Welcome

Hi! My name is Margot. My blog is about the things I love to do. That could be what I'm reading, places we visit, my family, food, or whatever else is happening. I hope you'll stay and visit a while. Contact me by email: joyfullyretired (at) gmail (dot) com.

What I’m Reading

Saying It Well

Justice

Forever

The Sense of an Ending

Wish You Were Here

A Moveable Feast

Clarissa

The Odyssey

My Book Rating System

A = Excellent in every way
B = Very good story
C  = Good/Average
D = Poor
F = So Bad I couldn't finish it

Archives

Book Review: Our Man In the Dark

  Author: Rashad Harrison Publisher: Atria Books, 2011 Genre: Historical Fiction My Rating: B Summary (from the publisher): A stunning debut historical noir novel about a worker in the civil rights movement who became an informant for the FBI during the months leading up to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Feeling unappreciated and [...]

Book Review: The Christmas List

Author: Richard Paul Evans Publisher: Genre: Christmas Tale Format: Audiobook, Narrated by John Dossett Source: Public Library My Rating: B I’m sure you are familiar with Scrooge, the star of Dicken’s A hristmas Carol. He was a ruthless, hateful man until he met the Ghosts of Christmas’ Past, Present, and Future. His meeting with the ghosts [...]

Book Review: Dumb Witness

Author: Agatha Christie Publisher: Harper Collins Original Copyright Date: 1937 Genre: Mystery My Rating: B Dumb Witness starts out like many other classic novels. It’s set in a small village, in one of the old family houses. The story is concerned with the last remaining family member, Emily Arundell, a wealthy woman in her seventies, [...]

Book Review: Telling Lies

Author: Cathi Stoler Publisher: Camel Press, 2011 Genre: Thrillers My Rating: B A Summary of the book (from the publisher): When a chance encounter in Florence’s Uffizi Museum plunges Women Now editor Laurel Imperiole and private investigator Helen McCorkendale into an investigation of missing persons and stolen Nazi art, the women find themselves ensnared in a [...]

Book Review: The Lake

Author: Banana Yoshimoto Translated by: Michael Emmerich Publisher: Melville House, 2011 (Originally published in Japanese by Foil Company, 2005 Genre: Japanese Literature Format: E-Reader Source: The publisher My Rating: B Summary of the story: When I joined the Japanese Reading Challenge I wanted to read something by Banana Yoshimoto. Numerous reviewers praised the brillance of [...]