FALL MYSTERIES

Posted on October 17, 2026 by novelrambles

Janet Evanovich – Split Second: 32 Switcheroo (published November 10). For years, I enjoyed the Stephanie Plum series, but it became repetitive, so I put it aside. A couple of years ago, I picked them back up when she finally decided between Ranger and Joe, and I have thoroughly enjoyed the last three books. This book takes place after she marries ******** (purposely vague to avoid spoilers), and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Stephanie is her usual smart-yet-klutzy bounty hunter, blowing up every car she drives; Grandma Mazur is still hilarious, attending every funeral “showing” she can find; and Lula is, as usual, annoying, always wanting to stop for doughnuts and fried chicken. These are best in audio, and it may give you a few giggles.[My only issue with these is that Stephanie’s mother is well on her way to becoming an alcoholic, which isn’t funny.]

J. A. Jance – The Taken Ones. This is the 27th book in the JP Beaumont (“Beau”) series (November release), and I honestly don’t know how Jance keeps these fresh and continues to develop the characters into such likeable people who, using their crackerjack investigative skills, solve the mysteries. In this book, Beau travels to Alaska to help a friend introduced in an earlier book, but enough of the story is set in Washington to keep you updated on his whip-smart wife, Mel, and other friends and family. Some of the investigative parts require a suspension of disbelief, but overall it was a good ride, and I can’t wait for the next book.

Peter Swanson – Do You See What I See? A short, compelling mystery that uses the age-old “country-house locked-room mystery” storyline. This was twisty, and I enjoyed it as much as Swanson’s previous novella, The Christmas Guest. Pick this up if you need something quick for the holidays.

THE BATTLE OF THE TWISTY TWISTING THRILLERS

Posted on September 16, 2026 by novelrambles

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the “Battle of the Moriartys” and this time there are two thriller contenders. Which one was the winner? Read on…

Keep Them Close by David Ellis. This one kept me on my toes! I think David Ellis is one of the best thriller writers in the biz, with the nonstop revelations and twists, and this one didn’t disappoint. I’m not sure it’s quite up to the calibre of Look Closer, but I’ll still recommend it. My only minor complaint is that I couldn’t warm up to any of the characters—I admired them, yes (Allison was brilliant), but I wasn’t really rooting for anyone. I hear this is great in audio. Readers who liked The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides will find this as entertaining, and for more authors similar to Ellis, try books by Peter Swanson (The Kind Worth Killing is excellent) and Alice Feeney’s My Husband’s Wife.

The Unknown by Riley Sager. This author’s books always entice me, but I have a love/hate relationship, as he writes the kind of books I would dearly love to love, but there’s *always* something about the plot or a lack of attention to detail that irritates me, or maybe it’s the nonstop twists that are a few too many. However, I listened to the audiobook, which was very well narrated and, for the most part, kept me engaged. At first, I rated this a 4, then it dipped to a 3 halfway through (mainly because of practical matters that didn’t make sense) and rose back to 4.5 by the end, with its twisty twistiness. Don’t read this expecting in-depth character studies; the only character I could picture was Violet, obviously based on Meryl Streep, and even the narrator mimicked her voice.

I recommend this with reservations, as there are a few trigger warnings, but it was definitely suspenseful and perfect for readers who like a few paranormal experiences that may or may not be happening. Fans of Riley Sager may want to try books by Simone St. James, Ruth Ware, and Sarah Pinborough’s We Live Here Now.

Who was the victor? If Riley Sager had been a little better with his one-to-two-too-many implausible twists, it would have been a tie, so I’m giving this one to David Ellis, but both are worth reading if you need something compelling and fast.

THE BATTLE OF THE MORIARTYS: Whose Book Was Better?

Posted on August 29, 2026 by novelrambles

This week I read two novels by authors with the same last name, Moriarty, one from Australia and the other from the US. One I had looked forward to for months, and the other was a last-minute decision, as I had heard it was good. So who won? Read on…

Big Little Truths by Liane Moriarty. Twelve years ago, I was engrossed in the previous book in this series, Big Little Lies, which became a huge bestseller and TV series. I was thrilled to hear she had written a sequel with the same characters in the same Australian beach town setting, only taking place ten years later, with the kids now teenagers and all that entails, including angst and ‘tude. And it was fine. I think I would have enjoyed it more because, even though the author has reassured readers that it wasn’t necessary to reread the previous book, I wished I had (something that I abhor doing), because it took a good third of the book to figure out who was who and what had happened. Once I settled in, it became compelling, with a gut-punch ending.

