They sure do: My Grandma and Grandpa Rock!

by Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo

#MyGrandmaandGrandpaRock #NetGalley

This book is so very inviting and will be enjoyed by kids and their grandparents. The illustrations are lively and engaging. The accompanying text is fun.

The narrator’s grandparents enjoy music, both singing and with their hands respectively, and are not quiet and calm. They dress uniquely. They are given space here, even as kids are invited to think about what their own grandparents are like and can do.

The end of the book has fun illustrations with the names for grandparents in many cultures. A shout out is given to whatever talents they may have, sweetly ending with how they love their grandchildren.

This title will make a perfect addition to a toddler’s library.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Kids for this title. All opinions are my own.

Pub date: 09 September 2025

Four stars ****

Emerson, Thoreau, Alcott (Bronson and Louisa May)…Margaret Fuller? Most readers of American fiction and essays know the first few names on this list. They may be less familiar with Margaret Fuller. However, by the time that readers close this book, they will fully appreciate her life with its successes, challenges and tragedy.

Young Margaret was a highly intelligent child, whose father took her education most seriously. When he died, Margaret was left feeling that she needed to support her family. She did that while also being part of the transcendentalist movement and more.

One aspect of the book that I really liked was the way in which icons became human. For example, early in the novel, Margaret visits Emerson and his second wife. Waldo, as Margaret is invited to call him, engages in a flirtation with Margaret. It is in moments like this, that readers get to look at great American figures in a new and less iconic way. Similarly, as the story opens, Thoreau is a young man working for the Emersons, and just beginning his writing career. Bronson Alcott is running a school, while Louisa May is still a child.

Pataki has written a number of works of historical fiction. She has another success on her hands here.

Many thanks toNetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for this title. All opinions are my own.

From the publisher:

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/23/books/review/best-spy-novels.html

www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/08/25/books/review/gilded-age-quiz.html

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/books/new-books-september.html

THIS NOVEL IS AN E BOOK BARGAIN

by joycesmysteryandfictionbookreviewsMarch 22, 2020

Meet Me in Monaco feels like the perfect title for right now.  It is a gentle, romantic story that will allow its readers to escape daily life.  Much of the book is set in France with its beautiful towns and countryside.  And then, of course, readers also spend time in Monaco itself.

The background for the story is Grace Kelly’s wedding to Prince Rainier but Sophie and Jim are also prominent characters for whom readers want the best.  Sophie is a parfumier with a beloved family business that is facing financial ruin.  The man she is to marry does not always seem right for her.  Jim is a photographer assigned at times to follow Ms. Kelly.  Jim is divorced and the woman in his life is daughter, Emily.

Sophie meets Jim when he chases Grace into Sophie’s store.  From this beginning, readers will spend time with the three and with the others who surround them, all the while hoping for fairy tale endings.

The book follows a typical narrative structure with the addition of interspersed news articles.  These are fun to read and help readers to feel that they are witnesses to the action.

This novel was written by two authors who worked very well together.  It was impossible for me to detect who was writing when.

I highly recommend this novel for those who need a bit of feel good time.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this title in exchange for an honest review.

From page-turning thrillers to tales of espionage, find your perfect crime in these mystery novels that will hit shelves soon!
— Read on www.penguinrandomhouse.com/the-read-down/mystery-coming-soon

I read and enjoyed this author’s earlier book about Carrie Soto but loved this one even more! I underlined a number of passages as I read, something that I don’t always do, because there were some very moving paragraphs (for example when Joan talks about god and the universe).

This is a story about a group of astronauts in the 1980s. Some women are in the group but they are still a rarity. The training of all is well depicted with attention paid to what was at stake for the early classes of females in the field.

Readers also get to know those around these astronauts. Many have families who come into the story.

Three characters in this book kind of melted my heart. They are Joan, Vanessa and Frances. Joan and Vanessa are astronauts while Frances is Joan’s niece.

SPOILER:

Joan and Vanessa are in a relationship. This occurs at a time when it was not considered acceptable. Joan’s awakening to her orientation and sexuality are beautifully evoked.

BACK FROM SPOILER:

Early in the book, readers learn about something that is going on with one of the missions. The suspense of this was so convincingly described that I could hardly bear it. Readers will understand this if they read the book, I think.

All in all, kudos to TJR for a masterful work. Five stars from me.

Natalie Jenner clearly loves Jane Austen’s works. This title, along with The Jane Austen Society, make that abundantly clear.

This year marks the 250th anniversary of Austen’s birth so it is an auspicious time for the publication of Austen at Sea with one of its characters being Austen’s brother Francis and another his daughter, Fanny.

The story opens in the 1860s in America. Two sisters, nicknamed Harry and Charlie, live with their father, a state justice; their mother is deceased. Harry and Charlie want more independence than is easily on offer. They definitely challenge the powers that be.

Harry and Charlie’s father loves Austen fiction as did their mother and as do they. He even has a book club with other justices in which they discuss Austen’s works (see the opening scene of the novel).

The conceit of the book is that Harry and Charlie reach out to Admiral Austen who invites them and two brothers from Philadelphia to visit him in Portsmouth. At 91, the Admiral is thinking about his sister’s legacy and ephemera. While the two young women are fans, the young men, in addition, own a bookshop, and have an American first edition of Emma.

The Admiral thinks that it will be fun to put these four together. He has dreams of romance (is this like in Emma when she plays matchmaker?) hoping that he is forming two couples. Read the book to see what happens in this regard as well as with the Austen memorabilia .

These four and others, including Louisa May Alcott, share a passage to England. It was enjoyable to see Alcott (and her love of Dickens) in these pages.

I very much enjoyed this novel. It offered me a lovely escape. The pace, characterizations and story all kept my attention.

Highly recommended to those who love Austen and/or historical fiction.

Note that reading the author’s afterword will clearly show a reader how much Austen means to her. I hope that Jenner’s Austen themed novels will continue.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this title. All opinions are my own.

Pub date: 06 May 2025

A note on the audio book:

The narrator (male) gave life to the story and its characters. I enjoyed going back and forth between the text and audio versions and was sorry to come to the end. Those who are looking for a good listen of a good book, cannot go wrong with this audio book.

The author’s other titles

The Jane Austen Society

Bloomsbury Girls

Everytime We Say Good-bye

Reviews for all of these are on my blog.

From the Publisher

A Mystery

by Rosanne Limoncelli

#TheFourQueensofCrime #NetGalley

If the names Agatha, Ngaio, Dorothy and Josephine are instantly known to you, then this is a book to add to your reading list. To anyone who doesn’t know, these women with last names Christie, Marsh, Sayers and Tey are among the most beloved writers of crime fiction ever. They are indeed the Four Queens of Crime of this book’s title.

One of the very fun things about this book is having the sense of eavesdropping on these four and learning more about each of them. For example, Agatha Christie notes that Max Mallowan was the better husband for her as compared to her first spouse. Readers learn that Dorothy Sayers’s husband was an invalid and so on.

At the same time, readers are treated to a classic country house mystery. The four writers are there for a fundraiser and thus are present when a murder occurs. There is a full range of suspects including the victim’s children and their significant others or friends, political figures, servants and more in this historical mystery set in the late 1930s.

An extra bonus is that a woman DCI, Lilian Wyles, based on the first woman to fill that role is also on the scene. She questions suspects and is a full participant in the investigation.

Lovers of traditional mysteries will, I think, very much enjoy this title. It is fun to observe the interviews and see who the murderer is.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for this title. All opinions are my own.

Pub date: 11 March 2025