The Throwback Thursday meme was created by Renee over at It’s Book Talk. She made this meme to share some of her old favorites. Although all bookbloggers have an endless TBR pile, we seldom take the time to reflect back and post about some of the great reads from a few years ago. Sharing book recommendations is one of my most favorite things to do!
I originally reviewed “How Will I Know You?” in June 2019.
“When people get themselves into a hole,
other people like to watch them try to get out.”
Susanne Enright – age 42, is an accomplished sculptor turned college art instructor. Susanne’s husband, Gil has squandered their nest-egg in an ill-advised investment. Now his business is floundering. As a way of paying him back for his betrayal of her, she has an affair with one of her graduate students.
Martin Willett – a twenty-four year old, black, mixed-race art student and accomplished artist. He was one of very few people of colour living in this predominantly white upstate New York town. Greatly attracted to his instructor, Susanne Enright, he is more than receptive to her advances. They have an affair.
When Susanne’s daughter is murdered, Martin is pointed out by a witness and is framed by the power-hungry, racist, police-chief.
Harper Grove – is Joy Enright’s best friend, or she was… Friends since they were in pre-school, Joy now seems distant and has a new clique of friends. Unsavory friends. Harper is the youngest child of a dysfunctional family. She has a penchant for baking.
When Joy is murdered, Harper is interviewed by the police and finds herself lying in her witness statement for reasons that make sense only to her.
Tom Carbone – is married to Alison, who just happens to be the daughter of the interim police-chief. He runs a convenience store once owned by his late father. Also, he works as an ‘on-call’ rescue diver. After Alison has several miscarriages, Tom knows that his marriage is crumbling…. The fact that Alison is a closet alcoholic and a real ‘Daddy’s girl’ doesn’t bode well for Tom’s future.
The Victim, Joy Enright – the teenage daughter of Susanne and Gil. Bright and extremely artistically talented, Joy dreams of one day attending a prestigious (and expensive) art school. When her father loses his savings, she realizes that those dreams will come to naught. Also, she learns that her mother, with whom she was once very close, is having an affair with a black graduate student.
Who killed Joy Enright?
A few years ago I read this author’s “Lacy Eye” which I thoroughly enjoyed. For this reason I was confident I would like this book – and I wasn’t disappointed.
I really like Jessica Treadway’s writing style. She writes at a steady pace with fully fleshed-out characters that makes the reader invested in their plight and interested in how events will pan out. She seems to have an innate understanding of human nature, encompassing strengths and weaknesses, talents and character flaws, vices and self doubts, decisions and consequences.
With themes of parenting, substance abuse, justice, racism, blackmail, guilt, and loss, this novel will be favored by many readers. It eloquently asks the age old question “Can you really ever know another person?” Also, it explores the many secrets inherent in most small towns – as they serve as a microcosm of society as a whole. It explores the idea that one event can be interpreted many different ways according to the viewers perspective.
If you haven’t yet tried this author, then I would highly recommend you do so. An entertaining and thought-provoking character-study with a poignant conclusion.
I received a complimentary digital copy of “How Will I Know You” from Grand Central Publishing via NetGalley in consideration of my providing a candid review.
Jessica Treadway is a native of Albany, New York. Her story collection Please Come Back to Me received the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction. She is also the author of And Give You Peace, which was named as one of Booklist ‘s Top 10 Debut Novels of the Year, and the collection Absent Without Leave and Other Stories. Her stories have appeared in the Atlantic, Hudson Review, Ploughshares, and Five Points, among other literary journals.
A professor at Emerson College in Boston, she lives with her husband in Lexington, Massachusetts.
Eloise Slaughter – an aging, crotchety, overweight and infirm former fashionista with a penchant for Sapphie (Sapphire gin). Lonely, betrayed, and abandoned my her former friends, Eloise lives in squalor. She fancies herself an author and wants her story told – so she hires a young man to take down her notes and aid her in her daily life.
My Tuesday post where I’ll ‘tease‘ you with the cover, blurb, and first paragraph of one of the advanced reader’s copies from my own TBR.
1) This is a debut novel and I’m always pleased to try a new author.
Meanwhile, there is a mentally unstable man who seeks refuge in the caves in Cheddar Gorge… He is also physically unwell, and his labored breathing scare away some businessmen who tour the caves on a drunken lark.
“Louise thought of the secrets people carried around with them at all times, and the extent to which those secrets could impinge on their behaviour.”
Following his law degree where he developed an interest in criminal law, Matt Brolly completed his Masters in Creative Writing at Glasgow University. He reads widely across all genres. He is the bestselling author of the DCI Lambert crime novels Dead Water, Dead Eyed, Dead Lucky, Dead Embers and Dead Time; the acclaimed near-future crime novel Zero; and the US-based thriller The Controller. Matt also writes children’s books as M. J. Brolly. Matt lives in London with his wife and their two young children.
