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

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

I read last year. Not ordinarily my thing but I really enjoyed it. I'm going to see if I can fit "Cases" in this month.

Saving Lucia sounds like a rollicking read!

We had a tie for the Moderator Recommends Read for April 2022, so both books are posted.

The dream chooses the dreamer, not the other way around—and Lazlo Strange, war orphan and junior librarian, has always feared that his dream chose poorly. Since he was five years old he’s been obsessed with the mythic lost city of Weep, but it would take someone bolder than he to cross half the world in search of it. Then a stunning opportunity presents itself, in the person of a hero called the Godslayer and a band of legendary warriors, and he has to seize his chance or lose his dream forever.

What happened in Weep two hundred years ago to cut it off from the rest of the world? What exactly did the Godslayer slay that went by the name of god? And what is the mysterious problem he now seeks help in solving?

The answers await in Weep, but so do more mysteries—including the blue-skinned goddess who appears in Lazlo’s dreams. How did he dream her before he knew she existed? And if all the gods are dead, why does she seem so real?

Welcome to Weep.


Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor

We had a tie for the Moderator Recommends read for April, so both books will be posted.

Days before his release from prison, Shadow's wife, Laura, dies in a mysterious car crash. Numbly, he makes his way back home. On the plane, he encounters the enigmatic Mr Wednesday, who claims to be a refugee from a distant war, a former god and the king of America.

Together they embark on a profoundly strange journey across the heart of the USA, whilst all around them a storm of preternatural and epic proportions threatens to break.

Scary, gripping and deeply unsettling, American Gods takes a long, hard look into the soul of America. You'll be surprised by what - and who - it finds there...

American Gods Neil Gaiman

1860: As the clash between the states rolls slowly to a boil, Elizabeth Packard, housewife and mother of six, is facing her own battle. The enemy sits across the table and sleeps in the next room. Her husband of twenty-one years is plotting against her because he feels increasingly threatened - by Elizabeth's intellect, independence, and unwillingness to stifle her own thoughts. So Theophilus makes a plan to put his wife back in her place. One summer morning, he has her committed to an insane asylum.

The horrific conditions inside the Illinois State Hospital in Jacksonville, Illinois, are overseen by Dr. Andrew McFarland, a man who will prove to be even more dangerous to Elizabeth than her traitorous husband. But most disturbing is that Elizabeth is not the only sane woman confined to the institution. There are many rational women on her ward who tell the same story: they've been committed not because they need medical treatment, but to keep them in line - conveniently labeled "crazy" so their voices are ignored.

No one is willing to fight for their freedom and, disenfranchised both by gender and the stigma of their supposed madness, they cannot possibly fight for themselves. But Elizabeth is about to discover that the merit of losing everything is that you then have nothing to lose...

The Woman They Could Not Silence: One Woman, Her Incredible Fight for Freedom, and the Men Who Tried to Make Her Disappear by Kate Moore

An epic saga from New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Dray based on the true story of an extraordinary castle in the heart of France and the remarkable women bound by its legacy.

Most castles are protected by men. This one by women.

A founding mother...
1774. Gently-bred noblewoman Adrienne Lafayette becomes her husband, the Marquis de Lafayette's political partner in the fight for American independence. But when their idealism sparks revolution in France and the guillotine threatens everything she holds dear, Adrienne must renounce the complicated man she loves, or risk her life for a legacy that will inspire generations to come.

A daring visionary...
1914. Glittering New York socialite Beatrice Chanler is a force of nature, daunted by nothing--not her humble beginnings, her crumbling marriage, or the outbreak of war. But after witnessing the devastation in France firsthand, Beatrice takes on the challenge of a lifetime: convincing America to fight for what's right.

A reluctant resistor...
1940. French school-teacher and aspiring artist Marthe Simone has an orphan's self-reliance and wants nothing to do with war. But as the realities of Nazi occupation transform her life in the isolated castle where she came of age, she makes a discovery that calls into question who she is, and more importantly, who she is willing to become.

Intricately woven and powerfully told, The Women of Chateau Lafayette is a sweeping novel about duty and hope, love and courage, and the strength we take from those who came before us.

The Women of Chateau Lafayette. by Stephanie Dray

In 1977, Claire Lake, Oregon, was shaken by the Lady Killer Murders: Two men, seemingly randomly, were murdered with the same gun, with strange notes left behind. Beth Greer was the perfect suspect--a rich, eccentric twenty-three-year-old woman, seen fleeing one of the crimes. But she was acquitted, and she retreated to the isolation of her mansion.

Oregon, 2017. Shea Collins is a receptionist, but by night, she runs a true crime website, the Book of Cold Cases--a passion fueled by the attempted abduction she escaped as a child. When she meets Beth by chance, Shea asks her for an interview. To Shea's surprise, Beth says yes.

They meet regularly at Beth's mansion, though Shea is never comfortable there. Items move when she's not looking, and she could swear she's seen a girl outside the window. The allure of learning the truth about the case from the smart, charming Beth is too much to resist, but even as they grow closer, Shea senses something isn't right. Is she making friends with a manipulative murderer, or are there other dangers lurking in the darkness of the Greer house?



The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James

So you’ll have to tell us when you finally master golfing like a robot, Lance! We’re all going to want to see that…

Oh, thank you, Lindsey -- I just started reading the thing about the building that inspired the Sanatorium --- and I haven't read Tessa Hadley but I'm checking her list out now. You've added a lot to this group read, Lindsey. We appreciate it!

That would be wonderful, Lindsey !

3/18 through 3/29

378 Steamed Open
379 Sealed Off
380 Shucked Apart
381 Peach Clobbered
382 Peachy Scream
383 Witch Is Why The Search Began
384 The White Rose
385 Her Mother's Secret
386 Bewilderness
387 I'll Have What She's Having: How Nora Ephron's Three Iconic Films Saved the Romantic Comedy
388 Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy
389 Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper
390 Back in the Burbs
391 Peaches and Screams
392 Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right
393 Modern Girls
394 The Vineyard Victims
395 When We Left Cuba
396 Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated
397 The Thursday Murder Club
398 Miss Frost Solves a Cold Case
399 Cereal Killer
400 The Lady Elizabeth
401 If You Ask Me

I really liked it, Jami. If you like it, you might also like Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science, Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End and The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, The Shift: One Nurse, Twelve Hours, Four Patients' Lives and The Nurses: A Year of Secrets, Drama, and Miracles with the Heroes of the Hospital all of which I also liked.

Picture looks pretty tangerine to me on my computer, Rhonda. :)

I read that book years ago, Rhonda, and literally, if I were to write down what I thought of it, it would match what you wrote word for word.

Sweet and win-win!

@ Beth - Glad you liked it -- that's a great cover!

@Joy: I have to say I got a much clearer idea of what that book was about from your review than I did from the blurb!! Thank you.

Heh, I have three more "March" books left too. I just started The Thursday Murder Club. The footrace is on!

Alondra, you so get me. LOLOLOLOL

Good choice, Denise - will balance out some picks in other groups that are a little grimmer. :)

LOL Jackie -- my witches! There are people around here who won't think I should be egged on!