Half In by Felice Cohen

Started: 5/25/2022

Finished: 5/27/2022

Year: 2022

Pages: 238

Genre: Memoir

Grade: C+

Reason for reading: review for Reader Views

Type: ARC

Blurb (from Amazon): "What if your first love was a forbidden one?

 At twenty-three, Felice Cohen was, like other recent college grads, hesitant about entering the real world, with the added stress of coming out in the early nineties. Focused on how to land a full-time position as a writer, falling in love was the last thing on her mind.

 But fall in love she did. With her boss, a woman thirty-four years older.

 Felice and Sarah embarked on a high-stakes, year-long love affair. Addicted to the high of first love, Felice was enthralled by Sarah's attention and content to hide their love in the shadows. Sarah, meanwhile, threw caution to the wind, risking her comfortably established life that included a prestigious job and long-term girlfriend. Though not perfect, it was enough.

 That was until their secret was exposed, forcing Felice to publicly acknowledge their illicit love or start a new life for herself. Felice chose to walk away.

 In this candid coming-of-age memoir-as compelling as a novel-Felice chronicles the happiness and heartbreak of an age-gap love affair while struggling to figure out the direction of her future.Ultimately, this is a story about navigating life's unpredictable path while following one's heart, and finding acceptance."

Opinion: a thorough review is on Reader views.

My Famous Brain by Diane Wald

Started: 5/20/2022

Finished: 5/24/2022

Year: 2021

Pages: 310

Genre: Literature

Grade: C

Reason for reading: review for Reader Views

Type: trade paperback

Blurb (from Amazon): "“My brain was famous, but I was not. Not every gifted child invents a pollutant-free fuel, paints a masterpiece, or finds the cure for cancer,” Jack MacLeod tells us. “Some of us just live out our lives.” Jack died in 1974; now, he’s ready to narrate his story from beyond the grave. Jack’s prodigious memory, which allows him to memorize books, and his penchant for psychic connections give him unusual insights into the events of his past life and make him fiercely curious about his current state of existence. Jack immerses us in interconnected tales of his childhood participation in a research study on the intellectually gifted, his dual career as a clinical psychologist and university professor, his participation in the unmasking of an unscrupulous colleague, his long-term health issues, his brief but life-changing love affair with a student, his deep friendship with another man, and his eventual acceptance and celebration of the circumstances of his fate. How Jack dies, and how he deals with the murder of someone close to him, mirrors how he has lived and grown, and marks the significance of everyone and everything that ultimately brings him to yet another level of brilliance."

Opinion: A thorough review is on readerviews.com

Fever by Janet Gilsdorf

Started: 5/18/2022

Finished: 5/20/2022

Year: 2022

Pages: 309

Genre: Scientific literature

Grade: C

Reason for reading: Librarything.com early reviewer giveaway

Type: ARC

Blurb (from Amazon): "In 1984, in the small Brazilian village of Promissão, a young child begins to fuss, her eyes turning pink and her skin flushed with heat. Four days later, she’s dead. Sidonie Royal, an accomplished physician and scientist, arrives in the small Brazilian village of Promissão to investigate and hopefully cure this insidious new disease. With several young children already dead, and more getting sick by the day, the stakes cannot get any higher. But Sid’s personal life is also in flux, as she struggles to balance a complicated relationship with her boyfriend, Paul, pressure to start a family from her well-meaning mother, conflict with her surly but brilliant coworker named Eliot, and a budding romantic attraction to her doctoral student’s twin brother. As Sid relentlessly pursues an explanation for the disease, the village’s physician calls in the Global Health Agency, triggering a scientific race that spans two continents and becomes increasingly defined by personal stakes."

Opinion: Scenes were choppy. Some subplots and characters were not necessary. The main story didn't seem to have a real ending but was interesting.

Where Are They Buried? How Did They Die? by Tod Benoit

Started: 5/11/2022

Finished: 5/17/2022

Year: 2003

Pages: 554

Genre: History

Grade: B

Reason for reading: TBR pile

Type: Hardcover

Blurb (from Amazon): "This enlightening and browsable guide features more than 500 profiles of the lives, deaths, and final resting places of our most influential figures from sports, music, film, television, literature, and politics.

