Book Review: The Last Thing She Remembers by J.S. Monroe

The Last Thing She Remembers by J.S. Monroe

Genre: thriller, suspense, British mystery

May 28, 2019, Park Row

Just finished reading this morning....

A thriller with memory....Lots of info re how our memories work and the circumstances under which it does not work. A woman shows up in an English town after traveling from Berlin and losing her memory as soon as she arrives at Heathrow Airport.  A couple take her in and set out to find out the story behind this unusual woman. When one mystery is solved about who the mystery woman is not,  another plot continues to solve the riddle of who she really is and why she showed up at this specific house in the town of Wiltshire, England. The action moves to Berlin and India, with themes of memory, amnesia, Alzheimer's, and missing persons. Excellent reading and plotting. I gave this an enthusiastic five stars.  It's Monday: What Are You Reading is hosted by Book Date.

A thriller with memory....Lots of info re how our memories work and the circumstances under which it does not work. A woman shows up in an English town after traveling from Berlin and losing her memory as soon as she arrives at Heathrow Airport.  A couple take her in and set out to find out the story behind this unusual woman.

When one mystery is solved about who the mystery woman is not,  another plot continues to solve the riddle of who she really is and why she showed up at this specific house in the town of Wiltshire, England. The action moves to Berlin and India, with themes of memory, amnesia, Alzheimer's, and missing persons. Excellent reading and plotting.

I gave this an enthusiastic five stars. 

It's Monday: What Are You Reading is hosted by Book Date.

It's Monday! Reading Japan and Vietnam

Ghost of the Bamboo Road by Susan Spann

November 12, 2019, copy from Seventh Street Books

 Master ninja Hiro Hattori and Jesuit priest Father Mateo of Portugal solve crimes and mysteries on their journeys in 16th century Japan.  In Ghost of the Bamboo Road, seventh in the series, the two must deal with what appears to be a vengeful ghost that terrorizes a mountain village.

The Red Lotus by Chris Bohjalian

Uncorrected proof, borrowed ebook, March 17, 2020, Doubleday

Genre: thriller, suspense

 (A)n American man vanishes on a rural road in Vietnam, and his girlfriend, an emergency room doctor, follows a path that leads her home to the very hospital where they met. (publisher)

What are you reading this week?
It's Monday: What Are You Reading is hosted by Book Date.

It's Monday: What Are You Reading?

It's Monday: What Are You Reading is hosted by Book Date.

Brewed Awakening by Cleo Coyle

December 3, 2019, Berkley Books

Theme: Temporary amnesia. Coffeehouse manager Clare Cosi awakens on a bench in Washington Square Park and has no idea she's been missing for the past week. Clare's missing memory is tied to a crime she witnessed.

A Time for Murder by Jessica Fletcher and Jon Land

November 26, Berkley

Theme: Jessica Fletcher returns to high school to investigate the murder of an old colleague, while we also go back in time to meet Jessica as a young teacher solving her very first murder

Also reading:

Harry's Trees

Harry's Trees by Jon Cohen, June 12, 2019, Mira Books. 

Theme: A sort of modern-day magical fairy tale about a Forest Service employee who decides to follow his dream to live outdoors and find "Harry's Trees."  This, to heal grief after the sudden death of his wife. Harry also helps a ten-year-old child deal with her own grief after the death of her father. 

What books are you reading this week? 

Sunday Salon: Cozies for November

Shot through the Hearth by Kate Carlisle, October 31, 2019, Berkley

Contractor Shannon Hammer tries to clear the name of her tech billionaire pal who is accused of murder at a conference on eco-living

The Dog Who Knew Too Much by Krista Davis

November 26, 2019, Berkley Books

There are several books by different authors with the same title as this one, but this is the most recent, the 6th in the Paws and Claws Mystery series

Inn owner Holly Miller has to prove that her dog Trixie is really hers, when a stranger claims he is the rightful owner.

