Svetlana's Reads and Views

Name of Book: A goddess among men Author: Daniel Davidsohn  ISBN: 978-85-922784-9-6 Publisher: Self published Type of book: early 20th century to modern times, spun America, goals, ambitions, rubber plants, friendship, partnership, survival, upbringing, America, wealth, unsavory business deals, un-contacted tribes, Year it was published: 2020 Summary: From the primitive ruggedness of the Amazon rainforest to the privileged society of New York, three generations experience triumph and tragedy in this saga of loyalty, corruption, greed . . . but one woman has the power to change it all. In 1907, Julian Welch and Alan Reid meet by chance in the jungles of the Amazon attracted by the riches of the rubber boom. Pioneers in an era of uncertainty, they form an unlikely alliance and establish the foundation for a successful empire, Reid & Welch. However, with Julian's death, the empire is left to Alan, as is the responsibility for Julian's newborn daughter, Christel. Yet...

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: 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 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 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 Secret of Clouds Author: Alyson Richman ISBN:  B07DBQWYF7 Publisher:  Berkley Year it was published: 2019 Summary: From the #1 international bestselling author of The Lost Wife and The Velvet Hours comes an emotionally charged story about a mother's love, a teacher's promise, and a child's heart..... Katya, a rising ballerina, and Sasha, a graduate student, are young and in love when an unexpected tragedy befalls their native Kiev. Years later, after the couple has safely emigrated to America the consequences of this incident cause their son, Yuri, to be born with a rare health condition that isolates him from other children. Maggie, a passionate and dedicated teacher agrees to tutor Yuri at his home, even though she is haunted by her own painful childhood memories. As the two forge a deep and soulful connection, Yuri's boundless curiosity and unique wisdom inspires Maggie to make difficult changes in her own life. And she'll n...

Name of Book: The Patricide of George Benjamin Hill Author: James Charlesworth ISBN:  B0773BBVCT Publisher: Skyhorse Year it was published: 2019 Summary: All their lives, the children of George Benjamin Hill have fought to escape the shadow of their father, a dust-bowl orphan, self-made millionaire in bedrock American capitalism (fast food and oil), and destroyer of two families on his way to financial success. Now, they are approaching middle age and ruin: A failed ex-minor league ballplayer, divorced and mourning the death of his daughter in Miami; a self-proclaimed CIA veteran, off his meds and deciphering conspiracies in Manhattan; a Las Vegas showgirl turned old maid of The Strip, trying to stay clean; and an Alaskan bush pilot, twice un-indicted for manslaughter and recently thrown off his land by the federal government. While their father takes his place at the center of a national scandal, these estranged siblings find themselves drawn from their four c...

Name of Book:  The Only Woman in the Room Author: Marie Benedict ISBN:  B07FDHF7PH Publisher: Sourcebooks Year it was published: 2019 Summary: She was beautiful. She was a genius. Could the world handle both? A powerful, illuminating novel about Hedy Lamarr. Hedy Kiesler is lucky. Her beauty leads to a starring role in a controversial film and marriage to a powerful Austrian arms dealer, allowing her to evade Nazi persecution despite her Jewish heritage. But Hedy is also intelligent. At lavish Vienna dinner parties, she overhears the Third Reich's plans. One night in 1937, desperate to escape her controlling husband and the rise of the Nazis, she disguises herself and flees her husband's castle. She lands in Hollywood, where she becomes Hedy Lamarr, screen star. But Hedy is keeping a secret even more shocking than her Jewish heritage: she is a scientist. She has an idea that might help the country and that might ease her guilt for escaping alone -- if anyon...

Name of Book: Just Once Author: Lori Handeland ISBN:  B07K8XRJGX Publisher: Severn House Year it was published: 2019 Summary: What do you do when you are forgotten by the man you've loved for twenty years? What do you do if you are the one who is remembered? Frankie Sicari is roused from sleep late one night by a key rattling in the front door lock. It's her ex-husband, Charley Blackwell: a man she hasn't seen for nearly a quarter of a century. What's baffling is that Charley seems to think they are still married, and has no recollection of his current wife, Hannah. When medical tests reveal shocking findings, Frankie finds herself reluctantly caring for the man who left her twenty years earlier, while Hannah is relegated to the sidelines. How can Frankie forgive the man who abandoned her when she needed him most? And how can Hannah cope with the impending death of the man she's loved for the past twenty years - especially now she is faced with th...

Name of Book: What We Do For Love Author: Anne Pfeffer ISBN: 978-1-7338220-0-8 Publisher: Self published Type of book: California, teenage pregnancy, reliance, art, money, day by day, modern day Year it was published: 2019 Summary: "If Lorelai Gilmore of Gilmore Girls was dropped into a thriller, it might resemble this appealing novel." --Kirkus Reviews Winner of Chick Lit category -- 2019 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Thirty-eight-year-old Nicole has given up on finding love. The single mother prefers to focus on a few things that she cherishes--her sixteen-year-old son Justin, her friends, and her art. When she convinces a major museum to show a piece of her work, and she thinks her career has finally turned a corner, her son brings home a girl, Daniela, to spend the night. Daniela's parents have thrown her out of the house: she is pregnant with Justin's child. Shattered, Nicole feels she has no choice but to take the girl in. She find...

Name of Book: Exposed Author: Jean-Philippe Blondel, trans. Alison Anderson ISBN: 978-1-939931-67-2 Publisher: New Vessel Press Type of book: Painting, relationships, aging, artist, fame, family, moving on, France, friendship, model/artist relationships Year it was published: 2019 (original in 2018) Summary: A French teacher on the verge of retirement is invited to a glittering opening that showcases the artwork of his former student, who has since become a celebrated painter. This unexpected encounter leads to the older man posing for his portrait. Possibly in the nude. Such personal exposure at close range entails a strange and troubling pact between artist and sitter that prompts both to reevaluate their lives. Blondel, author of the hugely popular novel The 6:41 to Paris, evokes an intimacy of dangerous intensity in a tale marked by profound nostalgia and a reckoning with the past that allows its two characters to move ahead in to the future. Characters: M...

