Erasure

 

Author: Percival Everett

Publisher: Graywolf  Press

Year: 2011

Monk Ellison is writer and professor. His books are scholarly literary works, but not best sellers. As both a Black man and a writer, he’s offended by a the instant commercial success of a debut novel filled with caricature experiences of living in the ghetto, but it was written by a middle class Black woman who visited her relatives in Harlem for a few days. Monk has some family tragedies and needs money to take care of his aging mother who is showing signs of dementia. His anger and desperation prompts him to write a satirical novel about a Black teen in the hood as a response to the exploitative best seller. Monk insists his that agent send it out to publishers under a pen name. Monk’s scathing parody is championed as a new authentic voice. Monk has everything he ever dreamed of- success, money, fame. But with the publishing world and the media are clamoring to learn about this hot new author, Monk must bring his pen name’s persona to life. 

I have mixed feelings on this one. For the most part I liked it. It’s thoughtful and insightful. It’s full of satire and I always enjoy the book within a book concept. Mixed in with all Monk’s family drama are his notes or story ideas. Either these passages were too high brow or I’m just not smart enough to understand them. Every time I encountered one, it took me right out of the story. I guess I’m a just pretty basic girl. I just want to enjoy a great and engaging story. I don’t want to feel like I’m back in high school struggling to analyze the text. I guess I’m not built for deep literature. This was a buddy read with @ and @ . Can’t wait for our discussion to hear what they think of it. If you’re looking for a book about race, identity, and scathing satire definitely give this one a try. 

How do you feel about rating books you didn’t particularly enjoy? 

I try to be honest and I usually don’t tag the author. 

#bibliofile #reader #readinglife #alwaysreading #booksbooksbooks #bookish #bookrecomendation #bookworm #booklover #bookstagram #librarybook #lovemylibrary

About the Author

Percival Everett is a Distinguished Professor of English at USC. His most recent books include Dr. No (finalist for the NBCC Award for Fiction and winner of the PEN/ Jean Stein Book Award), The Trees (finalist for the Booker Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction), Telephone (finalist for the Pulitzer Prize), So Much Blue, Erasure, and I Am Not Sidney Poitier. He has received the NBCC Ivan Sandrof Life Achievement Award and The Windham Campbell Prize from Yale University. American Fiction, the feature film based on his novel Erasure, was released in 2023. His 2024 novel James is a NYT best seller and National Book Award winner. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and their children.

Witness 8

 

Author: Steve Cavanagh 

Narrator: Adam Sims

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Year: 2025

Thank you Simon & Schuster Audio for the gifted audiobook. Appreciate it! 

Happy #thrillerthursday! Steve Cavanagh has a fantastic new book out now - Witness 8. Eddie Flynn is a former con man turned defense attorney. He uses in street smarts to help his clients. His latest case is a tough one. John Jackson, a strait-laced family man, is accused of killing one of his neighbors. The murder weapon with his DNA on it is found in his house. Jackson says he’s innocent. If he is, how did the gun get in his home? One person has all the answers. One person knows Jackson’s house and neighborhood intimately. One person is pulling all the strings, trying to hide all the secrets and lies.

This is the eighth book in the Eddie Flynn series. I jumped into the series with this book and hadn’t read any of the previous books. There was enough backstory so I didn’t feel lost and I quickly got a sense of the main characters. Eddie and his colleagues are interesting characters and I liked them. The pace of the story is good and there’s a lot of moving parts to the story. This is an engaging and intricate thriller that kept me on my toes. Adam Sims’s narration does a wonderful job bringing all the characters to life. I really enjoyed this one 👍🏻. I’m definitely planning on reading the series from the beginning.  

#crimefiction #mysterybooks #thrillerbooks #bibliofile #reader #readinglife #alwaysreading #booksbooksbooks #bookish #bookrecomendation #bookworm 

#booklover #bookstagram #legalthriller #audiobook #audiobookstagram #audiobookreview #audiobookrec #witness8 #stevecavanagh #simonaudio #thrillerthursday

About the Author

Steve Cavanagh is the bestselling and award-winning author of several books, including the Eddie Flynn series and Kill for Me, Kill for You. A former lawyer, he was born and raised in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where he still lives. 

Disappeared

 

Author: Bonnar Spring

Publisher: Oceanview Publishing 

Year: 2022

Sisters Julie and Fay are on vacation in Morocco. Fay leaves the hotel to go for a walk and never returns. Now it’s up to Julie to find her sister before it’s too late. 

