THE BOOKSHOP OF SECRETS by Mollie Rushmeyer is Christian fiction mystery with romantic elements featuring a broken young woman searching for clues to her family’s legacy in missing old first edition books. This is a beautiful inspirational standalone story written by a debut author.
Hope Sparrow is protecting herself from her past by keeping on the move and never letting anyone get close or taking control of her life. She has been led to a small-town bookshop, Dusky Jackets on the shore of Lake Superior. Her mother’s treasured books were sent here, and Hope has come to find them and hopefully they will lead her to a rumored family treasure.
Hope agrees to stay for two months to help in the bookshop and hopefully discover where her books have disappeared to. With the help of the bookshop owner’s grandson, Ronan, they work together to uncover the secrets of the books, hidden treasure and their families’ intertwining pasts.
This debut book is several story threads in one and all of them come together seamlessly in an ending that is satisfying as well as inspirational. Hope’s past is tragic and Ronan’s family curse and accident have left him with more than physical scars and yet they come together and continually prove to each other that they are more than their pasts. The mystery of the missing books and the search for lost treasure is intricately woven into the story with plenty of twists and surprises. I feel Hope and Ronan’s growing relationship is realistically portrayed as well as their return to their belief in God’s love for them. There are several literary as well as biblical quotes throughout this story.
I highly recommend this book debut novel of hope, love, and inspiration with an intricate mystery intertwined throughout.
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About the Author
Mollie Rushmeyer writes “Contemporary Fiction with a Heart for History.” What does this mean exactly? She loves to write inspirational fiction in contemporary settings with fascinating historical elements, people, objects, and stories woven throughout.
A modern girl herself, she wouldn’t want to go a day without modern plumbing and central air! But she’s always felt a special connection to the past. The legacies and lives left behind are like gifts waiting to be unwrapped, and she plans to share this blend of history and contemporary living with readers.
A born and bred Midwestern gal, Mollie Rushmeyer, makes her home in Minnesota with her husband and two spunky, beautiful daughters. She is not only a bibliophile (the dustier the better, in her opinion), she’s a true anglophile at heart. Tea and coffee fuel her travels, by Google maps at least, and her passion for the written word.
Her debut novel with Love Inspired Trade/Harlequin, a division of HarperCollins Publishers will release in October of 2022.
KILLERS OF A CERTAIN AGE by Deanna Raybourn is an action-packed and humorous thriller featuring four female assassins ready to retire and enjoy their pensions, but the organization they have worked for their entire careers now has them on the termination list. This is a standalone book that I could not put down.
Billie, Mary Alice, Helen, and Natalie have worked as an elite assassination team for the clandestine Museum. They were brought together and trained initially to kill former Nazis in hiding, but the Museum also chose dictators, arms dealers, and the like who were a threat to democracy and society. They survived it all for forty years and are now ready to retire.
The four are sent packages for an all-expense paid cruise for their retirement. On board, Billie recognizes a crew member as an explosives expert for the Museum. As they investigate, they discover they have an extermination order placed on their heads from the Board of the Museum. They realize to enjoy their retirement years; they are going to have to work together and show the Board the true abilities of killers of a certain age.
While there are graphic depictions of assassination and murder in this thriller, there are also at other times snarky and hilarious scenes and dialogue. The story is mainly told by Billie, who leads the group of friends more times than not, but the reader does get to know all the women and their personal stories. As much as the story focuses on the women fighting back to survive, it also covers age related issues and mature relationships. The plot is well written with a fast pace and some unexpected twists. This book is just so much fun to read and a unique thriller which usually focus on male assassins.
I highly recommend this thriller!
