Synopsis: The Talking Stick - Donna Levin - April 2024 Four women find humor, truth, and a better path forward by deconstructing memory and emotion. Hunter is lost. Her husband left her for her best friend, she’s unemployed with no prospects, and the San Francisco flea market she’s wandering on a weekday is so foggy that she literally doesn’t know where she is. But after a helpful visit and a gift from a stranger, Hunter resolves to find her way. She begins a support group for women looking for new beginnings. The Talking Stick is the adventure of Hunter and the three women who join her reclamation journey. Together, they reexamine their pasts, exploring their grief, addictions, parenting, and marriages.  In doing so, they discover that some of their most-cherished memories are romanticized versions of the truth.  Meanwhile, they unearth other memories – memories that challenge how they’ve been living for years.  The Talking Stick is a fast-paced dramedy set i...

Review: The Medical Examiner - Book #16.5 Women's Murder Club Series - James Patterson and Maxine Paetro - August 2017 Claire is in for a strange day at the Morgue, as she walks in and does her handover. Just as she is preparing a body for autopsy, she hears a groan and the groan is coming from one of the death drawers. She opens the body bag and the body sits up, she is alive. Turns out Joan Murphy has a rare disease and when she went into shock, everyone thought she was dead. The downside though is that Joan was shot and found naked with a dead body, but she has no memory of what happened or who the guy is. This is the sort of story that journalist Cindy lives for, Dead Woman Come Back to Life. But in searching for the truth, Cindy finds herself face to face with a crazy man with a gun. With Lindsay on vacation with Joe, it is up to Rich to figure things out. Can he discover the truth before his girlfriend Cindy ends up the next victim? The Medical Examiner was one of the novell...

Review: 22 Seconds - Book #22 Women's Murder Club Series - James Paterson and Maxine Paetro - May 2022 James Patterson is one of those authors that you either love or hate, for me, I have been reading this particular series since I was about 15-16 years old as I picked it up from a market in Matamata when I was staying with my Nana - a copy of 2nd Chance and from that day, I have been forever following James Patterson and his books. I have to admit though that this one, like the last couple, felt a bit too busy in plots for my liking and I got about halfway and then had to persevere to finish the rest of the story. I did find the main storyline of guns and gun laws interesting especially with the current state of the mass shootings in the US and what has been happening. I did however find Claire's storyline as she went to consult on a case unnecessary as it really didn't have any relevance to the story and it just felt like it was chucked in because they needed to feature...

Review: It Started with a List - Tinia Montford - January 2022 This particular book had captured my attention by the brightly colored cover and when I started it, I didn't necessarily have high expectations and I am glad I didn't as in this case, it made me enjoy this book more. There were quite a handful of things that just made this book such a good read for me.  The first thing which due to the cover, I will point out is that nowhere in this book did I feel like the issue of race was being shoved down my throat. Yes, the main character was black and the guy was white but throughout the story, the race of the characters wasn't the main point and it was nice for a change as I find sometimes when they focus on race the book can become a tad political. The other thing I loved was that this book was set in San Francisco as the characters visited the sights and this brought back good memories as I was there in December 2013. The other thing I loved was that the main characte...