Sea of Tranquility - Emily St. John Mandel (Harper Collins Publishers, 2022) ...this is what the Time Institute never understood: if definitive proof emerges that we're living in a simulation, the correct response tothat news will be So what. A life lived in a simulation is still a life. -Emily St. John Mandel, Sea of… Continue reading Book Review: Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
The Three Lives of Alix St. Pierre - Natasha Lester (Forever, 2023) I received an Advanced Copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for this review. All opinions are my own. This was a fun historical fiction that blends secret service and fashion along with romance and some real-life historical characters. Alix St.… Continue reading Book Review: The Three Lives of Alix St. Pierre by Natasha Lester
This was an excellent collection of 10 short crime stories. There were mostly names I recognized, such as Ruth Rendell and Grahame Greene and G.K. Chesterton and others that I probably would recognize if I read more mysteries. I'm not sure that audio is the right format for me when it comes to short stories… Continue reading (Audio) Book Review: Classic Crime Short Stories
Set over three days in a maternity word for pregnant flu patients in Dublin in 1918 - there’s a LOT going on here. And yet this isn’t a book that feels overwhelming. It feels steady. You feel swept up in the unceasing action of a busy hospital. Rarely a moment to rest, life and death… Continue reading (Audio) Book Review: The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue
The End of the Affair - Graham Greene (Heinemann, 1966) Maurice Bendrix's affair with Sarah Miles has been over for a couple of years when he unexpectedly runs into her husband, Henry, one evening. Bendrix reluctantly agrees to have a drink with Henry, only to find all his love and hate of Sarah reignited when… Continue reading Book Review: The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
The Marriage Portrait - Maggie O'Farrell (Alfred A. Knopf Canada, 2022) Lucrezia is the youngest daughter of Medicis of Florence. Raised in luxury but strictly watched over by her mother and father, her life as a young girl in the 1550s is dictated for her from birth. Yet there is a wildness to her, something… Continue reading Book Review: The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell
Loved this book. Who is the main character? I'm not sure and I don't even care. Ponzi scheme set in 2008 inspired by Madoff Vincent is an amazing main character - she’s smart and vulnerable, fluid and changing but consistent in her basic character. She feels real. The setting of a remote luxury hotel located… Continue reading (Point Form) Book Review: The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel
South African author, winner of the Booker Prize follows one family over several years When their mother dies, she makes their father promise that he will give their servant, Salome, her house to own Apartheid South Africa, the family is white, Salome is Black...we see where this is going, right? Father does not honour the… Continue reading (Point Form) Book Review: The Promise by Damon Galgut
Hello and Welcome Back to the final installment of the Fifth Annual Karissa Reads Books Literary Awards! Undoubtedly, most of what I read is fiction so this final category is the Big One. I have my top 5 below but some other titles I greatly enjoyed reading in the past year are (in no particular… Continue reading Best Fiction: The Fifth Annual Karissa Reads Books Literary Awards
For approximately two-thirds of The Other Black Girl, I felt like I was reading a smart, contemporary novel about young women in the workplace, modern publishing industries, and the issues that Black women deal with. Then, quite suddenly, the book turned into something far more nefarious and confusing. To the point that I had the… Continue reading Book Review: The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris
Karissa Reads Books 