nice all read

FOR BETTER, FOR WORSE. When Fi Lawson arrives home to find strangers moving into her house, she is plunged into terror and confusion. She and her husband Bram have owned their home on Trinity Avenue for years and have no intention of selling. How can this other family possibly think the house is theirs? And why has Bram disappeared when she needs him most? FOR RICHER, FOR POORER. Bram has made a catastrophic mistake and now he is paying. Unable to see his wife, his children or his home, he has nothing left but to settle scores. As the nightmare takes grip, both Bram and Fi try to make sense of the events that led to a devastating crime. What has he hidden from her – and what has  she  hidden from  him ? And will either survive the chilling truth – that there are far worse things you can lose than your house?  TILL DEATH US DO PART. I had seen so many reviews, comments and beautiful displays for Our House by Louise Candlish I was very intrigued by the book wondering...

--> Nonfiction What we humans do to ourselves UNBOUND: How Eight Technologies Made Us Human, Transformed Society, and Brought the World to the Brink By Richard Currier 376 pp. Arcade Publishing   Reviewed by David E. Hoekenga, M.D. While used occasionally before the last two hundred years, the term technology has been widely applied to human effort since then. In Currier’s book it is used to describe events that in some cases occurred millions of years ago and to eight different eras of human development critical to human progress. In his first section the author describes the primate baseline and how unique monogamy is in humans occurring in only three percent of mammals. He finds that monogamy while not perfect promotes “social stability.” Then drawing on very early man out of Africa such as “Lucy,” Currier describes how standing fully upright, forging fire-hardening sticks, and especially a bigger brain benefitted the early hominids in their ascent . Making clever use o...

When five-year-old Ava Sawyer goes missing from a birthday party at a local garden centre, the police are bewildered by the lack of leads. That is until two years later, when Ava’s body is found and another little girl, Audrey Briggs , goes missing. Audrey also attended that party … Leading the investigation is Detective Natalie Ward . A mother of two teenagers, this case chills her to the bone, and is a disturbing reminder of the last job she worked on. One that still keeps her awake at night… Natalie soon discovers that Ava’s mother has some worrying gaps in her alibi and as she digs deeper, she’s sure Ava’s father is not telling the full story. And what did the owner of the garden centre Elsa see that day? Something that she’s not telling Natalie … Just as Natalie is facing up to the grim possibility that Ava and Audrey were killed by someone close to home, another little girl from the party doesn’t come home from her ballet lesson. Can Natalie find a way to stop this killer befo...

Nonfiction Bouncing between boom and bust BOOM TOWN: The Fantastical Saga of Oklahoma City, Its Chaotic Founding, Its Apocalyptic Weather, Its Purloined Basketball Team, and the Dream of Becoming a World-class Metropolis By Sam Anderson 448 pp. Crown Reviewed by Sarah Corbett Morgan I kept looking at this book and thinking, Nah, I don’t want to read about Oklahoma City and what do I know or care about professional basketball? But something kept making me look at it again. The cover perhaps? Whatever,  I was gobsmacked; Boom Town is one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. It’s been described by other reviewers as brilliant and kaleidoscopic. Yes and yes.  The book is indeed about Oklahoma City, the city that desperately wants to be world class but fails with regularity. Their airport, for example, is named for their native son, humorist, newspaper columnist, and social commentator, Will Rogers. Will Rogers World Airport, this grandiose title even though no internation...

It was Betty, defiant to the end, who sent Lorna back to Longhampton. If Lorna’s learned one thing from Betty it’s that courage is something you paint on like red lipstick, even when you’re panicking inside. And right now, with the keys to the town’s gallery in her hand, Lorna feels about as courageous as Betty’s anxious little dachshund, trembling beside her. Lorna’s come home to Longhampton to fulfil a long-held dream, but she knows, deep down, there are ghosts she needs to lay to rest first. This is where her tight-knit family shattered into silent pieces. It’s where her unspoken fears about herself took root and where her own secret, complicated love began. It’s not exactly a fresh start. But as Lorna – and the little dog – tentatively open their cracked hearts to old friends and new ones, facing hard truths and fresh promises, something surprisingly beautiful begins to grow around the gallery, something so inspirational even Lorna couldn’t have predicted the light it lets into her...

Fiction The smell of blood THE DEVIL’S WIND A Spider John Mystery By Steve Goble 272 pp. Seventh Street Books Reviewed by Eric Petersen Steve Goble is back with the second entry in his new mystery series featuring a most unlikely and unforgettable sleuth – an 18 th -century pirate. The first book, The Bloody Black Flag , is also reviewed on this site. Honorable pirate Spider John Rush, an illiterate yet skilled ship’s carpenter, got his nickname because he used to tease his sister by eating live spiders in front of her. He never intended to take up a life of piracy – it just worked out that way, allowing him to make some decent money for his wife Em and their son Little Johnny, whom he hasn’t seen in a long time. Now in his late twenties, he wants out of the pirate life, especially after barely escaping being hanged by the Royal Navy in the fall of 1722. He’d been working on the ill-fated pirate ship Plymouth Dream when her captain went mad and started torturing and murdering the cre...