Author Susan Berry

When their father dies suddenly, three kids are left to struggle into youth and then adulthood. One doesn’t make it very far. Toby the youngest, stayed in a make-believe world after the father’s death until he is jolted hard back into reality during a stay…

Tempting Fate: Review of Ralph Cohen’s After Dad

Occasionally, I review in brief short works or books that have been reviewed hundreds or literally thousands of times. In this segment, below, are reviews of what has become known as summaries of books. These summaries are not a condensed version of the actual book…

Review Shorts: Mini Reviews of Book Summaries

This book one of a three part series. Read this book first, then the next two, for Ancillary Justice sets up the other two. The world created by Ann Leckie is not one that will be familiar to most readers, even those who read primarily…

Literary Sci-Fi: Review of Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice

If you want a quick mystery that you can curl up with and learn something about Botswana, and its culture, look no further than Alexander McCall Smith’s The Good Husband of Zebra Drive (No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency #8). Smith’s writing is  easy on the eyes and…

A cozy bush mystery: Review of The Good Husband of Zebra Drive

Yesterday, I finished Hamlet’s Dresser: A Memoir, written by Bob Smith who was a dresser/aide for Shakespearean actors including Katherine Hepburn among others. At some point, he starting reading Shakespeare to senior citizens, getting them to appreciate the beauty and complexity of Shakespeare.  I picked…

A Shakespearean Memoir: Review of Hamlet’s Dresser by Bob Smith

Thomas Merton: A Life Inspired is like the rest of the biographies written by Wyatt North is a short book chock full of facts about the Trappist monk, Thomas Merton. He was a prolific author with publication credits in the hundreds. His most famous work…

A Very Public Monk: Review of Thomas Merton – A Life Inspired

If you like American Revolution historical fiction that is written in diary/letter form along with historical accounts (snippets of newspaper articles and the like), and portions of historically-significant works, you will like Jane Kamensky and Jill Lepore’s Blindspot. This is one of the books from…

Early American Portraiture: Review of Blindspot