Svetlana's Reads and Views

Title of the book: Bound; a Daughter, A Domme, And An ENd-Of-Life Story Author: Elizabeth Anne Wood Publisher: She Writes Press  Publishing Date: 2019 ISBN: 978-1-63152-630-5 Summary:  What happens when a forty-something, feminist sociologist who studies gender and sexuality learns that her mother—a charming, passive-aggressive, and needy woman who hasn’t had a lover in decades—has started seeing men who wants to be bound, whipped, and sexually dominated? What happens when that same mother, shortly after diving into her newly discovered sexuality, develops a cancer that forces her to accept radical changes to her body, and then another that forces her, and everyone around her, to confront her mortality? In Bound, Elizabeth Anne Wood addresses these questions as she chronicles the last eight months of her mother’s life—a period she comes to see, over the course of months, as a maternity leave in reverse: she is carrying her mother as she dies. Throughout their journey, Woo...

Title of the book: Bury Him; A Memoir of the Vietnam War Author: Captain Doug Chamberlain Publisher: Love the West Publications Publishing Date: 2019 ISBN: 978-1-950647-03-3 Summary: In this frank, engaging memoir, Captain Chamberlain chronicles the missions, personal courage and sacrifice of the Marines he was privileged to command; painfully recalls the unspeakable order he and his Marines were forced to obey; and the cover-up which followed. Nearly four decades later, Captain Chamberlain makes right what was wrong; brings closure to the family of a fallen and abandoned warrior; and attempts to put to rest the guilt which plagued his military career and life. Unlike most books on the Viet Nam War, this book is written at a tactical level by a Marine Company Commander who was there. Author Info: (From iRead Book Tours) Meet the Author: Doug Chamberlain, the grandson of homesteaders in eastern Wyoming and western Nebraska, grew up with the "country values...

Name of Book: Blood Author: Maggie Gee ISBN: 978-1-909572-12-6 Publisher: Fentum Press Type of book: England, violence, comedy, family, bonds, mystery, modern times, attraction, support, dentistry, shady, Year it was published: 2019 Summary: Who attacked Dad? When a corrupt, brutal dentist, Albert Ludd, is found battered and bloody after failing to attend a memorial party for his youngest son, suspicion falls on the dentist's other children. Especially on Dad's middle daughter, 37-year-old buxom bruiser Monica Ludd, who was heard 'uttering threats' against her absent father. How come her car is found outside Dad's house? Why did she buy a large axe? And yet, Monica's a deputy head teacher... Blood is a Gothic black comedy seen through the eyes of six-foot Monica, who cannot help speaking her secret thoughts aloud and who has been banned by the principal of her school, from using social media. '"Parents are sensitive to abuse." ...

Name of Book: David Lazar Author: Robert Kalich ISBN: 9781933480497 Publisher: Bunim and Bannigan Type of book: Gambling, New York, money, wealth, 1960s? To modern times, friendships, relationships, wealth, sports gambling, booking, addiction, favors Year it was published: 2019 Summary: Welcome to the world of David Lazar, the world of doubt and self-doubt, where life is lived as a novel and a novel is truer than life. At twilight of one’s life, mortality is no longer an abstract notion. David Lazar, now in his eighties, feels the need to piece together the arc of his life. Lazar’s thoughts drift from his happy childhood on Manhattan’s Upper West Side—his mother a child psychologist, his father a celebrated cantor—to his many friends and the women he had loved and lost, until he met Elizabeth Dunn, his soulmate and the mother of his teenage son. He has a decision to make… For many years, he lived two lives and he still harbours a deep secret. Haunted by his past...

Name of Book : A Reason for Living Author: Julian Jingles ISBN: 978-1-64367-865-8 Publisher: urlink Type of book: Jamaica, 1960s, incest, Rasta, drugs, corruption, parties, students, art, gratuitous sex, violence, Gary Stu, relationships, poor, country, activity Year it was published: 2020 Summary: It is the mid-1960s in Kingston, Jamaica, and the country is steeped in social, political, and economic inequities. Howard Baxter, the heir to a real estate empire, has no interest in seeking or managing wealth. Painting and deflowering Jamaican maidens are his passions. As he combs the streets looking for greater meaning in his pathetic life, it soon becomes apparent that Howard's journey will not be easy. Bernaldo Lloyd, a member of the Baxter clan, is a medical student who is sensitive to the hopelessness of the Jamaican masses. Inspired by his close friend and Howard's cousin, Ras Robin Pone, and their ties with the Rastafari movement that calls for social and ...

