Jennifer’s Comments (group member since Dec 03, 2021)

Jennifer’s comments from the On The Same Page group.

Progress so far:

1 Hard Evidence (550 pgs)
2 The Queen Mother: The Official Biography (1120)
3 After Camelot: A Personal History of the Kennedy Family - 1968 to the Present (625)
4 Night Stalker: The Life and Crimes of Richard Ramirez (711)
5 George VI and Elizabeth: The Marriage That Saved the Monarchy (1083)
6 Serial Killers: The Minds, Methods, and Mayhem of History's Most Notorious Murderers (618)
7 For Love of Politics: Bill and Hillary Clinton: The White House Years (714)
8 1932: The Rise of Hitler and FDR - Two Tales of Politics, Betrayal, and Unlikely Destiny (544 pages)
9 Notorious Royal Marriages: A Juicy Journey Through Nine Centuries of Dynasty, Destiny, and Desire (528)
10 Beneath a Scarlet Sky (525)
11 All This, and Heaven Too (738)
12 The Palace Papers: Inside the House of Windsor - the Truth and the Turmoil (846)
13 Mortal Remains in Maggody (640)
14 Every Breath You Take: A True Story of Obsession, Revenge, and Murder (704)
15 Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington (848)
16 The Mountbattens: Their Lives & Loves (528)
17 Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World (575)

Well, I don't know if there is psych testing for nursing or not. I work in public safety, and my agency has it although they didn't institute it until years after I started (and I refuse to think there's anything causal there..... LOL).

It's on my list and I'm hoping to get to it this month. I've not read Lisa See before but your glowing recommendation is spurring me on!

Oh wow, I hadn't caught that! Very cool!

Well, if it was news to *you,* it was seriously hidden!

I think the Hanna will be a less taxing read, Bonnie. I've read the first ten or so of that series.

Oh, Eileen, I envy you having an unread Savannah Reid! I have one Granny Reid left. I don't know if she's going to put out any more of either series although I'm watching and hoping.

Lady Tan's Circle of Women
Lisa See

The latest historical novel from New York Times bestselling author Lisa See, inspired by the true story of a woman physician from 15th-century China—perfect for fans of See's classic Snowflower and the Secret Fan and The Island of Sea Women.

According to Confucius, "an educated woman is a worthless woman," but Tan Yunxian—born into an elite family, yet haunted by death, separations, and loneliness—is being raised by her grandparents to be of use. Her grandmother is one of only a handful of female doctors in China, and she teaches Yunxian the pillars of Chinese medicine, the Four Examinations—looking, listening, touching, and asking—something a man can never do with a female patient.

From a young age, Yunxian learns about women's illnesses, many of which relate to childbearing, alongside a young midwife-in-training, Meiling. The two girls find fast friendship and a mutual purpose—despite the prohibition that a doctor should never touch blood while a midwife comes in frequent contact with it—and they vow to be forever friends, sharing in each other's joys and struggles. No mud, no lotus, they tell themselves: from adversity beauty can bloom.

But when Yunxian is sent into an arranged marriage, her mother-in-law forbids her from seeing Meiling and from helping the women and girls in the household. Yunxian is to act like a proper wife—embroider bound-foot slippers, pluck instruments, recite poetry, give birth to sons, and stay forever within the walls of the family compound, the Garden of Fragrant Delights.

How might a woman like Yunxian break free of these traditions, go on to treat women and girls from every level of society, and lead a life of such importance that many of her remedies are still used five centuries later? How might the power of friendship support or complicate these efforts? Lady Tan's Circle of Women is a captivating story of women helping other women. It is also a triumphant reimagining of the life of a woman who was remarkable in the Ming dynasty and would be considered remarkable today.

I'm excited about this book! It got picked for me to read this month in another challenge group. And is that cover gorgeous or what!?

The Spectacular
Fiona Davis


New York Times bestselling author Fiona Davis transports us back to 1950s Manhattan and the glamorous Radio City Music Hall. . . .

New York City, 1956: Nineteen-year-old Marion is over the moon to have been selected to be one of the Rockettes, Radio City Music Hall’s glamorous precision-dancing troupe. It’s an honor to perform in the world’s most spectacular theater, an art deco masterpiece. But with four shows a day as well as grueling rehearsals, not to mention exacting standards of perfection to live up to, Marion quickly realizes that the life of a Rockette has both extraordinary highs and devastating lows.

Then one night a bomb explodes in the theater. It’s only the latest in a string of explosions around the city orchestrated by a person the press has nicknamed the "Big Apple Bomber." They have been terrorizing the citizens of New York for sixteen years by planting bombs in popular, crowded spaces. With the public in an uproar over the lack of any real leads after a yearslong manhunt, the police, at Marion’s urging, turn in desperation to a radical new technique: psychological profiling.

As Marion finds herself pulled deeper into the investigation, she realizes that as much as she’s been training herself to blend in—performing in perfect unison with all the other identical Rockettes—if she hopes to catch the bomber, she’ll need to stand out and take a terrifying risk. But she may be forced to sacrifice everything she’s worked for, as well as the people she loves the most.

That title is a hoot, Rhonda!

:-). Thanks. It’s much better than the cover that was tacked on to that edition to begin with!

I found the edition you're reading and added your cover.

Joy D wrote: "Jennifer, I am picking these for the authors since I've read and liked at least one of their books:



These two because they..."

Excellent picks, and thank you for the push to read "uncommon grounds" -- I have one prompt left in one of my challenges and it's about a coffee or tea farm, and I've been sitting on this book for it for months now.

All fair points and apparently they are Rangers fans.

You know as well as I do that relevance has little to do with emotional commitment to a team. I live in Gator country and even when they’re playing so badly that they get trounced by some unknown Louisiana directional school, the faithful still come out.

Lance, I always like looking through your shelf.

(and I'm sticking it on a list to buy for my nephew -- funny story, when he and my niece were expecting their daughter, I told him I was sure she'd be a Mets, Nets, and Jets fan. Outraged, he shouted "MY CHILD WILL NOT ROOT FOR ANY SECOND-RATE FRANCHISES!")

Time to pick! Pairs are here.

The Moderator Recommends winner for August 2023 is:

The Only One Left
Riley Sager

At seventeen, Lenora Hope
Hung her sister with a rope

Now reduced to a schoolyard chant, the Hope family murders shocked the Maine coast one bloody night in 1929. While most people assume seventeen-year-old Lenora was responsible, the police were never able to prove it. Other than her denial after the killings, she has never spoken publicly about that night, nor has she set foot outside Hope’s End, the cliffside mansion where the massacre occurred.

Stabbed her father with a knife
Took her mother’s happy life

It’s now 1983, and home-health aide Kit McDeere arrives at a decaying Hope’s End to care for Lenora after her previous nurse fled in the middle of the night. In her seventies and confined to a wheelchair, Lenora was rendered mute by a series of strokes and can only communicate with Kit by tapping out sentences on an old typewriter. One night, Lenora uses it to make a tantalizing offer—I want to tell you everything.

“It wasn’t me,” Lenora said
But she’s the only one not dead

As Kit helps Lenora write about the events leading to the Hope family massacre, it becomes clear there’s more to the tale than people know. But when new details about her predecessor’s departure come to light, Kit starts to suspect Lenora might not be telling the complete truth—and that the seemingly harmless woman in her care could be far more dangerous than she first thought.

I'd never heard of this book before it got chosen but the "goosebumps for adults" comment and the reviews have me intrigued.

I'm betting it's this one. I found it on a different site. If you can tell me which edition you're reading (year, format etc) I'll find the one you have that apparently doesn't have a picture and add it.