Lady Takes the Case by Eliza Casey

November 26, 2019, Berkley Books

A new historical mystery case featuring Lady Cecilia Bates and  her intuitive Manor House cat Jack, in England, 1912

The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also,  It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Mailbox Monday and the Sunday Salon

Sunday Salon: The Hidden World of the Fox by Adele Brand

New arrival:

The Hidden World of the Fox by Adele Brand, October 22, 2019, William Morrow

Genre: nonfiction, ecology

"Brand has studied foxes for twenty years across four continents—from the Yucatán rainforest to India’s remote Thar Desert, from subarctic Canada to metropolitan London. Her observations have convinced her that the fox is arguably the most modern of all wildlife, uniquely suited to survival in the rapidly expanding urban/wild interface."

Currently reading:

In the Shadow of Power by Viveca Sten, October 22, 2019, Amazon Crossing

The new summer house on Sandhamn Island in the Swedish archipelago is an architectural dream for its owner, Carsten Jonsson. It’s a nightmare for the locals. When a body is found, Detective Inspector Thomas Andreasson isn’t sure if it’s murder or a tragic accident.
~~~
On the home front, it's been raining for a few days now and windy and cold. We took a walk this afternoon in the park when it warmed up to the mid 40s, dressed in our winter clothes, of course. I may not be quite ready for winter!

The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also,  It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Mailbox Monday and the Sunday Salon

It's Monday: What Are You Reading?

It's Monday: What Are You Reading is hosted by The Book Date. Visit  Mailbox Monday.

The Girl Who Reads on the Metro by Christine Feret-Fleury, October 8, 2019, Flatiron Books

Juliet, a dedicated book lover, is hired as a passeur, one who takes used books out into the world and matches them with likely readers.  My lovely library find. 

What books are you enjoying this week?

Review: Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell

Talking to Strangers

Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know by Malcolm Gladwell, September 10, 2019, Allen Lane. Personal copy. 

INTRODUCTION"Step out of the car!"

In July 2015 a young African American woman named Sandra Bland drove from her hometown of Chicago to a little town an hour west of Houston, Texas. She was interviewing for a job at Prairie View A&M University, the school she had graduated from a few years before. She was tall and striking with a personality to match....

The chapter goes on to describe the verbal exchange between Sandra and a Texas police officer who had pulled her over for failing to signal a lane change. The end result is that upstanding, educated, and blameless Sandra was arrested, handcuffed and thrown into jail. Three days later, she took her own life in prison.

And so begins this book, Talking to Strangers, by Malcolm Gladwell, on strangers meeting and the misunderstandings and false assumptions that can sometimes result in  tragic outcomes. 

Misreading strangers can lead to a guilty Bernie Madoff being trusted by duped investors, to an innocent Amanda Knox being incarcerated for years and tried for a crime for which she was later exonerated. Spies high up in government have been misread by the CIA and trusted with secrets the spies regularly leaked to a foreign power. And it goes on...

A fascinating book that I read cover to cover in just a few days, intrigued by the facts the author presented to make his case. People are not as transparent as they may seem to us. They may be something completely different.

Most people will give suspicious people the benefit of the doubt, which is good for society to run smoothly, in general, but which can be disastrous when their judgment is wrong. This is part of Gladwell's conclusions on this topic, and just a part of what the book has to say about how we interact with and interpret the actions and behavior of a variety of strangers. 

Page 57:

The next three chapters of Talking to Strangers are devoted to the ideas of a psychologist named Tim Levine, who has thought as much about the problem of why we are deceived by strangers as anyone in social science.... 

The book is persuasive, well researched, and thought-provoking. It will make you think twice or three times about the validity of your initial reaction to a stranger, positive or negative, whoever they may be.

Memes: The Friday 56. Grab a book, turn to page 56 or 56% of your eReader. Find any sentence that grabs you. Post it, and add your URL post in Linky at Freda's Voice. Also visit Book Beginning at Rose City Reader