BookBrowse: Your Guide to Exceptional Books

Reviews by Cheryl W. (Crosby, MN)

Power Reviewer

Note: This page displays reviews using the email address you currently use to login to BookBrowse. If you have changed your email address during the time you have been a member your older reviews will not show. If that is the case, please email us with any older email addresses you have used for BookBrowse, and we will do our best to link these older reviews to your current profile.

The Empire of Dirt: A Novel
by Francesca Manfredi

Absolutely baffled (6/1/2022)

I just did not get this book, coming of age? Bible related with the frogs, plague, bleeding walls? This book was so confusing. Not a true theme or plot. I don't know what I missed but I sure missed it.

Honor
by Thrity Umrigar

So many things I did not know about India (4/23/2022)

Terrific book. The story is set in India. Smeetha is a reporter and goes to India to help her friend who is having surgery. Her family moved from India to the United States when she was 14. This story relates all the Indian beliefs, customs, Hindi and Muslim conflict and horrible treatment of women. Smeetha takes a journey of awakenings and self discovery.

On a Night of a Thousand Stars
by Andrea Yaryura Clark

Argentina's Political Injustice (2/21/2022)

Paloma returns to her birth country with her mother and father, an ambassador to Argentina. I knew nothing about Argentina's political history before reading this book other than Evita. The story moves between the 1970's and the 1990's. Great story as she discovers the injustice done to her country and her family. The author tells a great story that was compelling and so interesting. She got my attention.

The Magnolia Palace: A Novel
by Fiona Davis

Magnolia Place (1/23/2022)

Fiona Davis does it again. This book was a great crime drama. I knew nothing about the Frick Museum. I did some research to learn more about the history. I love that when a book piques my interest to learn.

The Lincoln Highway: A Novel
by Amor Towles

My best book of 2021 (1/2/2022)

So enjoyed this story of mischievous boys and their misdirected road trip. All the characters were believable. A new favorite author for me.

The Personal Librarian
by Marie Benedict, Victoria Christopher Murray

Learned a lot (1/26/2021)

I only knew that JP Morgan was wealthy. This story of his personal librarian is very engrossing. I knew nothing about manuscripts or books he acquired. She has a story of her own which was never brought to light during her lifetime. I enjoyed the story but was disappointed when the authors at the end of the book relate all the inconsistencies and liberties they took.

The Narrowboat Summer
by Anne Youngson

3 attempts (11/19/2020)

I just could not get into this book

The Madwoman and the Roomba: My Year of Domestic Mayhem
by SandraTsing Loh

Easy read (4/15/2020)

I enjoyed the series of essays. We all find ourselves in at least one but the events are pretty insignificant. I may try another of the author's books.

He Started It
by Samantha Downing

Yes, he did start it. (2/2/2020)

First sentence in book. You want a heroine. Last sentence. Here we are, at the end, and we still don't know who the heroine is. You'll have to figure that out for yourself. So many twists and turns in this book. Just when you think you have a handle on it, a twist and you have to rethink. So challenging who is telling the truth and who is not. I think they all were liars and had secrets.

Welcome to the Pine Away Motel and Cabins
by Katarina Bivald

Pining Away for a Better Story (11/30/2019)

Surprised that the main character in this book has died. She worked in a motel her whole life and now is helping her friends and father deal with her death. The story really drags in the middle and I almost didn't finish it but lasted to end to see if it got any better. Just not a favorite.

Creatures
by Crissy Van Meter

This book went on and on- (10/11/2019)

I just wanted this book to end. This story is all over the place. Past, present and future with no direction. I couldn't get past the first line about a dead whale in the harbor. Then the missing mother, alcoholic father and missing fiancé'. Scanned the last pages just to say I finished it.

Ordinary Girls: A Memoir
by Jaquira Díaz

Spanish dictionary needed (9/1/2019)

I overall liked this book and her story. I did not like that I needed a Spanish/English dictionary. I feel I missed some of her book trying to figure out the words. She tells of her childhood of abuse, sex and crime. She was all over the place in telling her story and at times it was hard to follow. Characters were introduced randomly and several times I went who is this. Family was important yet she spent years away from them. She bared her soul in this book.

