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Winter’s Bone is All Muscle with No Fat and Unforgettable

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Winter’s Bone by Daniel Woodrell is a powerful, lean, spare volume, all muscle and no fat. It’s about 16 year old Ree, a young woman living in the Ozarks who cares for both her emotionally scarred mother whose mind has been hijacked by the trauma and stress of her life, and her two younger brothers, the oldest is ten years. Her father cooks meth, and we never meet him except by comments and descriptions of others. He hasn’t been home in quite some time. Early on in the novel a bail bondsman visits Ree because he hasn’t been able to reach her dad to remind him of his upcoming court appearance, and should he fail to appear, the humble family home (c. 1914) would be confiscated, just as winter arrives, by the bail bonding company since her dad used it for part of his bonding collateral without sharing that information with family members. The likely best case scenario as a result of home forfeiture, is the boys would have to be split up among other relatives to raise, and Ree would have t...
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If readers have ever loved a dog, this book will resonate deeply with them

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The Best Dog in the World edited by Alice Hoffman is a series of essays by established authors writing about something they feel passionate about, speaking straight from their hearts about their dogs. There’s not a dud among these stories, and why should there be? Some of the greatest writing known to humanity comes at the hands of a subject an author is passionate about, writing from the very core of his or her being. Every one of these stories is different, each unique and so well told. If a reader has ever loved a dog, this book will resonate deeply with them; if a reader has never had that experience, they will be enlightened, perhaps even motivated to seek their own canine soulmate at some point.  One aspect I loved about this book was how much each author learned from their dog: about their dogs, themselves, love, and loss. There is also a great deal of humor in the book as well. One effect the essays had on me was to make me create a list of these authors to ensure if I’ve n...
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Run, do not walk, to get this in your favorite reading mode

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  The Auction of Pierced Nostalgia by Sarah Mouffok is like a 50ish page short story that is definitely worth reading. It’s a wild, exciting ride into a future world where elites suck happy memories from the “have nots” who sell them for things they desperately need, while elites live in a pain free utopia created on the backs of those they dominate.   In this story when a memory is sold or removed, it is replaced by a temporary place holding filler. However in this instance the doctor performing the procedure knows this is not your usual garden variety filler, and it leads to a chase that will leave you breathless. I would definitely read anything else this author creates!   Run, do not walk, to get this in your favorite reading mode. If you love science fiction type stories, and even if you usually don’t, I can’t imagine anyone not being fully entertained by this storyline!!! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
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Grief is a Thief Unless It’s Arrested!

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I really enjoyed This Book Made Me Think Of You by Libby Page, and I had actually bought it the day before it was recommended as a July reading choice for my Goodreads Kindle Book Club Forum group, since it sounded interesting, and now it is currently enshrined on Goodreads monthly list of Favorite Books of the Year (2026), occupying the March slot. I did feel it might have benefited from some editing (though some might disagree), as the last 20% of the book began to feel a bit repetitive, although still immersive. The book is about a young widow, Tilly, learning her husband Joe had set up a yearlong book of the month gift from a neighborhood bookseller to cheer her in the months after his death. Once it became clear to him his cancer diagnosis would not lead to recovery, he was concerned about doing something supportive to help his beloved during the initial year after his passing. Tilly had always loved reading and worked in the book industry coaching celebrities with memoirs her fir...
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A Well Written Book of Compelling Detail

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Through the Lens of a Monster by William A. Noguera grabs you within the first six minutes of reading, and doesn’t let you go until the last page is turned. It is a powerful, unblinking study of serial killer Joseph Naso, gleaned over countless conversations with him by the author who transcribed these interactions shortly following their occurrences when he returned to his cell in the same facility where they were housed. Noguera states, “Over the years, whenever Joseph Naso revisited a story, the core never shifted. That consistency convinced me I wasn’t hearing invention, but memory.” Decades of incarceration had instilled Noguera with deep compassion for the hell families go through when a member is suddenly missing, and potentially dead, in this case all women, many of a tender age. The author’s mission becomes determining if he can ultimately get answers for families of Nosa’s victims, a very dangerous proposition in a prison setting where any hint of snitching can lead to an ear...
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Tragicomedy Rich in Imagination, Action, Time Travel, Emotion, Drama, and Lyrical Prose

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Don’t start out reading This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone if you’re sleep deprived, as I did.  Nothing written in the book’s early pages seemed comprehensible to my brain, addled by lack of sleep, regarding what  I was about to embark upon. I actually felt angry, and was thinking, “What the heck am I reading?!” I got back to reading after a few hours sleep, and it was a game changer for me.   The Amazon book blurb tells us the book is “ Cowritten by two beloved and award-winning sci-fi writers”  There are two main characters, Red and Blue; Max wrote all of Red, and Amal wrote all of Blue. Editors at  Vector, the critical journal of the   British Science Fiction Association, in their 3/11/20 author interview “This Is How You Produce The Time War Part 1: Powder Scofield interviews Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone”  describe the book: “It’s an intense, lyrical, tragicomic novella about two elite warriors, Red and B...
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A Story You’ll Never Forget

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Barracoon by Zora Neale Hurston is like a vivid crazy quilt of a book. It starts out with a Foreword by Alice Walker, who states, “Those who love us never leave us alone with our grief. At the moment they show us our wound, they reveal they have the medicine. Barracoon: The Story of the Last ‘Black Cargo’ is a perfect example of this.” The book includes more than simply the description of her interviews with former slave eighty-six-year-old Kossola aka Cudjo Lewis, which lasts about 94 pages of the 210 page book. The balance of this narrative is followed by a 20 page Afterward which discusses many aspects related to the process of writing Barracoon, a controversy, and issues connected with the book. This is followed by a brief Acknowledgements. Also included is a list of Founders and Original Residents of Africatown where Kossola lived. Next is a very interesting Glossary that reads like a story itself, and the Bibliography of supporting and related books is a must read for anyone inte...
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