This unparalleled compilation of profiles of the deceased--from Abbott & Costello to Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, from Arthur Ashe to Andy Warhol--offers all of the pertinent details on their lives, deaths, and grave sites, providing a pop-cultural road map for anyone fascinated by celebrity, history, and travel. Listings include Mark Twain, Sonny Bono, Dr. Seuss, Salvador Dali, Mickey Mantle, Marvin Gaye, Jimi Hendrix, Ingrid Bergman, William Shakespeare, Andy Kaufman, Bob Crane, Louis Armstrong, Walt Disney, Errol Flynn, Al Capone, Ella Fitzgerald, Mae West, Gertude Stein, and hundreds more.

Fifty photos and a number of informative sidebars (on such topics as how to find the grave of anyone you choose) round out this entertaining look at the permanent addresses of our most significant late citizens. And each listing offers concise directions to both the cemetery and the grave itself, an added benefit for tombstone travelers."

Opinion: Interesting little tidbits about several famous people and where they are buried or ashes scattered. I appreciate the time and research that the author did for this book. Upon looking on Amazon, there is an updated version.

Mine by JL Butler

Started: 5/3/2022

Finished: 5/10/2022

Year: 2018

Pages: 423

Genre: Thriller

Grade: B-

Reason for reading: goodreads.com giveaway

Type: ARC

Blurb (from Amazon): "In this riveting tale of psychological suspense, a divorce lawyer risks her career, her sanity, and her life when she falls into an illicit, all-consuming affair with her client—who becomes the primary suspect in his estranged wife’s sudden disappearance.

Young divorce lawyer Francine Day has methodically built her career doing everything right. She’s one big case away from securing her place among London’s legal elite. But when she meets her new client, Martin Joy, the natural caution that has protected Francine and fueled her rise melts away. Powerless to fight the irresistible magnetism between them, client and counsel tumble into a blistering affair that breaks every rule.

Though Martin insists his marriage is over, Francine doesn’t believe him. Certain details he’s told her don’t quite add up. Consumed with a passion she cannot control and increasingly obsessed with Martin’s relationship with his wife, Donna, Francine follows the woman one night . . . and discovers her having dinner with her supposedly soon-to-be-ex-husband.

The next morning, Francine awakens in her neighbor’s apartment with blood on her clothes and no recollection of what transpired after she spied Donna and Martin together. Then Francine receives more devastating news: Martin’s wife has vanished. That dinner was the last place anyone has seen Donna Joy alive.

Suddenly, Francine finds herself caught in a dangerous labyrinth of deception, lies, and secrets, in which one false move could lead to her undoing. What happened that night and why can’t Francine remember? Where is Donna and who is responsible for her disappearance? The further Francine goes to find answers, the tighter the net seems to draw—around her lover, herself, and the life she’s meticulously built."

Opinion: The obsession in this book was ridiculous. Definitely a thriller but the obsession was too much and was over way too quickly for it to be a true obsession.

She Was the Quiet One by Michele Campbell

Started: 4/29/2022

Finished: 5/3/2022

Year: 2018

Pages: 360

Genre: suspense/mystery

Grade: B+

Reason for reading: goodreads.com giveaway

Type: ARC

Blurb (from Amazon): "For Rose Enright, enrolling in a prestigious New England boarding school is the opportunity of a lifetime. But for Rose’s vulnerable twin sister Bel, Odell Academy is a place of temptation and danger. When Bel falls in with a crowd of wild rich kids who pressure her into hazing Rose, the sisters’ relationship is shattered. Rose turns to her dorm mother, Sarah Donovan, for advice. But Bel turns to Sarah’s husband Heath, a charismatic and ambitious teacher. Is Heath trying to help Bel or take advantage of her? In a world of privilege, seduction, and manipulation, only one sister will live to tell the truth."

Opinion: If you can get over the teacher taking advantage of a student....this is a really good suspenseful novel. I like how it was told between what happened and police interviews