Nothing to See Here
by Kevin Wilson

interesting Fantasy (6/18/2019)

when I read the premise of this book I decided I would not like it. I was pleasantly surprised that I really liked the read. Fire children, politics and a great ending. I found myself not liking Madison or her husband but did like the decision they made for their children despite the politics. I could not live with myself....

A People's History of Heaven
by Mathangi Subramanian

Over descriptive (2/16/2019)

The story was a little syrupy and not every object needs to be defined by an analogy. I could not get past trying to keep track of 5 girls and their mothers. This is another story like the "Beautiful Forevers".

The Last Romantics
by Tara Conklin

Dysfunctional to the max (12/6/2018)

The Skinner family sure had their trials and tribulations in this story. Lots of unrecognized mental illness. I enjoyed the interactions and craziness. The loss of a sibling throws this family into a wild ride. The siblings raised themselves while their mother went through "the pause" and the result of their childhood and how they learned to love.

At the Wolf's Table
by Rosella Postorino

Taste testers for Hilter (10/25/2018)

My first thoughts were, what could you write about a taste tester for Hitler? This was a very compassionate story about Germany women and the perils they faced. The book is very depressing. These women could never catch a break. They got to eat well but their children at home were starving and the husbands were at the front. These 9 women were always at the threat of the guards and each other. This is another window to war and the suffering of people.

Fly Girls: How Five Daring Women Defied All Odds and Made Aviation History
by Keith O'Brien

Fly Girls is a Winner (6/15/2018)

I thought this book was so interesting about the history of women avionics. Pioneers they all were, many crashes and deaths. The most famous member of the 99ers club of course was Amelia Earhart and we all know what happened to her. Great history about these women.

The Life I Left Behind
by Colette McBeth

Could not wait (12/5/2014)

I read this book half way through and could not wait. I had to go to the end of the book and get the answers then go back and read the last half of the book. Eve and Melody take turns telling the story (a unique approach).

Ruth's Journey: The Authorized Novel of Mammy from Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind
by Donald McCaig

Solange's journey (9/16/2014)

I was so excited to receive this book as one of my favorite books was Gone with the Wind. I was so confused when the book started out in France and then to Haiti. Mammie is not even the main character in the book. I found his style of writing difficult to read and I found myself scanning this book looking for something that I could connect with. This book was such a disappointment.

A Paris Apartment
by Michelle Gable

Misrepresentation (3/16/2014)

This book is being compared to The Paris Wife and Moulin Rouge. The only thing in common is the book setting in Paris. The story moved right along and was interesting. I read to the end because I did want to know the end of the story. Too much French but it will do well in the mass market.

Support BookBrowse

Join our inner reading circle, go ad-free and get way more!

Find out more

Top Picks

Says Who?
by Anne Curzan

Ordinarily, upon sitting down to write a review of a guide to English language usage, I'd get myself...
The Demon of Unrest
by Erik Larson

In the aftermath of the 1860 presidential election, the divided United States began to collapse as ...
James
by Percival Everett

The Oscar-nominated film American Fiction (2023) and the Percival Everett novel it was based on, ...
I Cheerfully Refuse
by Leif Enger

Set around Lake Superior in the Upper Midwest, I Cheerfully Refuse depicts a near-future America ...

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket — The Familiar
by Leigh Bardugo

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Leigh Bardugo comes a spellbinding novel set in the Spanish Golden Age.

About Discuss

Members Recommend

The Flower Sisters
by Michelle Collins Anderson

From the new Fannie Flagg of the Ozarks, a richly-woven story of family, forgiveness, and reinvention.

Read the Reviews
The Stolen Child
by Ann Hood

An unlikely duo ventures through France and Italy to solve the mystery of a child’s fate.

Read the Reviews

Who Said...

Good as it is to inherit a library, it is better to collect one.

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

P t T R

and be entered to win..