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About the Author
New York Times and USA Today bestselling novelist Deanna Raybourn is a 6th-generation native Texan. She graduated with a double major in English and history from the University of Texas at San Antonio. Married to her college sweetheart and the mother of one, Raybourn makes her home in Virginia. Her novels have been nominated for numerous awards including the Edgar, two RT Reviewers’ Choice awards, the Agatha, two Dilys Winns, and a Last Laugh. She launched a new Victorian mystery series with the 2015 release of A CURIOUS BEGINNING, featuring intrepid butterfly-hunter and amateur sleuth, Veronica Speedwell. Veronica’s second adventure is A PERILOUS UNDERTAKING (January 2017), and book three, A TREACHEROUS CURSE, was published in 2018 and nominated for the Edgar Award. A DANGEROUS COLLABORATION was released in 2019, and A MURDEROUS RELATION appeared in 2020 and AN UNEXPECTED PERIL published in March 2021. The latest Veronica Speedwell adventure, AN IMPOSSIBLE IMPOSTOR, will be published in February, 2022. Deanna’s first contemporary novel featuring four female assassins who must band together to take out their nemesis as they prepare for retirement, KILLERS OF A CERTAIN AGE, will be published in September of 2022.
Lessons in baseball enlightenment from three-time MLB Manager of the Year Joe Maddon.
No one sees baseball like Joe Maddon. He sees it through his trademark glasses and irrepressible wit. Raised in the “shot and beer” town of Hazleton, PA, and forged by 15 years in the minors, Maddon over 19 seasons in Tampa Bay, Chicago, and Anaheim has become one of the most successful, most colorful, and most quoted managers in Major League Baseball. He is a workplace culture expert, having engineered two of the most stunning turnarounds in the past quarter century: taking the Rays from the worst record in baseball one year to the World Series the next and leading the Cubs to their first World Series title in 108 years.
Like his teams, Maddon defies convention. He is part strategist, part philosopher, part sports psychologist, and part motivational coach. In THE BOOK OF JOE, Maddon gives readers unique insights into the game, including the tension between art and data, the changing role of managers as front offices gain power, why the honeymoon with the Cubs did not last, and what it’s like to manage the modern player, including stars such as Shohei Ohtani, Mike Trout, Albert Pujols, Yu Darvish, and Kris Bryant.
But you expect even more from a manager who meditates daily, admires Twain, and has only one rule when it comes to a team dress code: “If you think you look hot, wear it!” And Maddon delivers. Built on-old school values and new-school methods, his wisdom applies beyond the dugout. His mantras about leadership, mentorship, team building, and communication are meditations on life, not just baseball. Among those mantras are:
“Do simple better.” “Try not to suck.” “Don’t ever permit the pressure to exceed the pleasure.” “See it with first-time eyes.” “Tell me what you think, not what you’ve heard.”
THE BOOK OF JOE is Maddon at his uniquely holistic best. It is a memoir of a fascinating baseball journey, an insider’s look at a changing game, and a guidebook on leadership and life.
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Elise’s Thoughts
The Book of Joe by Joe Maddon with Tom Verducci is a great read. He talks about his rise to become the baseball manager of the Tampa Bay Rays and Chicago Cubs, turning both teams around including a World Series victory for the Cubs, the first in 108 years. Maddon explains his style of being part strategist, part philosopher, part sports psychologist, and part motivational coach. Any fan of baseball will also enjoy his comments on how the game has changed, some for the better and some for the worse.
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Author Interview
Elise Cooper: Why did you gravitate to baseball managing?
Joe Maddon: I have managed twenty-three years including the Minors and the Majors. I tried to be a player but was told I was not good enough. Because I always wanted to get into the Big Leagues, I had to be a coach first. In 1981 I got into the scouting, coaching, and managing. I learned my craft.
EC: In the book you cover analytics. Do you agree with the quote in the book by former San Francisco Manager Bruce Bochy, who won three World Series?
“I came up with the more traditional way of managing. I made the calls. I made the lineups. The information is great, and I wanted it. It made the players better. It made the coaching better. But you still love to manage a game and have a feel for it. You need a balance. That’s what has gotten lost in the game.”
JM: I like the information. What I do not like is how the clubhouse has been infiltrated by analytical people who I believe hold more baseball power than actual coaches and managers. They are not held as accountable as a coach or manager even though they are supplying information that everyone wants us to utilize. I want it but it should be subservient to the game and not the other way around. It gets way too much credit for a victory instead of the good players.
EC: So how should it be used?
