Joy's Book Blog
Love, love, love, I loved “Remarkably Bright Creatures.” First, every other chapter is written in first-person by an octopus. Yep, an octopus. To be specific, a 60-pound giant Pacific octopus named Marcellus living in the Sowell Bay Aquarium in Washington state. And he is NOT happy about it! Understandably, Marcellus wants to get back to …
My first 5/5 star book for 2023! I loved “Lessons in Chemistry” and have already recommended it to several friends. The main character, Elizabeth Zott, is great. She’s a beautiful, quirky, no-nonsense chemist in the 1950s. See the problem? She’s a beautiful, female chemist in the 1950s. Elizabeth doesn’t understand why any of that should …
“Demon Copperhead” was loaned to me by a close friend to read. It was a nominee for Goodreads 2022 Best Fiction book, so I knew it had to be good. And it was good…HOWEVER, this book is a modern take on Dicken’s David Copperfield, so like that book, there are a lot of hard truths …
“It Ends With Us” and “It Starts With Us” are two books by Colleen Hoover that have gained a lot of attention lately. The first book is actually “It Ends With Us,” so you need to read that one first. “It Starts With Us” is the sequel and I’m not sure you’ll really be able …
“Daisy Darker” by Alice Feeney is hard to classify: it’s a ghost story wrapped up in a who-dun-it wrapped up in several murder mysteries, so I guess a fantasy/paranormal/mystery/thriller. What I do know is that the mystery part draws strongly from Agatha Christie’s “And Then There Were None,” and since that is one of my …
“Bullet Train” was a book I read because 1) it was on a lot of lists as one of the best books of the year and 2) I wanted to see the Netflix movie, and everyone knows you read the book first. And it’s true in this case as well; the book was better than …
I read “Blonde” after all the hype surrounding the Netflix movie. Many viewers were apparently upset that the story was not an accurate portrayal of Marilyn Monroe’s life. However, I felt the author, Joyce Carol Oates, made it clear (at least in her book) this was meant to be fiction; it was NOT meant to …
“Verity” Take Two Ok, so I’m actually writing two reviews for this one since I read it twice, approximately one year apart. The first review: This was an ….um…. interesting book. I honestly don’t know if I liked it or not for two reasons: 1. Definitely a psychological thriller à la “Gone Girl” (a book …
“The Palace Papers” was recommended to me by a friend who knows I like reading non-fiction books on British royalty, past or present. And I liked this book! It’s got an interesting premise: the book covers the four most recent women who have married into the line of succession for the British throne (Diana, Camilla, …
“Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune” was a book recommended to me by my book club. Apparently, they read it in the past and really liked it. I could see why…on the surface, this is a fascinating concept for a book. Unfortunately, it didn’t hold …