Disappeared is roller coaster ride of suspense. Author Bonnar Spring jacks up the tension then lets readers briefly catch their breath before cranking it even higher. I loved the setting. Chances are I’ll never visit Morocco, so visiting vicariously is always a plus. The author does an incredible job describing the people, land, and culture. The characters were relatable and smart. They’re ordinary women who get caught up in a nightmarish situation. I don’t want to give too much of the plot away, so I’ll just say that it’s filled with twists and turns. I really enjoyed this book. This a great choice if you’re looking for a quick and entertaining novel filled with suspense and set in an exotic location. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 

How’s the weather in your little corner of the world? We’re back to chilly weather and still waiting for a true spring warm up. 

 #mysterybooks #thrillerbooks #bibliofile #reader #readinglife #alwaysreading #booksbooksbooks #bookish #bookrecomendation #bookworm #booklover #bookstagram #librarybook #lovemylibrary #bonnarspring #disapperaed #oceanviewpublishing #backlistbooks #suspensebooks

About the Author

Bonnar Spring writes eclectic and stylish mystery-suspense novels with an international flavor. An inveterate traveler, she hitchhiked across Europe at sixteen and joined the Peace Corps after college. For twenty-five years, Bonnar has been teaching ESL—English as a Second Language—at a community college. She currently divides her time between tiny houses on a New Hampshire salt marsh and by the Sea of Abaco.

Food for Thought

 

Author: Alton Brown

Narrator: Alton Brown

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Year: 2025

To be perfectly honest, I never watched any of Alton Brown’s shows. I had a vague awareness of him being in the food entertainment industry from some commercials he’s done. So I didn’t know what exactly to expect going into his latest book Food for Thought. What I found were very entertaining and thoughtful essays of his personal life, relationship with food, and career. 

He touches on subjects from his career, to culinary cultural appropriation, his childhood, culinary school, his television career, and cooking the perfect roast chicken. His story about making s’mores when his aunt visited when he was a kid and using some of her “chocolate” had me laughing hysterically. 

Brown is a wonderful storyteller. He’s witty, charming, and sarcastic. I really enjoyed his self deprecating humor. His narration for this audiobook is excellent. This is a great choice if you’re looking for a palate cleanser book. It’s short, flavorful, and very satisfying. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Many thanks to Simon & Schuster Audio for the complimentary audiobook! 

Do you like to cook? Can you just throw ingredients together and create something delicious or do you have to follow the recipe exactly as is? 

#audiobook #audiobookstagram #audiobookreview #audiobookrec #nonfiction #altonbrown #foodforthought #essays #simonaudio #foodie #bibliofile #reader #readinglife #alwaysreading #booksbooksbooks #bookish #bookrecomendation #bookworm 

#booklover #bookstagram 

About the Author

Alton Brown was directing TV commercials when he got the crazy idea to go to culinary school and reinvent the cooking show. The result was Good Eats, an irreverent, science-forward program that led to Brown working on the Food Network for over twenty years. His live culinary variety shows have toured to hundreds of sold-out crowds across the country since 2013. He is also the winner of a Peabody Award and two James Beard Awards. He lives in Atlanta with his wife, the designer Elizabeth Ingram, and three nefarious canines.

A Killing Cold

 

Author: Kate Alice Marshall

Publisher: Flatiron Books

Year: 2025

Teddy is invited to her wealthy fiancé’s family’s mountain retreat for the holidays. She’s nervous about meeting his family, but also because she’s received messages warning her to stay away from her fiancé. The holiday vacation awakens Teddy’s long repressed childhood memories, uncovering deadly secrets and lies. 

I know I’m too critical of psychological thrillers and I should just not read them. They’re usually a little too slow paced for me. I thought this was going to be a more of a locked room mystery and it kind of is. But it has a huge psychological thriller aspect. And that wasn’t doing to for me. It’s me. I’m the problem. I find the majority of psychological thrillers kind of boring. I didn’t find Teddy trying to piece together vague memories compelling or intriguing. Most of the characters were to cliched. I know lots of readers really loved this one, but it just wasn’t for me. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Do you DNF a book of you’re not into it or do you stick it out to the end? 

