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Connelly writes a police procedural filled with a gentle humanity amidst the violence.

Slow going.

In Strout's remarkable opening she describes the changes in Crosby, Maine post covid. She gathers characters from her other novels, but now they intersect in a world where age, self-doubt, and acceptance are more easily acknowledged. Outsiders like Lucy Barton and ex-husband William, feisty Olive Kittredge, and good guy Bob Burgess navigate a Maine where real estate has skyrocketed and good help is hard to find.

I received a free ARC ebook of Tell Me Everything from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

Strout's great opening reveals a Crosby, Maine that is irrevocably changed from Covid. Outsiders like Lucy Barton have moved permanently to the coast. Businesses are unable to find enough help, young adults are plastered to their phones and real estate prices have skyrocketed.

I took a break from reading this complicated novel because of other commitments.

Did not finish. Too many characters who are dissatisfied with their lives but who do nothing to change.

I had to put this title on hold for awhile. The Committed continues the unhappy tale of the sympathizer now living in Paris. His isolation and uncertainty about his life reads too much like life in quarantine.

Will not finish.

Not sure how I feel about this one.

Fabulous plot!

I first read The Handmaid's Tale many years ago while in college. Its dystopian world scared me but somehow it seemed too horrific to ever become reality. The Hulu television series has prompted a reread. I watched the first episode, enthralled by the characters with the uncomfortable knowledge that frightful and abhorrent can become our actuality. It is time to go back to the source - Margaret Atwood

Reading Shirer's weighty tome is slow going, but we'll worth the effort. Much has been written about the foundations of Nazism; Shirer incorporates multiple primary sources along with his personal observations as a reporter in the midst of the rise of Nazism.

Perhaps reading this is so slow not because of the breadth of scholarship but because of the terrifying parallelism with modern day America.

The foundations of Nazism - its anti-Semitic philosophy and the absolute belief in its righteousness are clearly defined here. It's a slow read but oddly compelling. We know the ending and yet can't help wondering why ordinary people and great thinkers could be so bamboozled by Hitler's lunacy. Shirer incorporates many quotations from primary sources to bolster his arguments.

The incredible large scale planning and the supply chain of men and equipment are highlighted in the opening chapters of this book. I am in awe at the multi-tiered thinking that the military planners evidenced. So little was known about the geography and coastal terrain of the Marianas that creative investigation was required prior to the attack.

Instead, I gave her something that was of value to me: my forgiveness...Forgiving her did not restore my family...It was not a new beginning. It was not...an end. My forgiveness was...an acknowledgment of the fact that I still lived; it was proof that their experiments...was all for naught...In my forgiveness, their failure to obliterate me was made clear.