I Must Betray You is a gripping, historical young adult novel about a teenage boy’s struggle for freedom in the final days of Romania’s oppressive communist regime. It shines a bright light on a topic that isn’t well-known to young people, and I highly recommend it as an account of what true oppression looks like. Continue reading
Author Archives: mmelland
Audio Book Review: The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill, Narrated by Katherine Littrell
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The Woman in the Library is a mystery novel that brings four strangers together when they hear a woman scream in a Boston library. Unknown to three of them, the fourth happens to be a murderer. Continue reading
10 Holiday Stocking Stuffers and Gifts for Book Lovers
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If you’re looking for the perfect gift for the readers in your life, there are plenty of options. This is a list of ten that caught my eye, half from Amazon and half from Etsy. All of them are affordable reader gifts, and some would make nice book worm stocking stuffers. Continue reading
Book Review: The House by the Lake: One House, Five Families, and a Hundred Years of German History by Thomas Harding
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In The House by the Lake, Thomas Harding chronicles the history of the summer lake house his Jewish great grandparents built near Berlin in the 1920s. He also weaves in one hundred years of German history and its impact on the house’s different residents, creating a fascinating story. Continue reading
Audio Book Review: The Night She Disappeared by Lisa Jewell, Narrated by Joanne Froggatt
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The Night She Disappeared is a gripping suspense novel written by Lisa Jewell and expertly narrated by Joanne Froggatt (audio version). It’s one of those thrillers that will have you guessing until the end. Continue reading
Book Review: Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez
In Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez takes on some heavy topics, including obsessive, unrequited love; marital love and fidelity; and aging and death. Continue reading
15 Interesting Books Set in Germany
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Germany makes a rich setting for both fiction and nonfiction. Many classic spy and war novels are set in Germany, and although this list is heavy with both genres, I also tried to include some other options. Continue reading
It’s Time to Shatter ALS!
Hello! If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you’ll know that I’ve been fighting and living with ALS for over eleven years. You’ll also be familiar with my annual appeal for donations to the ALS Association (ALSA). Continue reading
Book Review: Sidecountry: Tales of Death and Life from the Back Roads of Sports by John Branch
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Sidecountry is a collection of some of John Branch’s favorite articles. Branch, a Pulitzer Prize winning sports journalist for the New York Times, treats his readers to “something different, something unexpected. They would never ask for it, because they wouldn’t know to ask.” Continue reading
Book Review: 56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard
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56 Days is an engrossing and well-constructed murder mystery set in Dublin, Ireland during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s a real page-turner, with surprising plot twists throughout. Continue reading
Book Thoughts from Bed 