Life on the frontier wasn't easy, and was often the end of people, physically or mentally. Enter our heroine, Mary, who signs on to take some needy folks to get help back where there was assumed to be some. The trouble was, she needed help of her own to get where she was going. The "Homesman" was that help. Nothing is simple, though, and this saga of fortitude, emotion, and their melancholy trek tells the tale. Left me feeling like I'd had a really good dirt bath.

We all have that angel/devil thing going on, but in this book, "Milly" wrestles with her unspeakably horrible past, trying to reshape her square-peg self to fit into a round hole. Making it harder is her (mean girl) foster sister and the minions who answer to her. Family secrets lurk in the dark corners of her new life, and she finds herself resorting to old habits to survive. Right up until the end, it was a rapid-fire page-turner that kept luring me back to whip through another chapter. Although the finale left some logic to be desired, overall it was a gripper.

I LOVE Agatha Christie mysteries, as do so many of us. When I came across this book I was delighted, having read , The Six, a weighty book about the Mitford sisters, by the same author. Shortly after embarking on this project, it felt like the publisher mandated that any Thompson book be at least 400 pages, and while there was plenty of material to go around in the saga of the Mitfords (there were, after all, six of them), there was only one Agatha. So she fleshed out her Agatha bio with excerpts from seemingly every one of Agatha's books, equating what was written by her as validation for the author's interpretation of what she was feeling at that time. This was so excruciatingly tedious that I almost put this tome of a book down in the first 100 (out of nearly 500) pages. Isn't it a mark of any successful author that they can imagine what other people would be thinking, feeling, saying? Just because she wrote it in a story doesn't mean that was in the forefront of her own life experience at that time. Honestly, probably 50% of the first third of this book is material quoted from Agatha's own work. Cheater! Furthermore, the author riddles the book with many of her own opinions, as if they are facts. Agatha was "massive", and certain people were "not handsome", for example. Aren't those subjective determinations? What was really offensive to me was the extensive discussion about Agatha's play adaptation, Ten Little (N-word)s. WHAT??? I kept looking for a footnote, flipped back and forth assuming I'd missed the disclaimer there, but the author went on and on discussing this play as if it were no big deal, for approximately 50 pages, before there was any caveat at all. I found this flippant and jarring. Sure, it may have been the jargon of the time, but it's sure not now, and I was offended that the author felt no need to jump in with an explanation at the first mention of this inappropriate title. There were numerous photos described but not included, and one photo spread conveniently positioned with Agatha's face planted squarely in the gutter. Nice. Overall, this book was well-researched, but too cluttered, jumbled and biased for my taste.

A fast-paced tale with a theological message deftly handled.

This well-researched book takes us back to Shakespearean times as an antiquarian bookseller embarks on a quest to identify a portrait of a woman who looks just like his newly-departed wife. The history was interesting, and the book moved along.

This romance/sci-fi novel explores a relationship between a "normal" woman and her beloved, who can't help flipping and flopping from era to era. Although I'm not a huge fan of this type of fiction, I found it interesting and intriguing. Worth a read.

In this unlikely story, a mom attaches some pretty stringent conditions to her will, stunning her daughter and jolting her into action. What happens as a result is probably unlikely, but makes for a sweet and easy read.

We've all seen cute pictures of tots smeared with the evidence of a "crime"--maybe finding the powdered sugar or chocolate chip stash . . . and when they're caught, the little rascals inevitably point to anyone else handy to take the blame--the dog, the sibling, heck, even the mail carrier. These days, ever-ready parents capture the moment on video, upload it to youtube, and a star is born! Awww . . . so adorable! Well, when that same behavior is exhibited at age 6, it's disconcerting, and at 16, it's downright scary. What we have here is the exact same scenario, with "parents" (the Senate) who continue to think it's cute and make excuses. Folks, the other shoe is about to drop, and our imaginary friends, the "checks and balances" promised by the Founding Fathers, have been whipped into submission by the wanna-be autocrat-in-chief and his henchpeople. This book has a lot of information you'll wish you'd never read. Get ready.

As it turns out, "Korobi" is Hindi for "oleander", and as such, this character is well-named. Able to thrive where other things die, this characteristic comes to the forefront when she is dealt a shocking blow shortly before her wedding. Absorbing this news, she reels but decides to tackle it head-on. The story deftly deals with auxiliary characters, fleshing out their individual trials and struggles, making this book feel complete. Although the ending was a tad rushed, overall the tale was readable, compelling, and thought-provoking.

Small-town limitations, gossip and envy contribute handily in this doomed tale of star-crossed lovers. Or perhaps they're just thwarted by their own idiocy. If you need a gloomy, doomy romance, this just may be the ticket. Spoiler alert: Don't plan for them all to get together tidily at the end. I will say this, however, old as this book may be (almost 150 years!) it still reads fairly easily. Gotta give our boy Tommy some credit for that.

Nothing could be creepier than the infamous Bubonic Plague, right? That's what I thought when I bought this book--I couldn't wait to dive in and really feel the terror and dread of the impending doom. Much to my disappointment, however, it was more a slog through a statistics class, all focused on data about England. Page after page of numbers, lists, etc. bog the reader down interminably. What about the rest of the world??? Oh yes, there's passing mention, but really, it was very Anglo-centric and dry as a bone. Unless you're in the market for a book of lists, then may I recommend The Black Death, by Philip Ziegler?

Oh Erma, we miss you. She captured the entire spectrum of motherhood, what makes it frustrating and what makes it indescribably wonderful. Real, never judging, and able to find the humor in almost any situation--she had such unusual insight. I'll bet she was a great mom. I'm thankful she shared her unique perspective with us in this book.