Name of Book: Ghost of the Bamboo Road Author: Susan Spann ISBN: 978-1-63388-550-9 Publisher: Seventh Street Books Part of a Series: Hiro Hattori Novels Type of book: Japan, samurai, mountains, fox, 1566, kitsune, entertainers, revenge, plans, mystery, yamabushi, Shinobi, crime, murder Year it was published: 2019 Summary: When a vengeful spirit terrorizes a mountain village in medieval Japan, a ninja and a Jesuit priest must reveal the truth and save the villagers from the phantom's wrath. January 1566: En route to Edo, Master ninja Hiro Hattori and Portuguese Jesuit Father Mateo spend the night in a rural mountain village whose inhabitants live in terror of a legendary vengeful ghost. When the innkeeper's wife is murdered and Father Mateo's housekeeper, Ana, is blamed for a crime she did not commit, Hiro and Father Mateo are forced to investigate and reveal the truth. But when another woman turns up murdered in the snow, the detectives must face the...

Name of Book: A Bottle of Rum Author: Steve Goble ISBN: 978-1-64506-003-1 Publisher: Seventh Street Books Part of a Series: Spider John Mysteries Type of book: 1723, pirates, insane asylum, mystery, violence, murder, cursing, Spider John, friendship, loyalty Year it was published: 2019 Summary: August, 1723 -- Spider John Rush believes he has escaped piracy forever. Enjoying rum and chess in a dark Lymington tavern, he dreams of finding passage to Nantucket to reunite with his beloved Em and to finally get to know the son he remembers only as a babe in arms, though the lad must be dreaming of going to sea himself by now. But when a lazy taverner is stabbed to death, one glance at the victim tells Spider the pirate life has followed him ashore and he cannot possibly ignore this bloody crime. The wise maneuver would be to run before authorities arrive, but Spider is denied that choice because he’s already deeply, connected to the crime—he fashioned the murder weapon ...

Name of Book: Stefan's Promise Author: Sam Rennick ISBN: 978-1-948261-20-3 Publisher: Hugo House Publishers Type of book: 1968-2000s? lawyers, Vietnam war protest, St Louis Missouri, Canada, working, friendship, men, wealth, high class, jail, family, problems Year it was published: 2019 Summary: The Vietnam War Changed America. Two Best Friends Weren't Spared. Only One Was Drafted. It’s 1968. America is rocked by assassinations, war protests and political upheaval. Alan Young, 21, is brooding over having been dumped by his girlfriend. This won’t last long. His draft notice is in the mail. Stefan Kopinski isn’t about to let the war get in his way. He spends his days at the mercy of his reckless ambition. When fate steps in, will he finally understand what has been right in front of him for 30 years? "Stefan’s Promise" is the story of Alan and Stefan. Circumstances part them and sharply diverging temperaments further erode their bond. Yet, Alan and S...

Name of Book: Miracle Creek Author: Angie Kim ISBN:  9780374156022 Publisher:  Sarah Crichton Books Year it was published: 2019 Summary: How far will you go to protect your family? Will you keep their secrets? Ignore their lies? In a small town in Virginia, a group of people know each other because they’re part of a special treatment center, a hyperbaric chamber that may cure a range of conditions from infertility to autism. But then the chamber explodes, two people die, and it’s clear the explosion wasn’t an accident. A powerful showdown unfolds as the story moves across characters who are all maybe keeping secrets, hiding betrayals. Chapter by chapter, we shift alliances and gather evidence: Was it the careless mother of a patient? Was it the owners, hoping to cash in on a big insurance payment and send their daughter to college? Could it have been a protester, trying to prove the treatment isn’t safe? Miracle Creek uncovers the worst prejudice and be...

Name of Book: Little Faith Author: Nickolas Butler ISBN:  9780062469717 Publisher:  Ecco Year it was published: 2019 Summary: In this moving new novel from celebrated author Nickolas Butler, a Wisconsin family grapples with the power and limitations of faith when one of their own falls under the influence of a radical church Lyle Hovde is at the onset of his golden years, living a mostly content life in rural Wisconsin with his wife, Peg, daughter, Shiloh, and six-year old grandson, Isaac. After a troubled adolescence and subsequent estrangement from her parents, Shiloh has finally come home. But while Lyle is thrilled to have his whole family reunited, he’s also uneasy: in Shiloh’s absence, she has become deeply involved with an extremist church, and the devout pastor courting her is convinced Isaac has the spiritual ability to heal the sick. While reckoning with his own faith—or lack thereof—Lyle soon finds himself torn between his unease about the church...