Sunlight Finds You by Laura Moriarty. Now this one, this one is special. There was something about this book that clutched at my heart and never let go. We meet Nora as a teen when she falls in love with Leonard, and follow the choices they make as they navigate adulthood, exploring forbidden love amid the shame and impossible choices women faced in the 1950s. The emotional roller coaster kept me reading, and yes, I went through a few tissues. I don’t want to say more about the plot as it would be a spoiler, but I did love the book references, and it was no surprise that Nora became a librarian. The writing and the way the plot unspooled reminded me of the novels by Janelle Brown and Cynthia Sweeney, and maybe even of The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks, although it’s much more complex than that. And this one could be a little controversial, but I think readers who loved The Women by Kristin Hannah may find a similar epic reading experience.

So if you can’t tell, Laura Moriarty was the clear winner although both are worth reading.

WRITE ME A LETTER: My Obsession with Paper, Notebooks, and Pens (Part One)

Posted on August 25, 2026 by novelrambles

When I decided to write this blog, I planned to focus on the lost art of letter writing and on how a book sparked a correspondence with a long-distance friend. Then I started remembering other aspects of writing, and more and more recollections surfaced, so this may be a two-part topic.

My love of paper, pens, and writing started waaaay back when I was learning to read and write my name. My first act of writing is forever held in perpetuity in the Betty Crocker Cookbook on my shelves. I had nothing else to write on, so I chose my mother’s cookbook to practice my name.

One of my memories of grade school days was the excitement of visiting the grade school in August to find out what we needed for school supplies. Who else can remember running up to the front doors to read the posted list of requirements for each grade? What I remember most was the disappointment when I didn’t qualify for anything higher than the 8-count box of Crayola Crayons, let alone the 64-count (although I doubt the 64-count was ever a requirement).

Checking out the recommended notebook paper from the grade school lists was another item that incited a frisson of excitement, especially when I no longer had to use the fat pencils and cheap brown tablets. In the fourth grade, my classmate, Linda Fredrickson, had the best 3-ring binder paper; it was college-ruled (not sanctioned by the supplies list!) and high-quality, which meant writing on it was smooth as silk. I loved that paper and have spent my life trying to locate a comparable product. But then, a few years ago, while perusing Walgreens’ stationery section, the angels sang when I discovered “stone paper” notebooks. I have multiple copies and use them for my Books of Books notebooks (they are the dark green notebooks in the blog photo); a highlight of finishing a book is using a favorite pen to note the title in my Oxford stone paper notebook.

(A side note: Linda became a good friend in junior high, but I’m sorry to say she led me down the road to near ruin by encouraging me to sneak out in the middle of the night and roam the streets of Cottage Grove. We had some, well, interesting adventures. She (and Cher) was the inspiration for my bangs during that time.)

“I Love the Smell of Ditto Paper in the Morning!”

No doubt there are many of my blog readers who have a pleasant memory of the freshly minted ditto/mimeograph papers passed out by the teacher. Who could resist smashing the paper onto our faces and inhaling that intoxicating chemical (surely carcinogenic) scent? I swear, if someone would develop it into a candle scent, it would be a bestseller. Am I right?

My next post will talk about my pen obsession and how I relearned the art of exchanging real letters.

So, what is your favorite memory of grade school supplies, and do you have a favorite notebook paper?

SINGLE GIRLS by John Searles + Homage to Cosmopolitan

Posted on July 1, 2026 by novelrambles

Today’s blog background is pink in honor of the July 7 publication of Single Girls by John Searles.

John Searles appeared at the Salem Public Library in 2014 to promote Help for the Haunted, and we discovered that not only is he a talented author, he’s also a super nice guy.

His next book is a novel about Helen Gurley Brown, the editor who took Cosmopolitan magazine to new heights of popularity by understanding her target audience and pushing the boundaries of what was acceptable to print in the 1960s. Single Girls traces her early life, where she started her career as an advocate for the sex lives of single women by publishing Sex and the Single Girl in 1962. It continues with how she transformed a failing magazine into Cosmopolitan, a magazine many have known and loved over the years. John Searles knew and worked with HGB for 25 years and is more than qualified to write this fascinating tribute to her journey of becoming a powerful woman.

As a young teen in the mid-1960s, I was a little “young” to appreciate this magazine (but I do remember the cover with the crochet bikini), and since I married on my 20th birthday, I never felt like I was the intended demographic for the articles, but I went on to avidly read it whenever I went to the hair salon. Does anyone remember when the covers with the scandalous article titles were censored at the supermarket checkout line by placing metal shields over the bottom 2/3 of the magazine?

