Winspear led an interesting life and had an interesting family. As with the books in her series, this book is filled with what it must have been like to live in England in this time period between and during the Wars. If you are a fan of English historical fiction, this book is your cupa.


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Horse by Geraldine Brooks
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A powerful, and easy to digest book. This is about so many things, not just a horse. This is a book that is right out of the headlines and traces our current problems right back to their beginning. Racism and slavery. The perspective of a slave and his family is so well portrayed that I got tears in my eyes from it at times and anger at others.
You know an author is great when you read about horses and racing, something I have little interest in and it holds your interest. She is a master.
The characters come alive and the plot moves along in not always predictable ways.
Read this book!


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The Care and Management of Lies by Jacqueline Winspear
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I wish this was not a stand alone. I would like to read about these characters and the further exploits. Brilliantly written. It was a pleasure to read and, as Winspear does, it exposed me to a whole lot of wonderful history. Not a boring moment.

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Profiles in Ignorance: How America's Politicians Got Dumb and Dumber by Andy Borowitz
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have read some of his columns and they are often laugh out loud funny. This book is not funny, well I laughed a lot, it is seriously accurate journalism. It traces the our crappy political situation back to and finds the republican party in a straight trajectory from their past leadership to today. You reap what you sow.
More than I wanted to know about Reagan and Quayle, Andy draws the lines between Joe McCarthy and our current republican leadership.
Borowitz is brilliant. The book makes so many things clear and makes it more difficult to accept republicans as viable in a democracy. It is a party of lunatics with plans.
Don't be afraid of this book unless you are afraid of the truth about republican leadership. Also the book is short, half of it is footnotes that you might feel complelled to look at.

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The Heart of the Serpent: Soviet Science Fiction by Ivan Efremov
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a 1958 Soviet era science fiction. Fascinating mix of science and politics. The story is simple. We meet another race of beings in space.
Most interesting observation was that as technology improves on earth, the next generation of spaceships might beat them to the target and back. In other words, their explorarion expected to take 7 centuries on earth will bring them back to a world that is completely different from the one they left.

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The Paris Affair by Melanie Hudson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I liked it. In fact, I might have loved it. Gave me a different perspective on the war, the French and those sad people who hated Hitler and lived in Germany and Germans. Suffice it to say that this may give you a chance to see the war from a different angle, just as sad, just as horrifying, just different.

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