JM: When a team acquires players the information about them is important in deciding between this guy or that guy. It is wise to break down analytically what is valued in a player. It does help a lot on defense to determine where to put the players. There can be advantages with pitching in game planning. I do not think hitters benefit at all.
EC: Does the front office interfere during a game?
JM: This had not happened to me. When it comes down to analytical suggestions they do it as late as when a manager walks down to the dugout. There should be a league wide rule that analytical folks are not allowed in the clubhouse after 3 pm for a 7 pm game. Analysts should not be involved in meetings. They should give their information to the coach and then have the coaches give it to the players, not the analysts. The team should rely on a manager’s wisdom, feel, and experience. This is becoming archaic across the board in every profession.
EC: Let’s look at an example such as leftie on leftie or righty on righty?
JM: There is a lot of analytics involved with it. The third time through the batting order is a big part of it. It can be very devastating or detrimental to a guy if they take him out. What if that guy gets better in the latter part of the game. The analysts will back it up with numbers and data or argue back to front. I cannot disagree more. I believe that the analytics gets in the way of making a player great because the pitcher should be allowed to show they can pitch deep into a game. I know, just based on experience during a game, when a guy can go further, or he is at his Waterloo.
EC: What about the hitting coaches?
JM: The hitting coach has the toughest job in the game and are blamed way too much. Hitters have the greatest disadvantage regarding any part of the game. The pitchers are pro-active, while the hitters are re-active. The scouting reports can tell a pitcher exactly what the hitter is good at or not. This allows them to match up their strength against the hitter’s weakness or strength versus strength. Hitters get nothing out of this analytical world. To get better hitters then acquire, draft, and sign better hitters, with a track record of success.
EC: What is your managing style?
JM: My approach is different than anybody. I focus on different things. I like to have building blocks, relationships with the players, establish trust, and exchange ideas. I believe the greatest danger is not that our aim is too high, but it is not high enough. Simple is better. An overarching philosophy the more freedom given the better respect. I do not have rules except position players should run hard to first base and pitchers should always work on their defense. I think I am a “player’s manager.” I feel I am there to protect and defend my group. Praise publicly and criticize privately.
EC: Do you think there should be a robot umpire considering how many times they get the calling of balls and strikes wrong, including the first game of the Division series with Yu Darvish pitching?
JM: I was really impressed that Yu did not really react. I texted him to let him know how much I loved and appreciated his composure. It did not go his way, but he was able to handle the adversity. Umpires are going to make mistakes. I prefer not perfect baseball. The problem is that the umpires are analyzed more, especially with the strike zone boxes. Before umpires could do whatever they wanted. If they did not like a hitter the strike zone is going to get wide, and for a pitcher they did not like the strike zone was going to get small. This shows the human element involved. I think the scrutiny and criticism is good for the game. When I was growing up in Pennsylvania and went to a bar there were always arguments. Social media is now the latter-day bar room. I was talking to a player who had a great idea: the umpire has an earpiece, calls the balls, and strikes on his own, but is reminded that he got it wrong in real time. He gets corrected during the game just as a hitting and pitching coaches do. I prefer this to a robotic umpire.
EC: Should the ball be less lively?
JM: Yes. I am hoping it will bring the game back without the ball leaving the ballpark. The problem is with analytics everyone stills wants the home run. I prefer that guys learn to strike out less, bunting for a hit when appropriate, and have the hit and run come back. Basically, movement, action, and strategy.
EC: What about the shift?
JM: I was one of the first guys to do it. People need to identify if it will be problematic for a guy to hit the other way or bunt, before they get to the Big Leagues. It is very difficult to do on a Major League level, to make those kinds of adjustments. Left-handed pull hitters will have better numbers when the shift is removed.
EC: What about the pitch clock?
JM: I like it. It will quicken the game since pitchers will pitch quicker and hitters will be in the box quicker. The game has a better pace.
EC: What about the new rule that pitchers will be allowed to throw over to first base only twice?
JM: It does give the advantage to the runner. Remember, I had John Lester in Chicago, and he did not throw over to first base. Yet, we still controlled the running game through pitching. There are other things that can be done.
