Category: From My Bookshelf – Lynn Willoughby

By Lynn Willoughby The Art of Inheriting Secrets ~ Barbara O’Neal Olivia Shaw is the editor for a food magazine. She lives in San Francisco and leads a full life, but when her mother dies she learns she has inherited a centuries old estate in England. Oh yes, and a title. She is now the Countess…

By Lynn Willoughby Force of Nature ~ Jane Harper This story line had great promise. A group of five women are sent on a three day hike and camp out as part of a team building exercise for their company. They are in the Giralang Ranges just outside of Melbourne. What could possibly go wrong? Just about everything,…

Lynn Willoughby The Red Lotus ~ Chris Bohjalian I finished this book as the world is watching Beijing’s pandemic numbers rise – in the so called second wave of Covid-19.  This is relevant as this mystery is …”a global thriller about those who dedicate their lives to saving people and those who peddle death to the…

By Lynn Willoughby No Relation ~ Terry Fallis This author tells the best stories!  Earnest Hemmingway – “no relation”, to the author, loses his wallet in New York city.  When he goes to apply for a new driver’s license, he is laughed at by the clerk at the DMV and has a colossal melt down.  Of…

By Lynn Willoughby Apeirogon ~ Colum McCann This is a work of fiction, but is based on the real events and the real lives of Bassam Aramin, a Palestinian, and Rami Elhanen, an Israeli. “McCann daringly weaves together elements of speculation, memory, fact, and imagination.”  I was transfixed. This is so much more than the story of…

By Lynn Willoughby Down River ~ John Hart This is my first novel by this author but I will be reading more.  He says of the book, “We all have families.  Good ones, bad ones, absent ones, indifferent ones.”  That’s what this novel is about – one family. Five years ago Adam Chase was tried for…

By Lynn Willoughby The Woman Who Smashed Codes ~ Jason Fagone This autobiography of Elizebeth Friedman and her husband George, taught me a whole lot about the world of secret codes, espionage, surveillance and how intelligence is gathered, – and the cryptologists who break those secret codes.  Elizebeth Friedman was among the best in the world.…

 By Lynn Willoughby The Break ~ Katherena Vermette This is a hard book to review. It is well written, by a new and important Canadian author. It is a novel of shocking heartbreak as it shows us the underbelly of society that many of our Native people live every day. It is very disturbing. However, in light…

By Lynn Willoughby The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek ~ Kim Michele Richardson In 1935 President Franklin Roosevelt announced The Works Progress Administration. The Pack Horse Library Project was part of an effort to create jobs for women and bring books and reading material to Appalachia, into the poorest and most isolated areas in eastern Kentucky that…

By Lynn Willoughby If It Bleeds ~  Stephen King My introduction to Stephen King was reading a book of novellas, including “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption”.  I was hooked.  And at the expense of sounding truly creepy, I am his number one fan.  (See “Misery”). His newest book is also a compilation of novellas – “Mr…

By Lynn Willoughby The Innocents ~ Michael Crummey This novel is short-listed for the Giller Prize.  Set in northern Newfoundland, it is a story of survival, hard work, loneliness and deprivation – not an easy read. Evered us about fourteen when his parents both die.  His sister, Ada, is about twelve.  They have lived their entire…

By Lynn Willoughby Mink River ~ Brian Doyle This is Doyle’s debut novel.  It is long and often wordy, but the prose is exquisite – there are quotes from William Blake, musical references including Puccini, Van Morrison and Bruce Springsteen, literary notes, the King James Bible is often quoted, Gaelic is frequently referenced, plus many Indigenous…

By Lynn Willoughby Chasing Fireflies ~ Charles Martin When a small, mute, malnourished boy is found by the police standing near the railroad tracks, Chase Walker is assigned to cover the story.  Not only is the boy covered in ant bites, but his naked torso and arms are covered with scars abuse – some are…

By Lynn Willoughby Finding Chika ~ Mitch Albom Albom is a sports announcer, journalist, author and talk show host.  When the 2010 earthquake decimated Haiti, a local pastor was the guest on his radio show in Detroit.  John Hearn Jr was very concerned about a mission he supported in Port-au-Prince.  He was unable to get through…

By Lynn Willoughby The Best Polish Restaurant in Buffalo ~  William Kowalski Kowalski is an American-Canadian novelist and screen writer.  This novel is very personal and many of the characters were his ancestors and much of the story is true.  It tells the story of a century of life in America for a Polish farm girl…