THOUGHTS ON THIS 'n THAT

  London 1979. Two women with a deep love for disco meet one fateful night on the dance floor, changing the course of both their lives forever.    Nicola, a beautiful and brooding vampire for nearly two centuries, can’t resist fun-loving and feisty Amber from America, ultimately offering an eternity together where the glamour of nightlife always takes center stage. But not all is what it seems.   Nearly fifty years later, after an unexpected betrayal, Amber wants out from under Nicola’s thumb but soon realizes breaking up this festering friendship won’t be so simple. Sensing Amber’s restlessness and in one last play to keep her close, Nicola proposes they open a nightclub of their very own, hearkening back to their best days as dancing queens. Amber agrees but she’s secretly hatching a dangerous escape plan. And if she fails… the party is over! Rachel Koller Croft is the author of STONE COLD FOX and WE LOVE THE NIGHTLIFE. She’s also a WGA award-nominated screenwriter...

  A Season of Perfect Happiness (Dutton)  fundamentally questions what makes a “good” mother, with a propulsive and heartrending portrayal of one woman’s efforts to find her voice. Ten years after an unspeakable tragedy caused Claire to flee her hometown in Delaware, she finally feels content. She has a quiet, tidy life in Wisconsin, a place she picked at random for its shape on a map. Her careful existence centers on a simple plan: keep her social circle small and keep the past a secret. But when she meets Erik—a lighthearted theater nerd who gives Claire more of a chance than she’s given herself in a long time—that plan seems increasingly impossible, especially after she finds herself emotionally entangled not only with Erik, but with his ex-wife, Annabelle; their three young children; and a small set of friends, the kind she’d always wanted to have around her. Life after the accident can be full of joy, Claire realizes—going on a date to see a thousand-pound pig at the stat...

  "We're all just a bad turn away from allowing our worst self, the one we keep hidden in the shadows, from emerging and taking over."  #HeadFake (MaxwellStreetBooks). HEAD FAKE is one of the best books I've read this year. It shares an important message without pontificating and it's funny. For all intense purposes, Mikey Cannon has had a run of bad luck. Not only is he an addict, depressed, has ADHD, he was homeless for a while and hates his father who he has to turn to for help. His dad, Andrew Cannon has called Mikey a loser all of his life. He wants Mikey to be a winner like him. He's a winning basketball coach who holds the record for most high-school basketball wins and ESPN has a crew following him this season. Mikey gets a job, with Dad's help, driving a school bus for kids one step away from jail or the psyche ward. The Mary Friedman Alternative High School. The principal and other staff think he's a loser too, but he starts connecting with t...

  Homecoming Queen  is a thriller chronicling the plight of Anika Raven, who faces the challenge of a lifetime after returning to Miranda, Texas to rescue her little sister.   Time is of the essence as the hurricane of the century, predicted to obliterate everything in its path, barrels toward Anika’s hometown. But the deadly storm is not her biggest problem. Not long ago, she was the high school’s beloved homecoming queen, but now she finds herself on the run from the law and running out of time after family troubles force her to pursue vigilante justice. With the storm approaching and tensions in town increasing, factions brace for battle with Anika and her sister trying to survive.  Homecoming Queen  was written for adults of all ages with a love for fast-paced thrillers. With a unique plot line, memorable characters, and page-turning storytelling, the book packs intriguing substance into a quick read. Chad Boudreaux was born and raised in Corpus Christi, Tex...

  Venice, 1958. Peggy Guggenheim, heiress and now legendary art collector, sits in the sun at her white marble palazzo on the Grand Canal. She’s in a reflective mood, thinking back on her thrilling, tragic, nearly impossible journey from her sheltered, old-fashioned family in New York to here: iconoclast and independent woman. Rebecca Godfrey’s PEGGY (RandomHouse)   is a blazingly fresh interpretation of a woman who defies every expectation to become an original. The daughter of two Jewish dynasties, Peggy finds her cloistered life turned upside down at fourteen, when her beloved father perishes on the  Titanic . His death prompts Peggy to seek a life of passion and personal freedom and, above all, to believe in the transformative power of art. We follow Peggy as she makes her way through the glamorous but sexist and anti-Semitic art worlds of New York and Europe and meet the numerous men who love her (and her money) while underestimating her intellect, talent, and vision...

