Entries by Patty Crane

“I Humbly Beg Your Speedy Answer” Letters on Love & Marriage from the World’s First Personal Advice Column by Mary Beth Norton

My friend and co-worker Linda liked to review non-fiction books. She said she didn’t worry about giving too much away. She was also a daily reader of Dear Abby and loved to talk about the columns that outraged her. Mary Beth Norton’s new book, “I Humbly Beg Your Speedy Answer” Letters on Love & Marriage […]

The Busybody Book Club by Freya Sampson

What does a youth worker, a retired farmer, a teenage computer hacker and a septuagenarian Miss Marple wannabe have in common? In The Busybody Book Club by Freya Sampson it is the St. Tredock Community Book Club. Nova Davies, the youth worker, is an employee of the St. Tredock Community Center and the book club […]

Every Deadly Suspicion by Janice Cantore

Janice Cantore’s Every Deadly Suspicion is set in present day Dry Oaks, California but the story begins in December 1990 when Joe Keyes’s wife announces she’s pregnant. Once he gets over the shock, Joe is elated but knows he has to make some changes. Joe’s current source of income is cooking meth. He finds a […]

Finlay Donovan Is Killing It by Elle Cosimano

The fifth Finlay Donovan book is out and reminded me how much I enjoy this series. I could tell you about #5 but if you are going to read about Finlay’s crazy life you have to start at the beginning. Each book starts where the last one ended so it is one continuous story. The […]

Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy

​Helen Cartwright was born in a small English village but lived the last sixty years in Australia. When she turns eighty and with nothing to hold her in Australia she returns to the place of her birth to die. Now three years later as each day passes Helen realizes that “even for death there is […]

A Dream of Death by Connie Berry

Connie Berry’s debut novel, A Dream of Death, finds Kate Hamilton traveling to the remote Scottish Isle of Glenroth, a place she had vowed to never return. The birthplace of her husband, Bill, it was also the place he died three years ago. Bill extracted a promise from her to help his sister if anything […]

Unforgiven by Shelley Shepard Gray

Sarah, our adult programming coordinator, talked about the Adult Winter Reading Challenge in her last review. To finish the challenge, you have to read five books from the categories given by the end of January. I needed a couple more books and chose a book from the New Large Print collection for the category ‘One […]

The Year of Living Constitutionally: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Constitution’s Original Meaning by A.J. Jacobs

We the People of the United State, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. Thus begins the […]

How to Age Disgracefully by Clare Pooley

When Constable Penny Martin pulled over the minibus she didn’t know what to expect having followed it with flashing lights for quite a while. On boarding Penny is met by a mixture of mostly septuagenarians and children. Lydia, the 53 year old driver, didn’t stop because they urgently need a bathroom and she was hopeful […]

When you are a single woman in her twenties and starting a career, saying yes to new adventures and possibilities is fun and thrilling. Saying yes when you are 20-25 years older with an established career and a family can be exhausting. And, as the four ladies in Gretchen Anthony’s new novel find, it can […]