EC: What was it like managing two big Superstars, Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani?
JM: They are both great guys. Shohei and I would meet and decide what he can do and wanted to do. Did he need a day off or to pitch and hit on the same day? He is a joy. Mike Trout could have easily grown up in my hometown. He is a real solid guy with great parents. He has small town values. At the end of the year, he fixed a couple of things and looked good hitting.
EC: What do the Angels need to do to get Mike Trout to the playoffs?
JM: They started to do it this year. They have a lot of young guys I really like, nice starting pitching.
EC: Do you think that the injuries of the Angel players hurt you when managing them?
JM: We lost twelve in a row. Guys were struggling. We also had the best start at the beginning. We had a bad run with Mike and Shohei in a slump and our pitchers struggling. It was the imperfect storm. Guys just had a hard time all at once.
EC: What was it like to win the championship in 2002 with the Angels as a coach?
JM: It was the best moment of my life. It was a tough year for me personally with my dad passing away and I was going through a divorce. I was grateful to have that victory. I always wanted to be on the first Angel team that won the World Series. I have stayed in touch with a lot of guys.
EC: What is next on the horizon for Joe Maddon?
JM: I am an “in the present” kind of guy so promoting this book. I could manage again, more involved in the media, or open a restaurant, especially since I learned how to cook a pizza on a Weber grille that is outstanding. I believe in eyes open, ears open, and mouth shut to see what happens.
THANK YOU!!
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BIO: Elise Cooper has written book reviews and interviewed best-selling authors since 2009. Her reviews have covered several different genres, including thrillers, mysteries, women’s fiction, romance and cozy mysteries. An avid reader, she engages authors to discuss their works, and to focus on the descriptions of their characters and the plot. While not writing reviews, Elise loves to watch baseball and visit the ocean in Southern California, with her dog and husband.
THE LOST GIRLS OF WILLOWBROOK by Ellen Marie Wiseman is a haunting and disturbing story of the deplorable state of a real-life state institution for physically and mentally handicapped children in the 1970’s told through the eyes of the sixteen-year-old female protagonist. This is also a suspense novel with a serial killer on the loose.
Sage Winters and her identical twin sister Rosemary had a happy life until the divorce of their parents. Left with an alcoholic mother and an indifferent stepfather, the twins were just surviving. Sage always knew that Rosemary was different and as they grew, her sister’s problems increased.
Six years after the death of her twin and two years after the death of her mother, the now sixteen-year-old Sage overhears her stepfather telling his buddy that for the last six years her twin was not dead but institutionalized in the infamous Willowbrook State School on Staten Island from which she is now missing. Sage is determined to go to Willowbrook to help search for her twin, but when she arrives the administration mistakenly believes she is Rosemary and locks her up. As she learns the horrors of her sister’s life, will she be able to find someone who believes her before she gives up all hope or ends up dead?
This book is not easy to read. It is anxiety producing and especially hard hitting when you learn that this institution was real and there were many more all over the country at that time. I worked as an aide in several nursing homes in the 1980’s and some were excellent, but many made me never want to return. Low pay, low staffing, untrained employees, and administrators trying to make the most money per person per bed made me leave that profession quickly. I had applied at an institution for children, and I was glad I did not get the job because the indifference to the seniors broke my heart enough.
The plot of this historical fiction started with a well-researched true place and took the reader through the atrocities and lives of the patients through Sage’s eyes. When the serial killer secondary plot came into play about two-thirds of the way through the book, it became predictable, but still interesting. All the secondary characters were fully fleshed and believable. This is a very good reminder of the way our society dealt with physically and mentally handicapped children in the not so distant past and I hope we never go back there.
I recommend this historical fiction and hope it reminds people that these types of places did exist.
