This review will contain spoilers Nao is a 16 year old girl living in Tokyo who is having a difficult time at school. She cannot turn to her parents because her mother is dealing with her father’s severe depression. Nao decides to start a diary about the life of her great grandmother, a Buddhist nun, Continue reading

Famous Last Words (2025) by Gillian McAllister falls under the thriller genre but I think it also works as an inverted mystery where you know who committed the crime but the mystery is why? And so why would Luke Deschamps, a good husband and father, wake up one morning, write his wife Cam (Camilla) a Continue reading

I am looking at my list of the 40 books I was planning to read in 2026 and though I had fun designing the list, I don’t see myself following through. To be honest, I am having trouble getting this new blog “Reading Matters Part II” started. Book reviewing is difficult—even short reviews are not Continue reading

In thinking about 2026 I wanted to map out at least 40 of the books I will be reading and I asked Grok for help. I gave Grok some of my preferences and they came up with a good list which I have further tweeked. Here is the final list to be read in this Continue reading

In December I read Brat Farrar (1949) by Josephine Tey which was a let down for me although I enjoyed Tey’s classic Daughter of Time. I also finished The Word Is Murder: A Hawthorne and Horowitz Mystery (2017) by Anthony Horowitz. Its the third book of his that I have read this year and The Continue reading

I have been fascinated this past week by the Olivia Nuzzi/Ryan Lizza drama that is all over social media. I like gossip as much as the next person and for me gossip involving quasi-celebrities (as opposed to A-list Holywood actors, musicians, athletes) feels much more relatable. And that’s particularly true when the people at the Continue reading

I know it’s a bit early to be listing the top ten books I read in 2025. But Thanksgiving is tomorrow and books have always been something I am very thankful for and so I wanted to share the joy. I read 60 books this year and here in no particular order are my 10 Continue reading

“Mystery novelist Harriet Vane knew all about poisons, and when her former lover died in the manner prescribed in one of her books, a jury of her peers had a hangman’s noose in mind. But Lord Peter Wimsey was determined to find her innocent”. – Goodreads I am rating Strong Poison (1930) by Dorothy Sayers Continue reading

Welcome to Reading Matters Part Two. I kept my prior blog for about 10 years. I would have continued but it looks like I got kicked out when I switched computers and I can’t seem to get myself back in. But you can still read my prior blog at https://apple592.blogspot.com It’s okay and I am Continue reading