Name of Book:   It's Murder, My Son Author: Lauren Carr ISBN:  B003TU1ZIO Publisher: Acorn Services Part of a Series: Mac Faraday Mysteries Type of book: Spencer Maryland, heritage, wealth, money, murder, mystery, twists, clues, pets, disappearances, false identities Year it was published: 2010 Summary: What started out as the worst day of Mac Faraday’s life would end up being a new beginning. After a messy divorce hearing, the last person that Mac wanted to see was another lawyer. Yet, this lawyer wore the expression of a child bursting to tell his secret. This covert would reveal Mac as heir to undreamed of fortunes, and lead him to the birthplace of America’s Queen of Mystery and an investigation that will unfold like one of her famous mystery novels. Soon after she moves to her new lakefront home in Spencer, Maryland, multi-millionaire Katrina Singleton learns that life in an exclusive community is not all good. For some unknown reason, a str...

Name of Book: Free Pizza Author: G.C. McRae ISBN: 978-0-9939183-8-4 Publisher: Self published Type of book: Canada, coming of age, 90s, young adult, hi-jinks, friendship, adoption, birth family, adopted parents, history, stamps Year it was published: 2019 Summary: Brian McSpadden is always hungry. Does he have a disease? Worms? Does it have something to do with his being adopted? He spends his days at his crazy friend Danny's house, hoping for snacks, but nothing seems to fill the void. Then Brian receives a mysterious birthday card that says, Free Pizza. He soon discovers the card has nothing to do with food and everything to do with the big questions in his life: where did I come from, why did my mother give me up and is there anyone out there who will like me the way I am? Characters: Main characters include Brian, the oldest and adopted son of an old couple who later on had two sons. There is also Danny and his wacky family of siblings and parents. In f...

Name of Book: The Pisces Author: Melissa Broder ISBN: 978-1-5247-6155-4 Publisher: Hogarth Type of book: Merman, love, obsession, coldness, depression, anxiety, care, unconditional vs conditional, death vs life, California, magical realism, Los Angeles, Year it was published: 2018 Summary: An original, imaginative, and hilarious debut novel about love, anxiety, and sea creatures, from the author of So Sad Today. Lucy has been writing her dissertation about Sappho for thirteen years when she and Jamie break up. After she hits rock bottom in Phoenix, her Los Angeles-based sister insists Lucy housesit for the summer—her only tasks caring for a beloved diabetic dog and trying to learn to care for herself. Annika’s home is a gorgeous glass cube atop Venice Beach, but Lucy can find no peace from her misery and anxiety—not in her love addiction group therapy meetings, not in frequent Tinder meetups, not in Dominic the foxhound’s easy affection, not in ruminating on the ...

Name of Book: Finders Keepers Author: Russ Colchamiro ISBN: 9780998364124 Publisher: Crazy 8 Publishing Part of a Series: Finders Keepers Trilogy Type of book: Science fiction, coming of age, travel, Europe, Eternity, stars, fame, living on earth, adjusting, jar of Earth's DNA Year it was published: 2018 Summary: In the spirit of The Good Place, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, author Russ Colchamiro has gone back to the future to deliver his wildest, funniest novel yet--the new and updated Sci-Fi/Fantasy tale Finders Keepers: The Definitive Edition. When a jar containing the Universe's DNA falls from Eternity, bumbling backpackers Jason and Theo find their loyalties--and sanity!--put to the test. Unaware that a motley crew from another realm is chasing them across the globe to retrieve that radioactive vessel, these intrepid new friends are forced to contend with passion, responsibility, and their own...

Name of Book: My Favorite Half Night Stand Author: Christina Lauren ISBN:  B07CLFYBCT Publisher: Gallery Books Year it was published: 2018 Summary: Millie Morris has always been one of the guys. A UC Santa Barbara professor, she’s a female-serial-killer expert who’s quick with a deflection joke and terrible at getting personal. And she, just like her four best guy friends and fellow professors, is perma-single. So when a routine university function turns into a black tie gala, Mille and her circle make a pact that they’ll join an online dating service to find plus-ones for the event. There’s only one hitch: after making the pact, Millie and one of the guys, Reid Campbell, secretly spend the sexiest half-night of their lives together, but mutually decide the friendship would be better off strictly platonic. But online dating isn’t for the faint of heart. While the guys are inundated with quality matches and potential dates, Millie’s first profile attempt garners ...

Name of Book: The Consultant Author: TJ O'Connor ISBN: 978-1-60809-283-3 Publisher: Oceanview Publishing Type of book: Spying, thrillers, CIA, terrorism, Middle East, family, fragmented relationships, Maryland, government, secrets, operatives, deaths Year it was published: 2018 Summary: When a rogue CIA consultant goes AWOL from his Middle Eastern post in response to his brother’s plea for help, he arrives just in time to witness his brother’s murder. For years, Jonathan Hunter and his brother Kevin Mallory had not spoken―until Kevin’s final words, “… Khalifah … Not Them … Maya.” Pursuing his brother’s killer, Hunter stumbles into a nest of horrifying terrorist activity by Middle Eastern refugees, which sparks a backlash across America. In the shadows, Hunter’s mentor, the omnipotent Oscar LaRue, is playing a dangerous game with Russian Intelligence. Neither Hunter nor LaRue realizes that a new threat―the Iranian threat―has entered the game. Stakes rise as two sh...