All Books Considered

The Museum Detective by Maha Khan Phillips Blurb from Goodreads : When Dr. Gul Delani receives a call in the middle of the night from the Sindh police, she thinks they may have finally found her niece, Mahnaz—a precocious, politically conscious teenage girl who went missing three years prior. Gul has been racked with grief since Mahnaz’s disappearance and distracts herself through a talented curator at the Museum of Heritage and History in Karachi, she is one of the country’s leading experts in archaeology and ancient civilizations, a hard-won position for a woman. But there is no news of Mahnaz. Instead, Gul is summoned to a narcotics investigation in a remote desert region in western Pakistan. In her wildest dreams, Gul couldn’t have imagined what she’d find amid a drug bust gone wrong, there is a mummy—life-size, seemingly authentic, its sarcophagus decorated with symbols from Persepolis, the capital of the Achaemen...

The Library of Lost Dollhouses by Elise Hooper Blurb from Goodreads : When a young librarian discovers historic dollhouses in a hidden room, she embarks on an unexpected journey that reveals surprising secrets about the lost miniatures. Tildy Barrows, Head Curator of a beautiful archival library in San Francisco, is meticulously dedicated to the century’s worth of inventory housed in her beloved Beaux Art building. She loves the calm and order in the shelves of books and walls of art. But Tildy’s life takes an unexpected turn when she, first, learns the library is on the verge of bankruptcy and, second, discovers two exquisite never-before-seen dollhouses. After finding clues hidden within these remarkable miniatures, Tildy sets out to decipher the secret history of the dollhouses, aiming to salvage her cherished library in the process. Her journey int...

The Other Lata by Kirthana Ramisetti Blurb from Goodreads : A compulsively readable romcom of mistaken identity set within high society New York and the sacrifices made to keep up appearances, in trade paperback. Somewhere in New York City, Lata Murthy knows there is another person with her name living a much more interesting life. That's because Lata often receives the other Lata's invites to Hampton soirees, fundraising appeals from the New York City Ballet and reminders about sample sales at Soho boutiques.. Lata's own life—working in digital content, watching Food Network marathons, spending recklessly on clothes she can't afford—feels pathetic in comparison. So, one day she decides to take on this other Lata's identity and jumps headfirst into the glamorous New York lifestyle ... but not without consequences.    At first, it a...

I Would Die for You by Sandie Jones Blurb from Goodreads : Now: Nicole Forbes lives a quiet life in a small seaside Californian town with her husband and daughter. She is not expecting a writer to knock on her door asking for her personal insight into the downfall of the biggest British band of the 1980s—unveiling the threads of a life she put behind her years ago. The same day, her daughter goes missing and the school claims her aunt picked her up . . . but she doesn’t have an aunt. Convinced of a link between the two, Nicole is forced to revisit long-abandoned memories from her past to protect everything she now holds dear. 1986: Sixteen-year-old Cassie is obsessed with the hottest band in London, Secret Oktober. Harboring an intense crush on the leading man, Ben Edwards, she will do anything she can to capture his attention among the throngs of grou...

Animal Instinct by Amy Shearn Blurb from Goodreads : The world has stopped. But Rachel is just getting started… It’s spring of 2020 and Rachel Bloomstein—mother of three, recent divorcée, and Brooklynite—is stuck inside. But her newly awakened sexual desire and lust for a new life refuse to be contained. Leaning on her best friend Lulu to show her the ropes, Rachel dips a toe in the online dating world, leading to park dates with younger men, flirtations with beautiful women, and actual, in-person sex. None of them, individually, are perfect . . . hence her rotation. But what if one person could perfectly cater to all her emotional needs?  Driven by this possibility, Rachel creates Frankie, the AI chatbot she programs with all the good parts of dating in middle age . . . and some of the bad. But as Rachel plays with her fantasy to her heart’s cont...

O Sinners! by Nicole Cuffy Blurb from Goodreads : A journalist investigates a seductive and mysterious cult and its leader, an enigmatic Vietnam War veteran, in this not-to-be-missed novel. Faruq Zaidi, a young journalist reeling from the recent death of his father, a devout Muslim, takes the opportunity to embed in a cult called The Nameless. Based in the California redwoods and shepherded by an enigmatic Vietnam War-veteran named Odo, The Nameless adhere to the 18 Utterances, including teachings such as “THERE IS NO GOD BUT THE NAMELESS,” “ALL SUFFERING IS DISTORTION,” and “SEE ONLY BEAUTY.” Faruq, skeptical but committed to unraveling the mystery of The Nameless, extends his stay over months, as he gets deeper into the cult's inner workings, compassionate teachings, and closer to Odo. Faruq himself begins to unravel, forced to come-to-terms ...

Code Word Romance by Carlie Walker Blurb from Goodreads : Two exes. One mission. A trip she'll never forget... Max is just your average girl. She works odd jobs, has a soul-crushing amount of debt and just happens to have an uncanny resemblance to Europe's youngest female prime minister, Sofia Christensen . . . So when the prime minister receives a credible death threat, the CIA approaches Max with a a life-changing amount of money if she pretends to be Sofia on the prime minister's annual Italian trip. It would be a dream if it weren't for those pesky assassins and Flynn, Max's ridiculously hot handler - the man who broke her heart years and years ago. With her life now on the line, Max knows she has no choice but to lose herself in the role. But losing her heart to Flynn again? Now that's a risk that she isn't willing to take . . . My Review:   Th...

Early Thirties by Josh Duboff Blurb from Goodreads : A hilarious and painfully relatable debut novel about two thirtysomething best friends’ messy search for connection and love in New York, perfect for fans of Rebecca Serle, Gabrielle Zevin, and Dolly Alderton. Sometimes friendship can be its own love story. Victor and Zoey are getting old, well old-er, and it’s beginning to be a real problem. Best friends for a decade, they have seen each other through bad dates and office drama, late nights and hungover brunches, during their years together in New York City. As their wild twenties come to a close, though, the dynamic between the two is shifting. Coming off a tough breakup, Victor dedicates his energies toward building a career writing celebrity profiles for one of the last glossy magazines left, while Zoey navigates the terrain at her nascent fa...

Pomona Afton Can So Solve a Murder by Bellamy Rose Blurb from Goodreads : A spoiled heiress must investigate her grandmother’s death in order to gain back her trust fund, all while discovering how to be her own person and maybe even in falling in love in this rom-com meets murder mystery. When Pomona Afton, Upper East Side hotel heiress, stumbles out of a gala and upon the scene of her grandmother’s murder, her first thought is that the society queen won’t be missed for her kind, cookie-baking ways. In fact, she was mean, greedy, and paranoid—so paranoid that she secretly slipped a clause into her will mandating that, should she die an unnatural death, all the family assets get frozen. And if the “unnatural death” isn’t explained? Those accounts stay frozen. Practically overnight, Pomona is locked out of her penthouse with no other option than to move in with a Gabe, the irritable (...