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About the Author
A first-generation German American, Ellen Marie Wiseman discovered her love of reading and writing while attending first grade in one of the last one-room schoolhouses in NYS. She is a New York Times bestselling author whose novels have been translated into twenty languages. Her debut novel, THE PLUM TREE, is loosely based on her mother’s stories about growing up in Germany during the chaos of WWII. Bookbub named THE PLUM TREE One of Thirteen Books To Read if You Loved ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE. Ellen’s second novel, WHAT SHE LEFT BEHIND, was named a Huffington Post Best Books of Summer 2015. Her third novel, COAL RIVER, was called “one of the most “unputdownable” books of 2015″ by The Historical Novel Review. THE LIFE SHE WAS GIVEN, was named A GREAT GROUP READS Selection of the Women’s National Book Association and National Reading Group Month and a Goodreads Best Book of the Month. THE ORPHAN COLLECTOR was an instant New York Times Bestseller. Ellen lives on the shores of Lake Ontario with her husband and a spoiled Shih-tzu named Izzy. When she’s not busy writing, she loves spending time with her children and grandchildren.
Hiding her own dark past in plain sight, a TV reporter is determined to uncover the truth behind a gruesome murder decades after the investigation was abandoned. But TWENTY YEARS LATER, to understand the present, you need to listen to the past…
Avery Mason, host of American Events, knows the subjects that grab a TV audience’s attention. Her latest story—a murder mystery laced with kinky sex, tragedy, and betrayal—is guaranteed to be ratings gold. New DNA technology has allowed the New York medical examiner’s office to make its first successful identification of a 9/11 victim in years. The twist: the victim, Victoria Ford, had been accused of the gruesome murder of her married lover. In a chilling last phone call to her sister, Victoria begged her to prove her innocence.
Emma Kind has waited twenty years to put her sister to rest, but closure won’t be complete until she can clear Victoria’s name. Alone she’s had no luck, but she’s convinced that Avery’s connections and fame will help. Avery, hoping to negotiate a more lucrative network contract, goes into investigative overdrive. Victoria had been having an affair with a successful novelist, found hanging from the balcony of his Catskills mansion. The rope, the bedroom, and the entire crime scene was covered in Victoria’s DNA.
But the twisted puzzle of Victoria’s private life just the beginning. And what Avery doesn’t realize is that there are other players in the game who are interested in Avery’s own secret past—one she has kept hidden from both the network executives and her television audience. A secret she thought was dead and buried . . .
Accused of a brutal murder, Victoria Ford made a final chilling call from the North Tower on the morning of 9/11. Twenty years ago, no one listened. Today, you will.
TWENTY YEARS LATER by Charlie Donlea is an exciting and intricately plotted mystery/thriller. A top-rated television news show host is on the hunt for her next big story in NYC, even as she has her own secret reasons for being there.
Avery Mason is looking for a story to grab her TV audience’s attention and keep her top rating as host of American Events. She looks into the first discovery of an individual’s identity from a new DNA bone technique from the Twin Towers disaster in many years. The woman Victoria Ford was accused of the murder of her famous married lover and has all the mystery, kinky sex, and betrayal to bring in top ratings.
Avery talks to the woman’s sister and listens to phone calls from Victoria from the North Tower. Victoria claims she is innocent and begs her sister to clear her name, but there is too much evidence against her so no one will help and with her death the case is dropped. Avery is introduced to the retired FBI agent, Walt Jenkins who investigated the murder twenty years ago, but he has his own agenda involving Avery’s life before her fame and in regard to her infamous father.
I love reading Charlie Donlea’s books. Everyone has secrets and there are always plot twists that throw everything you believe completely upside down. The beginning was a slightly confusing until the separate characters and motives began to come together and the varying plot threads and motives begin to take shape and when they do, the story took off and I could not put it down. I was surprised many times during the investigations and especially by both plot twist endings. I loved them!
I highly recommend this mystery/thriller and this author!
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About the Author
Charlie Donlea is the #1 internationally bestselling author of Summit Lake, The Girl Who Was Taken, Don’t Believe It, Some Choose Darkness, The Suicide House and Twenty Years Later. Praised for his “soaring pace, teasing plot twists” (BookPage) and talent for writing an ending that “makes your jaw drop” (The New York Times Book Review), Donlea has been called a “bold new writer…on his way to becoming a major figure in the world of suspense” (Publishers Weekly). A late bloomer, he was twenty years old when he read his first novel––THE FIRM by John Grisham––and knew he would someday write thrillers. His books have now been translated into more than a dozen languages across thirty countries.