And, if you were around in 1972, who can forget the iconic poster of Burt Reynolds as the Cosmopolitan centerfold, wearing nothing but a smile, a lot of body hair, and a droopy cigar?

Even if you have never opened an issue of Cosmopolitan and know nothing about HGB, I highly recommend John’s book. It is chock-full of memorable and compelling characters (not the least is HGB’s famous movie director husband), a trip back in a time machine that looks at the culture of the 1960s, and a charming, funny, and sassy novel about an amazing woman.

[I don’t often recommend this, but read the “Afterword” before the book; it will give you a better idea of why the author is qualified to write it, along with some notes on structure.]

LATER TEEN READING, or, My First (and Last) Foray into Journalism

Posted on June 10, 2026 by novelrambles

My high school years brought more assigned reading, some I loved, some I disliked. During my late “junior high” years (now called “middle school), I had a young, progressive English teacher whose assignments included Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger and On the Beach by Nevil Shute. The class enjoyed the Salinger book, but I think many were left unsettled by On The Beach, and quite frankly, it haunts me to this day. In my junior year, Miss McGinniss assigned us Moby Dick. She was a fanatic about “biblical allusions” and just loved the first sentence, “Call me Ishmael,” saying it was the first one in the book. I think I was in the minority, but I actually liked the book.

We were assigned other books: The Scarlet Letter (meh), The Crucible (hated it), and another one that required a project that to this day, remains one of my crowning achievements, but more on that later.

In between assigned reading, I remember continuing my journey through gothic romances, and was happy to discover I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith, which took place in a crumbling manor but it was more of a coming-of-age novel than romance.

And I never lost my love of magazines, moving on from 16 to Seventeen, and then, upon the recommendation of my business teacher, Glamour, for which my love continued until it ceased publication in 2019. From there, it was a quick slide into more sordid content, such as True Story (PG-rated) and True Confessions (R-rated), and for celebrity gossip, Photoplay. So, was anyone else highly disappointed to discover that the stories in the “true confessions” magazines were fiction?

The Raveloe Report

As a sophomore, we were assigned Silas Marner by George Eliot, with a required project to receive full credit. I may have gone a little overboard (story of my life), but I decided to create an entire newspaper issue called The Raveloe Report. Now, for those of you who may not remember the book, after being framed for a crime, Silas flees his home and moves to the village of Raveloe, where he becomes a hermit and hoards gold. He finds a 2-year-old girl and decides to raise her. So my newspaper was patterned after the local newspaper with the big news of the day, social news (a wedding!), advertisements, and even an advice column. But here’s the thing: in those days, we had no computers with newsletter software, no printers, and not even an electric typewriter. I had to use my mother’s ancient manual typewriter WITHOUT WITE-OUT (yes, the horror, the horror)! I eventually crafted the following masterpiece, which to this day I believe was one of my greatest achievements. (Note: the third page is part 2, 16 years later, and the last page is my teacher’s grade and comment. For the record, I tried signing up for the high school newspaper in my junior year, but I expended all of my talent on this project.)

CASHIER DREAMS: Grocery Store Confessions

Posted on June 3, 2026 by novelrambles

When I was young, one of my career aspirations was to be a grocery store cashier. I always loved working with all kinds of business machines (which is why I excelled at typing), and punching a cash register sounded like a whole lot of fun. I actually kept that dream until I met my father-in-law, who worked as a grocery store cashier for most of his life, and his hands were all gnarled from constant cash register work. Then self-checkout stands were invented, and despite my excitement about living my dream, the bloom soon faded.

But one thing that hasn’t ended is my fascination with trade jobs and I will read any kind of story where the author immerses themselves into a particular profession (usually undercover) and journals the experience. I tag them with the topic of “industry insiders.” Lest you think going deep into these kinds of jobs is boring, au contraire; they are all worth reading about.

One of the first books on this topic was Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America by Barbara Ehrenreich, which became a bestseller and remains popular. Her reports of working as a waitress, hotel maid, house cleaner, and other minimum-wage jobs were eye-opening. Another book on the topic, On the Clock: What Low-Wage Work Did To Me and How It Drives America Insane by Emily Guendelsberger, chronicled the author’s work in an Amazon fulfillment center (before robots took over picking orders), as a call center representative for a cell phone company (more interesting tha one would think), and in a San Francisco McDonald’s. Another fascinating book is Benjamin Lorr’s The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket, where the author takes us behind the scenes of the grocery business, working in Whole Foods, traveling across the country on a trailer truck, visiting a pig farm, and talking to a man who was forced to work for years on a Thai fishing boat (you may not want to read about where most of our shrimp comes from).