#crimefiction #mysterybooks #thrillerbooks #bibliofile #reader #readinglife #alwaysreading #booksbooksbooks #bookish #bookrecomendation #bookworm 

#booklover #bookstagram 

#librarybook #lovemylibrary

About the Author

Kate Alice Marshall is the best selling author of thrillers and horror for kids and adults. Her middle grade books include the Secrets of Eden Eld trilogy and Extra Normal. In YA, she’s written the survival thriller I Am Still Alive, as well as supernatural suspense including Rules for Vanishing and The Narrow. She made her adult thriller debut with What Lies in the Woods, followed by the USA Today bestseller No One Can Know.

She lives outside Seattle with her family, two golden retrievers.

Count My Lies

 

Author: Sophie Stava

Narrators: Devon Sorvari, Emily Tremaine, Andrew Eiden

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Year: 2025

Thank you Simon & Schuster Audio for the gifted audiobook.

When Sloane sees a little girl crying in the park because of a bee sting, she tells the girl’s handsome father that she’s a nurse and offers to help. Sloane’s not a nurse. She’s a liar. She can’t help herself. That one little lie turns into a string of lies as Sloane ingratiates herself into the wealthy family lie by lie. 

Count My Lies is a heck of a debut novel by Sophie Stava. This one’s all about secrets and lies. And just when I thought I had it figured out and knew where it was going, huge twist! I binged this one and flew through it. I just had to know what Sloane’s endgame was. And I wasn’t prepared for that ending! 🤯 I also enjoyed the full cast narration by Devon Sorvari, Emily Tremaine, and Andrew Eiden.

Read this if you like:

✅ multiple points of view

✅ unreliable narrators

✅ twists and turns

✅ an ending that will blow your mind

This is a tight and compact suspense thriller that you can binge in a weekend. I’m not lying when I say that Stava is an exciting new voice in crime fiction. My verdict: loved it 😍. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Have you read any excellent debut novels this year? 

#crimefiction #mysterybooks #thrillerbooks #bibliofile #reader #readinglife #alwaysreading #booksbooksbooks #bookish #bookrecomendation #bookworm 

#booklover #bookstagram #audiobook #audiobookstagram #audiobookreview #audiobookrec #countmylies #sophiestava #simonaudio #debutnovel #2025debut

About the Author

Sophie Stava received her BA in English literature from UC Santa Barbara. She currently resides in Southern California with her family. Count My Lies is her debut novel.

Broken Country

 

Author: Clare Leslie Hall

Narrator: Hattie Morahan

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Year: 2025

“The farmer is dead. He is dead, and all anyone wants to know is who killed him.”

This book grabbed me from the first line and pulled me right in. There’s a lot going on in this story and I mean that in the best possible way. Love, heartache, secrets, lies, betrayal, grief, and guilt. 

Author Clare Leslie Hall’s storytelling is masterful. This is a sweeping love story mixed with the twists and turns of a thriller. The setting, a small English village in the 1960s, is atmospheric. The characters are complex, flawed, and so real. Narrator Hattie Morahan is phenomenal. She conveys all the emotions and brings the characters to life. These characters and this story will stay with you long after you finish reading the book. I already know this book is one of my top tens books for this year. My verdict: loved it 😍. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you Simon & Schuster Audio for the gifted copy. Appreciate it!

QOTD: what’s on your playlist? Tell me what songs or artists you’re listening to lately? 

#audiobook #audiobookstagram #audiobookreview #audiobookrec #crimefiction #mysterybooks#bibliofile #reader #readinglife #alwaysreading #booksbooksbooks #bookish #bookrecomendation #bookworm #booklover #bookstagram #historicalfiction #brokencountry 

About the Author

Clare Leslie Hall is a novelist and journalist who lives in the wilds of Dorset, England, with her family. She’s the author of Broken Country, Pictures of Him, and Days You Were Mine.

The Story She Left Behind

 

Author: Patti Callahan Henry

Narrators: Julia Whelan and Theo Solomon

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Year: 2025

Thank you Simon audio for the gifted audiobook! The Story She Left Behind by Patti Callahan Henry is out today and you need to read it. 

Clara’s mother disappeared when Clara was just a little girl. Her mother, Bronwyn, left behind a sequel to the popular children’s book which Bronwyn wrote as a young girl. The sequel was written in a language Bronwyn made up. Decades later, Clara is still searching for clues to her mother’s disappearance and a way to decode her mother’s book. Clara receives a phone call from a man in London claiming he found Bronwyn’s papers among his deceased father’s possessions. This sends Clara and her daughter Wynnie on an emotional journey for answers.