They say you can never have a second chance to make a good first impression. A book’s cover does just that – gives a first impression. A good cover can make a reader pick up a book. A bad cover can leave the book at the very bottom of a dusty pile.
As a book blogger, I spend a LOT of time reading other people’s blogs and reviews, and perusing the internet for fodder for my own blog.
When it comes to Kindle book availability, there is a GREAT DIVIDE between what is available to me in Nova Scotia, Canada versus what is available in the United Kingdom.
These are SIX books that I want to buy that are not available in ANY format!
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AND, though I’ve clicked this button many, many, times for many, many, titles, I have never seen any results.
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Have YOU ever encountered a situation where you want to buy a book that is UNAVAILABLE for you to purchase? Was it a book that IS available in other countries, but not yours? I’d be interested in hearing about your experience in the comments.
Yasmin is in Alaska to find Matthew, her husband, who is a wildlife photographer. Ruby, her ten-year old daughter accompanies her due to the fact that Ruby is completely deaf and Yasmin didn’t have anyone to care for her back in England. When they arrive in this hostile environment, they learn that there has been a catastrophic fire in the village where Matt has been staying. There are no survivors. Yasmin, refusing to believe that Matt is gone, persuades a trucker to take them north.
Then a storm comes…
Rosamund Lupton graduated from Cambridge University in 1986. After reviewing books for the Literary Review and being invited to join the Royal Court Theatre, she won a television play competition and subsequently worked as a screen writer. Her debut novel Sister, was a BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime, a Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller, has been translated into over thirty languages and has international sales of over 1.5 million copies. It was the fastest-selling debut of 2010 by a British author, and was winner of the Richard and Judy Best Debut Novel of 2011 Award and the Strand Magazine Critics First Novel Award. Film rights of Sister are currently under option.
The Throwback Thursday meme was created by Renee over at 
Richard is an accountant. Married to Lisa, he is the father of eight year old Hannah and toddler Oscar. He loves his children very much, but… Richard feels claustrophobic – absolutely stifled and trapped by his life. He longs for a quiet life with no children around. He looks out his window at Bill’s house across the street and covets Bill’s life. Richard goes so far as to plan his ‘escape‘, fantasizing about a new life away from England. He dreams of a solitary life in the American midwest. 
The monotony and suffocation of his family life constantly suffocate him. Torn, he waffles between wanting to escape, and longing to stay for his children.
Bill spends a good part of his day gazing out his front window at the house across the street. A house filled with noise, life, and love – or so he thinks. He secretly wishes for Richard’s life.
This review was written voluntarily and my rating was in no way influenced by the fact that I received a complimentary digital copy of this novel from BooksGoSocial via 
Jonathan Lee is a nationally shortlisted author who was born Yorkshire where he still lives today with his second wife, five children, two cats and a dog.
My Tuesday post where I’ll ‘tease‘ you with the cover, blurb, and first paragraph of one of the advanced reader’s copies from my own TBR.
I recently purchased a new Ninja Foodi and I’m on a steep learning curve to master the beast. So far I’ve air fried, sauteed, and pressure cooked. It also dehydrates, broils, steams, bakes, and roasts.
This week my husband and I finished watching the most recent season of “
Last year I started going through the entire alphabet, one letter per month. For January 2022, the thirteenth month of my endeavor, I’m listing all of my favourite novels that begin with the letter ‘M‘. I am choosing these titles from the books I’ve read since I began this blog. There are 15 books recommended here.
Frankie Elkin is, in her own words, a scrawny, middle-aged white woman. She is a drifter, an excellent bartender, and an alcoholic. For the past decade, Frankie has been sober and devoting her life to finding missing persons. Usually people who are minorities, whose cases have gone cold. She has found many of these people, though not all of them alive.
This review was written voluntarily and my rating was in no way influenced by the fact that I received a complimentary digital copy of this novel from Cornerstone/Random House UK via 
The Throwback Thursday meme was created by Renee over at 
We first meet Harry (or Little Fox) as he is known, in 1946 when he is a very young man. He was too young to have served in the war like his two older brothers. Their ancestral manor house/farm, Hartgrove Hall, was requisitioned by the British Army during the war and they are just reacquainting themselves with its grandeur and its decrepitude. The house is in dire need of a large influx of cash which they do not have.
Natasha Solomons is a screenwriter and novelist. She lives in Dorset with her husband, the award-winning children’s author David Solomons, and their two children. She is the New York Times best-selling author of four novels and her work has been translated into seventeen languages.