That brings me a new book coming out on June 9, Cleanup on Aisle Five: Essential Work, Poverty Wages, and the View from Behind the Supermarket Register by Ann Larson.

The author, a journalist, needed work during the pandemic, so she found a job as a supermarket cashier in Utah. In this memoir, she takes a deep dive into the inner workings of supermarkets and observes her co-workers as they deal with harsh conditions and poor management. Her reporting on self-checkouts was especially interesting. The main thing I took away from this is that I will never ever chastise or give a cashier a hard time — prices aren’t their fault; items ringing up incorrectly (hello, *#$%*@ digital coupons!) isn’t their fault, and if they are curt, their feet probably hurt, or they had to come to work with a terrible headache.

So I guess it’s time to give up my dream of working as a supermarket cashier and make do with typing games.

TWO FANTASTIC NOVELS

Posted on May 28, 2026 by novelrambles

The Foursome by Christina Baker Kline: This historical novel about the marriages of the famous conjoined twins, Chang and Eng Bunker, is fascinating, informative, and respectful; the author (a distant relation to the twins) never resorts to sensationalism or melodrama. I have always been fascinated by the history of Chang and Eng, and told from the perspective of Eng’s Wife, Sarah (her sister, Adelaide married Chang), the reader is inserted into the inner workings of the marriage including intimate relations, children (21 total for both brothers!), along with the history of the time, including slavery, women’s rights, bigotry over interracial marraige, and the Civil War. I was absorbed from start to finish, and the ending was quite emotional. I have enjoyed all of Kline’s books, but this is my favorite.

Recommended for readers who enjoy Ariel Lawhon, Melanie Benjamin, and even Kristin Hannah.

Side Note: This comment is not meant to denigrate the book or make light of the hardships, but there were times the storytelling gave “Little House on the Prairie” vibes, mainly because of the farming and food-raising descriptions, and honestly, that wasn’t such a bad thing.

The Story Keeper by Kelly Rimmer. This is a compelling gothic-toned novel set in contemporary Australia. Recently divorced 50-something Fiona, a successful architect, buys her late uncle’s decaying country estate with plans to refurbish it, but various things start getting in her way, including her mother, who is adamant that she not live there, and locals who fear the place is haunted. Fiona discovers a novel that appears to be set in the house, and from there it becomes a dual-timeline story, with chapters from the book woven into the narrative. At about a third of the way through the book, it’s apparent where the story is going, but that didn’t stop me from racing through the pages. This is a perfect readalike for Kate Morton, although not quite as complicated, and fans of Lucinda Riley will also enjoy this. (To be published in late July.)

COPYCAT JACKETS: You Can Judge a Book By Its Cover [Revised]

Posted on May 18, 2026 by novelrambles

A few years ago, I created a post on similar book covers. There are more trends I could add, but one thing that hasn’t changed is the “women’s backs to the viewer,” although there may be other objects in the background besides aircraft. I could spend days culling more book covers, but I think there’s enough in this post.

I do have one more to add that intrigued me, mainly because I hated the cover art. I saw the new novel, A Good Person, and realized I had seen this particular work of art on the cover of another novel, but couldn’t remember its name. A few weeks ago, I was wandering around Barnes and Noble, and there it was! Here is the new addition to this post, and if you missed the original, it is repeated below.

How many of you have browsed the shelves at the library (pre-quarantine, natch) and picked up a book only to discard it, thinking you had read it? Don’t be so quick to judge! Check out the inside flap before reshelving, as it’s entirely possible the title has a “copycat” jacket with the publisher using a similar font and graphics similar to another popular book. It’s more common than you might think, with some even using the same photograph, as seen in the article Why Do So Many Book Covers Look the Same? Blame Getty Images. Here’s a small sample of the image used for two very different books but check out the article for at least ten books that used the same graphic.

Another interesting article, 57 Books That Look Like Other Books, is worth reading to see the various cover trends over the past few years. Here’s a sample. Hmm, I wonder which book graphic was copied.

This trend has interested me for years, but it wasn’t until I read Lucy Foley’s The Guest List that I started collecting graphics of books with similar covers. Here is my collage of recent thrillers. [Update: this trend is still popular for suspense/psychological thrillers.]

Here’s another cover trend for books set in a world war (usually), featuring characters on the cover (mostly with their backs to the viewer) and planes (or a plane) in the sky.

So don’t think your mind is going south if you can’t remember if you’ve read a particular book; it’s most likely that you are picking up a book with a copycat cover!

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