October Book Club: The Only Way is Poison by Lou Collins
If you’ve read Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series and ever thought “this is great, but what if Stephanie lived in a small English village,” Chloe Essex is your person.
Author : Kelly Brakenhoff
September Book Club: Books, Betrayal & Blame by Sally Bayless
Libby Ballard is the director of the museum in the small town of Dogwood Springs, currently in the happy chaos of planning her wedding to Sam, with her golden retriever Bella as loyal sidekick and general emotional support animal. Life is good.
August Book Club: The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
I feel strange admitting this, but I don’t have time to follow celebrity book lists. Or bestseller lists. Or award lists. By the time a book like The Correspondent finds its way to my TBR, it’s usually already famous everywhere else and I’m just catching up. After reading this with my in-person book club, I now see what all the fuss was about.
July Book Club: The Framing of George Wickham by Mindy Killgrove
If you wondered what became of Lydia and Wickham after the elopement in Pride and Prejudice, this book has ideas. Spoiler: it is not a happily ever after.
June Book Club: Murder at Merivale Manor by Ella Strike
If you’ve ever watched a dinner party go sideways, you understand the energy of this book. Except Kitty Goring’s party goes considerably more sideways than most.
May Book Club: The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill
The premise sold me before I even turned the first page: four strangers happen to be sitting at the same table in the Boston Public Library when they hear a scream, and then find out a woman has been killed. What follows is everything that brought those four people to that table, everything they’re hiding, and a tangle of crimes that keeps expanding the longer you pull on the thread.
Mama Sato’s Easy Mango Bread Recipe
If you’ve read Death 101: Extra Credit, you already know this story. Cassandra Sato has told it so many times, she knows it by heart. But in case you haven’t met Michiko Sato yet, let me introduce you.
April Book Club: Ice Cold Murder by Michele Pariza Wacek
Charlie Kingsley agrees to be the plus-one for her friend Claire for what sounds like a cozy weekend house party. That alone already feels like a commitment, but it turns out it is not actually a party at all. It is a gathering to read Claire’s grandmother’s will, which is the kind of situation that practically guarantees tension.
Mission Trip to Cuatro Ciénegas: The Long Way Home
Every good pilgrimage ends with the journey home. No surprise, ours required a little extra patience. Our group left Cuatro Ciénegas before sunrise on Sunday morning for the long drive back to Monterrey. The bus was quiet at first, some still sleepy, some waiting for the caffeine to kick in, and many of us were still processing the past few days.
Mission Trip to Cuatro Ciénegas: Ripple Effects
By the time Saturday arrived, it felt like we had been in Cuatro Ciénegas much longer than a few days. No complaints from me. I love those trips where one moment leads naturally into the next. We began at dawn with Fr. Brandenburg leading a small group hiking up a rocky ridge near the Tierra Maria vineyard. The trail involved a fair amount of bouldering over large rocks and a steep ascent.