I recently gave a lesson to the youth in my church and to get their attention, I asked them if they liked a good mystery. I showed them a slide with some of my favorite mystery novels. However, when I created this slide, I realized that I haven't read many mysteries lately. I voraciously read... Continue Reading →
Literary Wives: The Bishop’s Wife
In Mette Ivie Harrison’s The Bishop’s Wife (2014), Linda Wallheim is the wife in question. She’s the wife of a Mormon (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or LDS) bishop, and works to help him in his unpaid work as clergy for their church. She often calms down members of their ward (parish)... Continue Reading →
Not Awestruck Until the End of Thunderstruck
Thunderstruck (2006) by Erik Larson started slowly. It took me a few months to read it, because I kept losing interesting during the first half of the book. It is about the collision of two events in the early 1900s. One is the invention of the wireless, which Marconi invented and perfected. His ability to... Continue Reading →
Mystery, Marriage, and Death by Research
I refused to read The Da Vinci Code (2003) by Dan Brown and number 42 on the BBC book list for a long time. It was a bestseller and everybody was talking about it. Some annoying celebrity on Oprah, when shown at her posh home lounging on a snow-white couch and reading a book, had... Continue Reading →
Rebecca: Not Really a Ghost Story
When I picked up a copy of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca (1938), number 15 on the BBC Book List, I couldn’t help but think, “Is this a romance novel?” You know, one of those with a picture of Fabio on the cover caressing a voluptuous woman? The paperback copy I have (pictured below) has some... Continue Reading →