Name of Book: Twine Author: Monica Duncan ISBN:  9780921332626 Publisher: Crowsnest Books Year it was published: 2019 Summary: When Juniper Kowalski, a mediocre artist and graduate of one of the best art schools in the country, gets pregnant by her married lover, she ends up back in Gobles, Michigan, living in her dead grandma's trailer. She fears that her new life as a hotel maid, and as the best friend of a subrural call girl, has fulfilled some bleak fate. But Juniper's pregnancy also ignites a will to create. Every hurt that she's ever suffered begins to emerge as confrontational, public art. Family lore has taught Juniper disdain for men. But it's not hatred for her absent father, abusive grandpa, or even her baby daddy, causing her issues. It's facing actual love from a big, flawed, breathtaking man. "Twine" celebrates a quietly radical view of small-town life, ambition, and motherhood. It is the story of a young woman who needs no...

Name of Book: A Wedding in December Author: Sarah Morgan ISBN:   B07L5Q893W Publisher:  HQN Year it was published: 2019 Summary: This funny, charming and heartwarming new Christmas novel is USA TODAY bestselling author Sarah Morgan at her festive best! In the snowy perfection of Aspen, the White family gathers for youngest daughter Rosie’s whirlwind Christmas wedding. First to arrive are the bride’s parents, Maggie and Nick. Their daughter’s marriage is a milestone they are determined to celebrate wholeheartedly, but they are hiding a huge secret of their own: they are on the brink of divorce. After living apart for the last six months, the last thing they need is to be trapped together in an irresistibly romantic winter wonderland. Rosie’s older sister, Katie, is also dreading the wedding. Worried that impulsive, sweet-hearted Rosie is making a mistake, Katie is determined to save her sister from herself! If only the irritatingly good-looking best man...

Name of Book: The Peacock Summer Author: Hannah Richell ISBN: 9780062899347 Publisher: Harper Year it was published: 2019 Summary: From internationally bestselling author Hannah Richell comes this compelling story of hidden secrets, forbidden love, and a mysterious old house. Two summers, decades apart. . . Two women whose lives are forever entwined. . . And a house that holds the dark secrets that could free them both. 1955: At twenty-six-years old, Lillian Oberon is young, beautiful, and married to the wealthy and handsome Charles Oberon. She is also the mistress of Cloudesley, a lavish estate. But not long after her nuptials, she begins to feel her marriage is a sham. Like the exquisite objets d'art, curiosities, and treasures her husband collects, she is just another possession captured within the walls of the grand countryside manor. With a sister and young stepson in her care, Lillian has made peace with her unfulfilling marriage and fate--until a cha...

Name of Book: Without Her Author: Rosalind Brackenbury ISBN:  9781883285791 Publisher:  Delphinium Year it was published: 2019 Summary: The author of Becoming George Sand has crafted a “standout novel of a tested friendship . . . highlighted by fine prose and finely drawn characters” (Publishers Weekly). When her old friend Hannah doesn’t show up at her house in the south of France, everyone assumes that Claudia, who has known Hannah since their shared years at boarding school, will know where she is and what has happened. But as Claudia travels from the United States to France to help her friend’s husband and children conduct their search, she is forced to deal with her old jealousy of Hannah, as well as her own relationship in the present with her French lover, Alexandre. As events unfold, Claudia begins to wonder if Hannah and Alexandre may have had an affair and if that has something to do with Hannah’s mysterious disappearance. In this exquisitely wri...

Name of Book: Renia's Diary; A Holocaust Journal Author: Renia Spiegel, Elizabeth Bellan, Deborah Lipstadt ISBN:  B07NYGJY26 Publisher:  St. Martin's Press Year it was published: 2019 Summary: The long-hidden diary of a young Polish woman's life during the Holocaust, translated for the first time into English Renia Spiegel was born in 1924 to an upper-middle class Jewish family living in southeastern Poland, near what was at that time the border with Romania. At the start of 1939 Renia began a diary. “I just want a friend. I want somebody to talk to about my everyday worries and joys. Somebody who would feel what I feel, who would believe me, who would never reveal my secrets. A human being can never be such a friend and that’s why I have decided to look for a confidant in the form of a diary.” And so begins an extraordinary document of an adolescent girl’s hopes and dreams. By the fall of 1939, Renia and her younger sister Elizabeth (née Ariana) were sta...

