bethreadsandnaps's reviews
2694 reviews

The Crucible by Arthur Miller

3.75

3.75 stars

Glad I finally got to this, read it because my daughter had to read it for school. The timing of reading this before a second Trump administration is appropriate. 

The Heart of Winter by Jonathan Evison

4.75

 

4.75 stars

While I have several of Jonathan Evison’s books on my list, his upcoming release THE HEART OF WINTER is the first novel I’ve read by him. I was so blown away by it! 

In this novel, we are introduced to an elderly (on the cusp of 90 years old) married couple Abe and Ruth. Ruth discovers a loose tooth in 2023, and that leads to a cancer diagnosis. The reader is then taken through the journey of them meeting and their marriage from the 1950s through 2024. This is a study of these two people as individuals and their marriage together. They had a tough early marriage with a child right away, causing Ruth to feel saddled by domesticity, and Abe making decisions for both of them without talking to his wife. When things evened out some, they lost their second daughter. Life was often bumpy, but these two stuck it out. 

I felt like I identified with each Ruth and Abe in some ways, and I felt that Evison drew the characters so well. There were specific scenes toward the end that broke my heart - and one that also made me laugh when Abe was looking for prune juice at Safeway. 

Character-driven readers who enjoy reading about a character over a lifetime (think THE HEART’S INVISIBLE FURIES) are the target demographic for this book. I think this will strike a chord for middle-aged readers, like me, as well. They can identify with the life decisions these characters experienced for much of the novel, and they can also see a preview of what’s coming in the future or perhaps identify with what their parents are dealing with. I loved how the author created scenes, but sometimes there was more narration when I thought a scene or longer scene would make the point better. 

“Sometimes we need a complement, a contradiction, a counterpoint to be our best selves.”

Thank you to NetGalley and Dutton Books for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. 

THE HEART OF WINTER publishes January 7, 2025. 

 

The Queens of Crime by Marie Benedict

4.25

 

4.25 stars

Marie Benedict’s upcoming historical fiction novel THE QUEENS OF CRIME takes the reader on a journey of learning about how five female detective writers, including Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers, came together to form the Queens of Crime and solve a real-life murder of a nurse who vanished five months prior and was found in the woods. Think THURSDAY MURDER CLUB with female detective writers. 

I thoroughly enjoyed learning about these strong detective writers with a dose of feminism and a dose of empathy in learning about what was going on in the victim’s life and mind in the months leading up to her disappearance. Marie Benedict is very thorough in her research, and I particularly loved the character of Dorothy Sayers, a name which I have heard through the years but didn’t know anything about her. The other women detectives were interesting as well, but the reader doesn’t get a ton about the other detective writers except for Agatha Christie. I’m fairly confident that Benedict’s interest about this group was piqued while researching THE MYSTERY OF MRS. CHRISTIE. 

Narrator Bessie Carter did a splendid job on the narration. She was easy to understand with a nice English accent and did voices very well with emphasis and emotion when needed. This is a great one to listen to on audio because the reader is in Dorothy’s perspective the entire time, and the story is pretty straightforward. 

I’m almost a Marie Benedict completist, and THE QUEENS OF CRIME has risen to be my favorite of her novels. If you enjoy historical fiction and enjoy early twentieth century detective novels, I think this will be a hit for you.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for an advance listener copy in exchange for an honest review. 

THE QUEENS OF CRIME publishes February 11, 2025. 

 

Christmas Day in the Morning by Pearl S. Buck

4.0

Rob recounts 50 years prior when he gave his father a Christmas gift of milking the cows before his father awakened. It came across a little trite and a bit repetitive about Rob’s realization that his father loved him because his father didn’t want to awaken him for this chore each morning. 

It was a sweet gift of a child to give his father, but I thought the real gift would be to tell his father he didn’t have to wake up obscenely early, get dressed, and trek out to the barn in the cold. All of that the father still had to do before realizing the son already milked the cows. 

Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley

4.25

4.25 stars

What a strong classic that I've been intimidated by for some time. I'm glad I read this novel that shows how slavery affected Alex Haley's family tree. I felt like the reader spends a lot of time with Kunta Kinte (the patriarch), but each subsequent generation is covered increasingly quickly. In some places that worked for me because, for instance, I didn't want to spend as much time with Chicken George. But I felt the story diluted over time because I didn't feel I understood the later generation characters as much. 