  Aim for Neutrality. We Need Better Sources. Anonymity is Fundamental. Keep Developing. THE EDITORS by author Stephen Harrison know these principles. The editors follow them—or subvert them—every day. The editors aren’t recognized on the street, but they craft the information that is seen on nearly every internet search. Through Infopendium, the ubiquitous, crowd-sourced internet encyclopedia, the editors influence the world. Freelance journalist Morgan Wentworth, recently laid off from  PopFeed News , attends the Global Infopendium Conference in New York expecting a straightforward story to help pay the rent. But the so-called “‘pendium people” are full of surprises. PhDs rub shoulders with high school students, all quoting the project’s rules and regulations like a second language. Sure, millions of people see the facts curated by these editors, but who really cares about the free encyclopedia? When a hacker attacks the conference and posts a cryptic message, it becomes cle...

  They buried their secrets, but not deep enough… Hannah McCullough’s life is far from perfect, but you’d never know it by looking at her. Instead, you’d see a beautiful young mother wholly devoted to her two children and a docile wife utterly besotted with her self-made millionaire husband, Allan. You’d see the designer clothes she wears, the luxury car she drives, the dewy-eyed au pair she employs. You wouldn’t see the dark secret she carries. But when a construction crew unearths the body of a young girl near the McCulloughs’ vacation home on Orcas Island, Hannah has no choice but to confront her past. She wonders how much Allan knows about the victim and the apocalyptic cult she was connected to. Meanwhile, Allan can’t seem to understand why his beautiful young bride, as polished and pristine as the collectible artifacts in his glass case, would threaten their fairy-tale lifestyle by digging too deep, in places she knows she shouldn’t. As the police investigation into the grues...

  “Today it hit me when he hit me, blood shaking in my brain. Maybe there wasn’t a savior coming. Maybe it was up to me to save me.” Recruited into the fundamentalist Quiverfull movement as a young wife, Tia Levings learned that being a good Christian meant following a list of additional life principles––a series of secret, special rules to obey. Being a godly and submissive wife in Christian Patriarchy included strict discipline, isolation, and an alternative lifestyle that appeared wholesome to outsiders. Women were to be silent, “keepers of the home.” Tia knew that to their neighbors her family was strange, but she also couldn't risk exposing their secret lifestyle to police, doctors, teachers, or anyone outside of their church. Christians were called in scripture to be “in the world, not of it.” So, she hid in plain sight as years of abuse and pain followed. When Tia realized she was the only one who could protect her children from becoming the next generation of patriarchal me...

  I've read and enjoyed Rhys Bowen's previous novels and was thrilled to receive an advance copy of her new one, THE ROSE ARBOR (LakeUnion). First of all, I was excited to read a novel with two strong female protagonists. Liz Houghton is a failing journalist searching for a scoop that'll get her taken seriously and out of writing obituaries. A young girl disappears and Liz sees reporting on it as a chance to get into the newsroom. She'll have to do it on her own time and with her own money. It turns out her best friend, Marise is the lead detective assigned to the case. Liz finds herself drawn to a small village, Dorset, where three girls disappeared in the evacuation of WWII. One was found murdered near  a train line, the other two were never found. As Liz digs deeper, she learns Dorset is in ruins. The military took it over and forced the towns' people to move during WWII. THE ROSE ARBOR is a historical mystery with a heavy government and military influence. The c...

  SANDWICH (Harper) by Catherine Newman is a delicious novel which I gobbled up.  It's not about making sandwiches, although fifty-four-year-old Rachel or "Rocky," as she's called makes sandwiches daily for the family's lunch. Rocky, hubby, Nick and their children, daughter, Willa, son, Jamie and his girlfriend, Maya are at the beach house they rent for a week every summer in Cape Cod and it promises to be another wonderful week, just like the past two decades. But it isn't - life happens.   Rocky's hormonal bouts of rage and melancholy (Hello! Menopause.) take away some of her summer joy and she's faced with secrets which she has to share with the people she loves. Some readers may find the story simplistic, but I found it deep  and emotional. I fell in love with some of the characters - others not so much, but their love for each other is definitive. ​ Catherine Newman is the author of the memoirs  Catastrophic Happiness  and  Waiting for Birdy ...