The Yellow Wall-Paper

Author: Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: New England Magazine, 1892
Pages: 24
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: The Yellow Wallpaper is a valuable piece of American feminist literature that reveals attitudes toward the psychological health of women in the nineteenth century. Diagnosed with "temporary nervous depression - a slight hysterical tendency" by her physician husband, a woman is confined to an upstairs bedroom. Descending into psychosis at the complete lack of stimulation, she starts obsessing over the room's yellow wallpaper: "It is the strangest yellow, that wall-paper! It makes me think of all the yellow things I ever saw - not beautiful ones like buttercups, but old foul, bad yellow things. But there is something else about that paper - the smell! . . .The only thing I can think of that is like the color of the paper! A yellow smell."

Review: I was looking for a short story to catch up on my reading challenge, but what an interesting find. I tend to avoid short stories as a general rule because I like to dive into characters and plots, but this story kept my attention and had me digging for more information
about it. 

This novel was first printed in a magazine in 1892, and was immediately denounced in the press. There is far more information available on Wikipedia, and I went down the rabbit hole. Wow.

Why wasn't this assigned reading in high school. The discussion and conversations would have been so interesting.

Mrs. Endicott's Splendid Adventure

Author: Rhys Bowen
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Amazon Publishing, 2025
Pages: 399
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Surrey, England, 1938. After thirty devoted years of marriage, Ellie Endicott is blindsided by her husband's appeal for divorce. It's Ellie's opportunity for change too. The unfaithful cad can have the house. She's taking the Bentley. Ellie, her housekeeper Mavis, and her elderly friend Dora - each needing escape - impulsively head for parts unknown in the South of France.

With the Rhone surging beside them, they have nowhere to be and everywhere to go. Until the Bentley breaks down in the inviting hamlet of Saint Benet. Here, Ellie rents an abandoned villa in the hills, makes wonderful friend among the villagers, and finds herself drawn to Nico, a handsome and enigmatic fisherman. As for unexpected destinations, the simple paradis of Saint Benet is perfect. But fates soon change when the threat of war encroaches.

Review. I love Rhys Bowen's historical fiction novels, and while this was more fiction that historical fiction, it did veer into that realm toward the end. I wish she would have kept this novel light and fun. Bringing the Nazis into it in the way that she did, brought a darkness to the novel that was jarring to me. 

Other Rhys Bowen Novels
Above the Bay of Angels
In Farleigh Field
The Rose Arbor
The Tuscan Child
The Venice Sketchbook
Where the Sky Begins

Gwendy's Button Box

Author: Stephen King / Richard Chizmar
Genre: Thriller / Horror
Publisher: Gallery Books, 2025
Pages: 3 discs
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Twelve-year-old Gwendy Peterson's life is forever changed when she is given a mysterious wooden box by a stranger for safekeeping. It offers enticing treats and vintage coins, but he warns her that if she presses any of the box's beautifully colored buttons, death and destruction will follow.

Review: This is the first book in The Button Box trilogy, and while it's classified as a thriller/horror, I hesitate to put it in the horror genre. It was definitely a thriller. I'm curious to read the other novels in this trilogy.

In Mozart's Shadow: His Sister's Story

Author: Carolyn Meyer
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2008
Pages: 350
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Nannerl Mozart was a musical prodigy who seemed to have a brilliant future. But once her younger brother, Wolfgang, began composing symphonies at the age of five, her  career and talents were utterly eclipsed. Here, at last, is Nannerl's heart-wrenching tale. It's the story of her undying passion for music; her relationship with her "miracle boy" brother, and her life as the "other Mozart," the one forgotten by history.

Review: I recently read The Diary of a Waitress: The Not-So-Glamorous Life of a Harvey Girl, and while it is written for the middle to high school-aged children, I enjoyed it. Interested in other books this author has written, I found her on Goodreads. In Mozart's Shadow jumped out at me because my 10 year old just finished a book report and project on Mozart for school. We read Who Was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart together so this was a chance for me to learn more about his sister.

The middle of this book was repetitive while Mozart traveled around Europe performing and composing, but Nannerl herself was given the short end of the stick. She was also considered a child prodigy, but life in the 1700s did not give girls the same opportunities as boys. My heart broke for her.

Carolyn Meyer Novels
Diary of a Waitress: The Not-So-Glamorous Life of a Harvey Girl

The Vineyard at Painted Moon

Author: Susan Mallery
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Harlequin, 2022
Pages: 448
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Mackenzie Dienes seems to have it all - a beautiful home, close friends and a successful career as an elite winemaker with the family winery. There's just one problem - it's not her family, it's her husband's. In fact, everything in her life is tied to him - his mother is the closest thing to a mom that she's ever had, their home is on the family compound, his sister is her best friend. So when she and her husband admit their marriage is over, her pain goes beyond heartbreak. She's on the brink of losing everything. Her job, her home, her friends, and, worst of all, her family.

Staying is an option. She can continue to work at the winery, be friends with her mother-in-law, hug her nieces and nephews - but as an employee, nothing more. Or she can surrender every piece of her heart in order to build a legacy of her own. If she can dare to let go of her life she thought she wanted, she might discover something even more beautiful waiting for her beneath a painted moon.

Review: I enjoy Susan Mallery's books, and it's been a couple years since I read one. They're easy reading and a good choice in between heavier novels. I didn't think this was one of my favorite Susan Mallery novels, but I did keep thinking the characters hours after I finished it.

Other Novels by Susan Mallery
The Christmas Wedding Ring
The Friendship List
The Sister Effect

Wishing Tree Series
The Christmas Wedding Guest
Home Sweet Christmas

Mischief Bay Novels
The Girls of Mischief Bay
The Friends We Keep
A Million Little Things

A Long Walk to Water

Author: Linda Sue Park
Genre: Biography
Publisher: HarperCollins, 2011
Pages: 128
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: A Long Walk to Water begins as two stories, told in alternating sections, about two eleven-year-olds in Sudan, a girl in 2008 and a boy in 1985. The girl, Nya, is fetching water from a pond that is too hours' walk from her home: she makes two trips to the pond every day. The boy, Salva, becomes on of the "lost boys" of Sudan, refugees who cover the African continent on foot as they search for their families and for a safe place to stay.

Enduring every hardship from loneliness to attack by armed rebels to contact with killer lions and crocodiles, Salva is a survivor, and his story goes on to intersect with Nya's in an astonishing and moving way. 

Review: This is one of those books that I discovered only because I was looking for something short in an effort to get caught up in my 2025 Reading Challenge. I would highly recommend this to anyone looking for a book they couldn't put down.

The Emperor's Soul

Author: Brandon Sanderson
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Orion Publishing Group Ltd., 2015
Pages: 175
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: A forger named Shai can copy and re-create any item by using magic to rewrite its history. After being condemned to death for attempting to steal the emperor's scepter, Shai is given one final chance. She'll be allowed to live if she can create a new soul for the emperor, who hovers near death.

Review: This is one of those books that I pic
ked up simply because it was short and had great reviews. The internet people don't lie. I loved this book despite the genre being way outside my comfort zone and preferences.