The Burglar's Christmas by Willa Cather

3.25

3.25 stars

I liked the first half of this story, which has the main character basically have a quarter life crisis as he looks at a newly built house and prepare himself to embark on a life as a burglar. He has been down on his luck, with his life spiraling. 

And then….wonder of wonders, his parents have moved into the house he is burgling. Of course they haven’t given up on him and smother him with love (does this make sense why a young man would part with such loving and supportive parents?), and his life of crime ends up being mere nanoseconds. 

🙄

Year's End by Jhumpa Lahiri

5.0

I absolutely loved this short story! Kaushik, a college student, is dumbfounded when his father marries a younger woman with two small girls a few years after his mother's death. He goes home for winter break, and he's now a guest in his own home, with the two girls taking over his old room, memories of his mother coming back to him, and a new woman there replacing his mother. 

Set over the winter break, Kaushik is easy to identify with, and your heart hurts for him. 

The Shadow by E. Nesbit

3.5

I liked this short story. The housekeeper Miss Eastwich is invited to tell a ghost story to girls at the house. She tells them a tale of when she was summoned to stay with two old friends who married one another. First off, isn’t it chilling when you’re in a trio and then basically chopped out of the triangle when the other two start a relationship? The story she tells leaves so many unasked, and thus unanswered questions, that I wanted to shoo away the girls and nestle in and hear all the details from Miss Eastwich herself. As it was, I felt too much was left to interpretation. 

Little Mysteries by Sara Gran

3.25

3.25 stars

This book of short stories contains nine mysteries with inspiration from Encyclopedia Brown, Nancy Drew, Choose Your Own Adventure books, and A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder. I wouldn’t say that they are puzzles, per se, as the subtitle suggests. 

The Case of the Mysterious Dr. Crowley: Read like Encyclopedia Brown but was nearly impossible to solve with the provided information although the author did provide the solution.

The Mystery of the Mycelial Net: Assistant detective Claude gets his big case to figure out who has found out about his aunt Helena’s affair, interesting distinction between solving a crime and a mystery, not sure how he figured it out.

The Good Smell of New York City: interesting format of two separate columns down page - 1988 (HIV) and 2020 (Covid). Carmen saves Claire from a drug overdose in 1988 despite the risk of HIV, and then Claire saves Carmen in 2020 despite the risk of Covid.

The Case of the Jewel in the Lotus: I liked this one but not my favorite. 

The Case of the Razor’s Edge Between Life and Death: Claire talked with a suicidal woman at a Chinese restaurant. She picked up on several clues about the woman’s state from the solution. 

The Case of the Blood on the Snow: This one was decent. 

Choose Your Own Heartbreak: Choose your own adventure while taking on bad guy Hal Overton. I think I’m too old to read choose your own adventure books. 

Cynthia Silverton and the Charnel House Grounds: ode to Nancy Drew with a twist

The Mystery at Killington Manor: I think this is adapted from A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder with protagonist Poppy trying to figure out who killed her great grandmother Mrs. Kitty with the help of her great grandmother’s friend Aunt Julia. I liked this story the best, and fortunately it was the longest story of the bunch. I really recommend this story in particular. 

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. It publishes February 25, 2025.

Something in the Walls by Daisy Pearce

3.75

 

Mina, a child psychologist who is engaged but not really into her fiance, goes to her grief group to cope with the loss of her beloved brother Eddie. There she meets Sam Hunter, a journalist who is grieving his daughter. Sam asks her to investigate a case he’s pursuing about Alice, a 13 year old girl from a small town who claims she is possessed by a witch. Mina and Sam go to the town to figure out what’s really going on. 

I loved the writing in this novel. I felt like I understood the main character of Mina and especially enjoyed following her as she got more of a sense of Alice and the small community around Alice. The author isn’t unearthing new territory here, as the beats of the novel felt very familiar to me as a fan of both horror movies and horror novels. The novel does stay out of horror territory for the first 75% of the book, which I liked. A bit of a downside is that I thought the writing pointed to the antagonist before even the halfway point with little to no red herrings, so the novel wasn’t as suspenseful as I wanted it to be. I wondered why the novel was set in the late 1980s (no cell phones?, a time when hauntings were popular?) because the novel felt more contemporary, so when little things were mentioned about the late 1980s, it threw me. 

The audiobook narrator Ana Clements had a nice but not distracting British lilt. She did voices well so that the reader knew what was dialogue and what wasn’t. Emotion was present in her voice but not overdone. I’d definitely recommend this novel on audio.  

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. It publishes February 11, 2025.