Author: Sandra

When I posted a photo on Instagram of Martha Hall Kelly’s book Lilac Girls, I was so excited to see so many people posting their excitement about Kelly’s newest book, Lost Roses, a prequel to Lilac Girls that brings focus to Caroline Ferriday’s mother, Eliza. Here is the Lost Roses cast of main characters: Eliza […]

Walking up to the main entrance of the Majdanek Concentration Camp, it looks like something out of Star Wars or Planet of the Apes. Little do you know what you are about to encounter once you step in. The horror of the experience is captured in objects- the bins of shoes, the ovens, the shower […]

My husband and I are not fans of diets, and we try to live a balanced lifestyle as best we can. That said, long commutes, a distaste for meal prep, and an affinity for ending our days with sweets/wine/beer, etc., have made us feel “bleh.” Not to mention that good food preparation is key for […]

  A few weeks ago, I was sent David Bell’s 2015 book Somebody I Used to Know, specifically re-released in mass market paperback format. I had heard many good things about Bell’s thrillers, so I was excited to dive in for my first read of 2019 (okay…I started reading at 10:00pm on Monday the 31st- […]

It’s been a while since I’ve finished a book in a day, but crummy Chicago weather really helped me sit down with this page-turner. I was a Psychology of Criminal Justice minor in my undergrad years, and a Law Minor in Grad School. I love alllll things legal, and my friend Sara and I can […]

Master of His Fate is a step in a new direction for me. I started reading historical fiction a few years ago, but never quite ventured earlier than the 1920s. Plus, I think it’s fair to add the category of romance (especially as there were spicier scenes that I was not expecting- no wonder Ms. Bradford […]

  Lately, I’ve had so many books come into my life at just the right time. I had just finished Master of His Fate by Barbara Taylor Bradford, and towards the end of the book, there was a reference to the phrase “Buccaneers.” While I immediately thought of pirates, The phrase stems from the Edith […]

Folks in the book world have a few expected places from which they get book recommendations, such as the New York Times Book Review, BookPage, and other book reviewers. However, one of my favorite places for book recommendations that I’ve loved for years is Vogue magazine.  His Favorites by Kate Walbert was highlighted in the […]

After reading a slew of depressing fiction that took me a while to read, I was eager to get into a fast-paced mystery. I saw trailers for the film The Little Stranger, and as luck would have it, my reserved copy from a library hold was released just as I was finishing the Saltwater Reads […]

When I was a teenager, I so badly wanted to be this classy, well-read, well-educated woman, and shed both the literal and metaphorical skin of an uncomfortable adolescence. I wanted to read intellectual novels and try to develop some deeper sense of understanding in the world. It was all very dramatic. So, at 15, when […]