Name of Book: The Things We Cannot Say Author: Kelly Rimmer ISBN:  9781525823565 Publisher: Graydon House Year it was published: 2019 Summary: In 1942, Europe remains in the relentless grip of war. Just beyond the tents of the Russian refugee camp she calls home, a young woman speaks her wedding vows. It’s a decision that will alter her destiny…and it’s a lie that will remain buried until the next century. Since she was nine years old, Alina Dziak knew she would marry her best friend, Tomasz. Now fifteen and engaged, Alina is unconcerned by reports of Nazi soldiers at the Polish border, believing her neighbors that they pose no real threat, and dreams instead of the day Tomasz returns from college in Warsaw so they can be married. But little by little, injustice by brutal injustice, the Nazi occupation takes hold, and Alina’s tiny rural village, its families, are divided by fear and hate. Then, as the fabric of their lives is slowly picked apart, Tomasz disappear...

Name of Book: The Lost Daughter Author: Gill Paul ISBN:  B07G13Z9ZC Publisher: William Morrow Year it was published: 2019 Summary: If you loved I AM ANASTASIA by Ariel Lawhon you won't want to miss this novel about her sister, Grand Duchess Maria. What really happened to this lost Romanov daughter? A new novel perfect for anyone curious about Anastasia, Maria, and the other lost Romanov daughters, by the author of THE SECRET WIFE. 1918: Pretty, vivacious Grand Duchess Maria Romanov, the nineteen-year-old daughter of the fallen Tsar Nicholas II, lives with her family in suffocating isolation, a far cry from their once-glittering royal household. Her days are a combination of endless boredom and paralyzing fear; her only respite are clandestine flirtations with a few of the guards imprisoning the family—never realizing her innocent actions could mean the difference between life and death 1973: When Val Doyle hears her father’s end-of-life confession, “I didn’t wa...

Name of Book: The Reckless Oath We Made Author: Bryn Greenwood ISBN:  B07N5JS9X8 Publisher:  G.P. Putnam's Sons Year it was published: 2019 Summary: A provocative love story between a tough Kansas woman on a crooked path to redemption and the unlikeliest of champions, from the New York Times bestselling author of All the Ugly and Wonderful Things Zee is nobody's fairy tale princess. Almost six-foot, with a redhead's temper and a shattered hip, she has a long list of worries: never-ending bills, her beautiful, gullible sister, her five-year-old nephew, her housebound mother, and her drug-dealing boss. Zee may not be a princess, but Gentry is an actual knight, complete with sword, armor, and code of honor. Two years ago the voices he hears called him to be Zee's champion. He's barely spoken to her since, but he has kept watch, ready to come to her aid. When an abduction tears Zee's family apart, she turns to the last person she ever imagined-...

Name of Book: The Accidentals Author: Minrose Gwin ISBN:  B079DQMZDW Publisher: William Morrow Year it was published: 2019 Summary: Following the death of their mother from a botched backwoods abortion, the McAlister daughters have to cope with the ripple effect of this tragedy as they come of age in 1950s Mississippi and then grow up to face their own impossible choices —an unforgettable, beautiful novel that is threaded throughout with the stories of mothers and daughters in pre-Roe versus Wade America. “Life heads down back alleys, takes sharp left turns. Then, one fine day it jumps the track and crashes.” In the fall of 1957, Olivia McAlister is living in Opelika, Mississippi, caring for her two girls, June and Grace, and her husband, Holly. She dreams of living a much larger life--seeing the world and returning to her wartime job at a landing boat factory in New Orleans. As she watches over the birds in her yard, Olivia feels like an “accidental”—a migrato...

Name of Book: The Perfect Son Author: Lauren North ISBN:  B07KNSM9PM Publisher:  Berkley Year it was published: 2019 Summary: A disturbing and shocking debut novel of psychological suspense about a recently widowed mother, her young son, and the lengths she'll go to in order to keep him safe. When Tess Clarke wakes up in the hospital the day after her son Jamie's eighth birthday, she's sure of these things: She's been stabbed, her son is missing, her brother-in-law and her grief counselor are involved. But no one is listening to her. After her husband, Mark, died suddenly in a terrible accident a few months earlier, the only thing keeping Tess together is Jamie. As they struggle to make sense of their new life without Mark, they find joy in brief moments of normalcy like walking to school and watching television together. Life is hard without Mark, but Tess has Jamie, and that's what matters. But there in the hospital, confused and surrounded by...