This is such a lovely story with so many layers. It’s a great blend of historical fiction and mystery. It’s atmospheric and populated with rich and well crafted characters. The narration by Julia Whelan and Theo Solomon is superb. My verdict: loved it. 😍 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

QOTD: are you an audiobook reader? Do you have a favorite narrator? 

I’m a huge audiobook fan, but it did take me some time to embrace the format. For me, Julia Whelan is the G.O.A.T of narrators, but there’s many others I also love. 

#audiobook #audiobookstagram #audiobookreview #audiobookrec #mysterybooks #bibliofile #reader #readinglife #alwaysreading #booksbooksbooks #bookish #bookrecomendation #bookworm 

#booklover #bookstagram #historicalfiction #motherdaughterrelationships #thestorysheleftbehind #simonaudio 

About the Author

Patti Callahan Henry is a New York Times, Globe and Mail, and USA Today bestselling author of seventeen novels, including her newest, The Story She Left Behind.

Her books have been translated into over 20 languages and have been the Barnes and Noble Book Club Pick, Amazon Editor Pick, Goodreads Book of the Year finalist, People Magazine Choice, Book of the Month Selection, and more. She is the recipient of The Christy Award “Book of the Year”; The Harper Lee Distinguished Writer of the Year and the Alabama Library Association Book of the Year for Becoming Mrs. Lewis. 

 

She is the co-host and co-creator of the popular weekly online Friends and Fiction live web show and podcast. She’s published in numerous anthologies, articles, and short story collections.

 

She attended Auburn University for her undergraduate work and Georgia State University for her graduate degree. Once a Pediatric Clinical Nurse Specialist, she now writes full-time. Married to Pat Henry, the mother of three and grandmother of two. 

What Kind of Paradise

 

Author: Janelle Brown

Publisher: Penguin Random House

Publication date: June 10, 2025

Thank you Random House and NetGalley for the e-arc! 

Jane and her father live in an isolated cabin in the middle of the Montana woods. Jane’s father is always worried that a shady government agency is coming to get them. He considers himself an anti technology truth-teller and “they” don’t want his voice heard. When her father is getting ready to go on one of his mysterious trips, Jane convinces him to take her too. He takes her to Seattle and what happens there turns Jane’s life upside down. She learns her entire existence has been a lie. 

I loved Jane! She smart and vulnerable. She goes from a quiet isolated life centered around her father to getting caught up in his horrific crime. She sets out for San Francisco to find her mother and find answers to who she really is. The story is set the mid 1990s just a the burgeoning internet is taking hold. It was a walk down memory lane with all the references to early internet life. Anyone besides me old enough to remember chat rooms?

It was interesting to watch as is Jane plunged into the world she had little to no experience with and how she grows. She has to learn how to navigate living in a big city, get a job, and make friends. 

This is an all round great mash up of mystery/thriller and historical fiction. The plot, pace, the characters, the settings are all top notch. Janelle Brown really knocked it out of the park with this book. What Kind of Paradise comes out June 10. Just go ahead and preorder it now because it’s a perfect beach read. My verdict: loved it 😍 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

#crimefiction #mysterybooks #thrillerbooks #bibliofile #reader #readinglife #alwaysreading #booksbooksbooks #bookish #bookrecomendation #bookworm 

#booklover #bookstagram #whatkindofparadise #janellebrown #penguinrandomhouse #historicalfiction 

About the Author 

Janelle Brown is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels I’ll Be You, Pretty Things, Watch Me Disappear, All We Ever Wanted Was Everything, and This Is Where We Live, with What Kind of Paradise coming in June 2025. Her books have been sold in two dozen countries around the world. Pretty Things - named a Best Book of 2020 by Amazon - is currently being adapted for television by Peacock and Fifth Season.

Her journalism and essays have appeared in The New York Times, Vogue, Elle, Wired, Self, RealSimple, The Los Angeles Times, and numerous other publications. Previously, she worked as a senior writer at Salon, and began her career as a staff writer at Wired during the dotcom boom years, working on seminal Web sites like HotWired and Wired News. In the 1990s, she was also the editor and co-founder of Maxi, an irreverent (and now, long-gone) women’s pop culture Webzine.

A native of San Francisco and graduate of UC Berkeley, she has since defected to Los Angeles, where she lives with her husband Greg and their two children.