Category: *Feature

By Lynn Willoughby Mama’s Last Hug ~ Frans de Waal This author has spent four decades researching and studying animals.  His previous book, “Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are” was a best seller which explored animal intelligence.  Mama’s Last Hug deals with animal emotions and feelings. Mama was a chimpanzee matriarch…

By Lynn Willoughby Where the Crawdads Sing ~ Delia Owens This is one of the best novels I have read in some time.  The writing is excellent with well developed characters.  Nature is as much the protagonist as is Kya, the “Marsh Girl.” It is set in North Carolina and begins in the early 1950s when…

By Lynn Willoughby The Island of Sea Women ~ Lisa See While this is a novel about female friendships, life in a village where everyone knows your business and your family secrets, much of it was also about the Japanese occupation of Korea in the 1930s.  Then it moved through the years of American occupation…

By Lynn Willoughby Daughter of Moloka’i ~ Alan Brennert This is a sequel to Brennert’s Moloka’i – a novel about life as a leper on the island over-seen by Father Damien.  It is the story of Ruth, the daughter of Rachel Kalama and Kenji.  Rachel was quarantined as a child on Moloka’i and spent most…

By Lynn Willoughby The Scribe of Siena ~ Melodie Winawer When a New York neurosurgeon finds herself in fourteenth century Siena, she is glad her brother, Ben, made her learn Italian.  He has just died – leaving his home in Siena, his historical research and all his papers to Beatrice.  As she moves into his…

By Lynn Willoughby Uncommon Type ~ Tom Hanks This is a collection of seemingly unrelated short stories.  But they do have a common thread – typewriters.  At the start of each story there is a photo of an antique, or just old, typewriter.  Unbeknownst to me, Hanks is an avid collector and restorer of typewriters…