He was born and raised in Chicago, where he continues to live with his wife and two children.
MOTHER DAUGHTER TRAITOR SPY by Susan Elia MacNeal is an amazing historical fiction standalone based on true characters and events featuring a mother and daughter duo in pre-WWII California. This is the first book by this author I have read and I could not put it down.
Veronica Grace has just graduated from college and finds herself black balled from her hoped for career in journalism in NYC. Her mother, Violet “VI” is the widow of a Navy commander and with the encouragement of Violet’s brother, they set out for a new start for both in Los Angeles, California. With no experience, Veronica is offered a job typing and discovers she is working an anti-Semitic propogandist couple.
Horrified, Veronica and Vi try to alert the authorities, but no one seems to care. The police and FBI have turned them away, so Vi calls an old friend of her late husband still in the Navy. He connects them with Ari Lewis who is an anti-Nazi spymaster. With both Vi and Veronica being of German descent and blonde haired blue eyed, they go undercover and are accepted into the heart of the Nazi conspiracy community in Los Angeles, but the deeper they go and the more they uncover, any suspicion could cost them their lives.
This book grabbed me right from the start and even though it is historical fiction it is based on a real mother daughter duo and many of the key characters are also true to historical events with just name changes. The plot is fast-paced and full of suspense. Veronica and Vi started out with just snippets of information gleaned from their new acquaintances, but the more they are trusted and pulled into the intrigue the danger increases exponentially. The author’s descriptions made me feel like I was in Los Angeles pre-WWII, and she was able to demonstrate the contrast between the sunny light feel of the city vs. the dark and dangerous underbelly of the Nazi conspiracy. This story also seems to parallel so much occurring in our news and politics today and I can only hope more people are like Veronica and Vi.
I highly recommend this historical fiction story and I will be checking out more of this author’s previous books.
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About the Author
MOTHER DAUGHTER TRAITOR SPY, a stand alone novel, is coming out from Penguin Random House on September 20, 2022. THE HOLLYWOOD SPY (Maggie Hope #10) was published in hardcover on July 6, 2021 will come out in paperback in August 2020. The Maggie Hope series will continue, with a new title coming out in 2023.
Susan Elia MacNeal is the author of The New York Times, Washington Post, Publishers Weekly and USA Today-bestselling Maggie Hope mystery series, starting with the Edgar Award-nominated and Barry Award-winning MR. CHURCHILL’S SECRETARY, which is now in its 23rd printing.
Her books include: MR. CHURCHILL’S SECRETARY, PRINCESS ELIZABETH’S SPY, HIS MAJESTY’S HOPE, THE PRIME MINISTER’S SECRET AGENT, MRS. ROOSEVELT’S CONFIDANTE, THE QUEEN’S ACCOMPLICE, THE PARIS SPY, THE PRISONER IN THE CASTLE, THE KING’S JUSTICE, and THE HOLLYWOOD SPY. The Maggie Hope novels have been nominated for the Edgar, the Macavity, the ITW Thriller, the Barry, the Dilys, the Sue Federer Historical Fiction, and the Bruce Alexander Historical Fiction awards. The Maggie Hope series is sold world-wide in English, and has also been translated into Czech, Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese, Turkish,Italian, Russian, Portuguese, and Bulgarian and is also available in large print and audio. The film and television rights to the series are currently with Warner Bros.
Susan graduated from Nardin Academy in Buffalo New York, and cum laude and with honors in English from Wellesley College. She cross-registered for courses at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and attended the Radcliffe Publishing Course at Harvard University. Her first job was as the assistant to novelist John Irving in Vermont. She then worked as an editorial assistant at Random House, assistant editor at Viking Penguin, and associate editor and staff writer at Dance Magazine in New York City. As a freelance writer, she wrote two non-fiction books and for the publications of New York City Ballet.
Susan is married and lives with her husband, Noel MacNeal, a television performer, writer and director, and their son in Park Slope, Brooklyn.
