It seems as if every wanna be romance writer makes Amazon their dumping ground. Desperate to find some new authors to diversify my limited favorite authors’ selections, I stumbled upon Terri Osburn’s Home to Stay (2014), a bland, forgettable romance that emphasizes why I hate small town romance series. Home to Stay is the story of Willow Parsons and Randy Navarro, residents of Anchor Island. Willow, living on the island for only a year, works as a bartender and harbors a secret that keeps her emotionally distant and secretive […]
Wanted: Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen
Malcolm Gladwell is a storyteller. What I find particularly admirable about his work is that he is able to convey what has been traditionally a spoken language skill into a written one–while reducing seemingly complex ideas into digestible bite-size chunks. It is not surprising, then, that The Tipping Point (2000) was a best seller and achieved “one of the best books of the decade” status on many lists. Pulling from a broad set of examples from different aspects of life and history, such as from Paul Revere’s […]
I Just Don’t Know What to Do With Myself
I’ve tagged “The Leftovers” as science fiction, although I’m not sure it was intended as such. The book opens with a great conceit: Over 2% of the Earth’s population has disappeared. Just poof, gone! Some think it was the Rapture; most are simply stunned and confused by what has happened. The novel focuses on the residents of a quaint suburbia called Mapleton and how they attempt to move on several years after the great exodus. I absolutely loved the premise. What would you do if […]
I Am Pilgrim, Hear Me Bore
This book seems to be everywhere at the moment. It has been prominently displayed in bookstores since its hardback publication last year and the paperback just came out, causing a fresh wave of publicity. There are posters everywhere I turn, all of them emblazoned with pull quotes from glowing reviews about how exciting, pulse racing, daring, smart and thrilling it is. You’ll see there’s a sticker on the cover there that denotes it is “the only thriller you need to read this year”. Having now […]