Contemporary Archives • Rabid Reader's Reviews

His Name was Ben: A Novel by Paulette Mahurin

Publication Date: September 21, 2014

This review is dedicated to Allison Ridgeway Doan, the wife of one of my husband’s childhood friends and a lovely person, who lost her battle with cancer yesterday. Check out her memoir released not long before her death, Bruised and Beautiful.

Sara Phillips’ life changed when she received a cancer diagnosis. Life was over until she met Ben and everything changed yet again.

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Contemporary, Fiction Reviews

based on a true story, cancer

The Family Divided (The Guernsey Novels Book 4) by Anne Allen

Publication Date: June 10, 2015

Andy Bastite is on a quest to uncover the secrets of his family’s past. His father, Edmund, lost his place in the family and Andy wants to clear his name. With the help of divorced writer Charlotte Townsend, will he be able to uncover the truth and restore Edmund’s reputation?

The Family Divided is the fourth book in the Guernsey series.

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Contemporary, Fiction Reviews, Serial Fiction

Anne Allen, The Guernsey Novels

The Improbability of Love by Hannah Rothschild

Publication Date: September 6, 2016

Annie McDee is a chef that has had a hard time with love. Still heartbroken by the end of her long term relationship, she takes a lover for whom she plans an elaborate birthday dinner and buys a painting. When he stands her up, she’s left with the gift which turns out to be worth a lot and sought after by some unsavory and dangerous folks. The painting takes Annie on a path leading through European history and possibly to love.

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Contemporary, Fiction Reviews, Humor, Romance, Satire

action & adventure, Hannah Rothschild

Rising Tide by Susan Roebuck

Publication Date: May 19, 2015

Luminosa, Portugal is a small sea-side community with deep secrets. Leo Shines and Piper Pines arrive from vastly different areas of the world each with the goal of discovering more about their mothers. Can they break the ice of the furtive town and find the information they seek?

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Contemporary, Fiction Reviews, Mystery, Romance

Susan Roebuck

Brake Failure by Alison Brodie

Publication Date: January 9, 2017

Ruby is a woman who has always done the proper thing and whose game of one-upmanship with her sister, Claire, has defined her. On the cusp of her ultimate win, living Claire’s dream in Paris, Ruby’s husband is instead sent to work in rural Kansas. Once in Kansas and with no one left to impress, Ruby starts living for herself and the heady freedom is something she’s never experienced before. What’s a woman with extreme brake failure to do?
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Contemporary, Fiction Reviews

Alison Brodie, coming of age

Rabid Reader’s Reviews Holiday Musings 2016

We took the opportunity to review books and movies for the 2016 Christmas season. Be sure to check out our reviews:

Books

If you are you enjoy mysteries by the author Mary Higgins Clark, we recommend her holiday detective stories. In The Christmas Thief, the amateur sleuth, Alvirah Meehan, once again teams up with the private investigator Regan Reilly.

David Baldacci, known for his Will Robie and Amos Decker series, departs from his typical thriller books and takes a dive into the contemporary in The Christmas Train.

If you are looking for is a cute story that is a little cheeky with an off-the-wall humor, try Mythology 101 by Jody Lynn Nye.

Movies

Tim Burton’s dark Christmas movie brings in Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town, who is totally fed up with screaming and scaring. Instead, accompany Jack Skellington as he spreads Christmas joy. The Nightmare before Christmas has been digitally remastered and is Amazon choice.

This movie is based on John Grisham’s book, “Skipping Christmas” and it became on instant family classic. If you looking for a humorous movie, enjoy Christmas with the Kranks.

If you are looking for more holiday reviews, check out Rabid Reader’s Reviews Holiday Musings 2014 for more.

We wish all of our readers and subscribers a great 2017 and want to thank you for regularly visiting our Rabid Reader’s Reviews site.

Animation, Classics, Comedy, Contemporary, Fiction Reviews, Humor, Literature, Movie Reviews, Mystery, Specials

Christmas, Holiday Musings, Holiday Musings 2016

The Christmas Train by David Baldacci

Publication Date: October 28, 2014

Tom Langdon’s life has gone off of the figurative rails. Once a hard-hitting journalist, he’s turned to writing puff pieces. On the no-fly list after an air rage incident and because it was one of his late father’s requests, Tom decides to take a train in order to meet his actress girlfriend and write about the experience. On the rails, he encounters a host of characters including the one that got away. Is it too late for love?

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Contemporary, Fiction Reviews

Christmas, David Baldacci, family life

Rabid Reader’s Book List for Human Rights Day 2016

If you are looking for books dealing with human rights, check out those that have been reviewed on this homepage. Our main post with an overview of books and movies were reviewed for human rights day 2016 will be published later. At the moment, enjoy the Rabid Reader’s Book List for Human Rights Day 2016 and make sure to visit this site later.

Contempt of Court: The Turn-of-the-Century Lynching That Launched a Hundred Years of Federalism by Mark Curriden & Leroy Phillips

Genre: nonfiction, human rights, political science, African-American studies

In 1906, a white woman was brutally raped in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Ed Johnson, a black man, was working at his restaurant job when the attack happened but was arrested and charged with the crime. When his lawyers appealed to the Supreme Court for a stay of execution and that stay was granted, local folks, led by officials, took the law into their own hands. In a history-changing move, the lynch mob faced federal legal repercussions. Ed Johnson cleared of the rape charges 100 years later. You can read the review of a “Contempt of Court” here.

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Biography, Contemporary, Fiction Reviews, History, Interviews, LGBT, Literature, Memoir, Nonfiction Reviews, Specials

Abuse, Child Abuse, Civil Rights, Civil Rights Era, culture & society, human rights, Human Rights Day, Human Rights Day 2016, political science, politics, religion

Phaleeta’s Obsession by Cathy Crowne

Publication Date: November 12, 2015

Phaleeta Turnbow is a lifelong, Kansas City resident that works in public relations at a publishing house and has a disastrous dating life. She measures all men against the man of her dreams, Frisco Balantine, a fictional creation by author Rob Penner. When Phaleeta gets an advanced reader’s copy (ARC) of Rod’s new book and finds that he’s killed Frisco, she decides that the protagonist must be modeled after the author. In researching her next move, she finds that Rod’s hometown of Lavender Fields, Michigan is in need of a new librarian. Can Phaleeta find happiness in the tiny western Michigan town with the man of her dreams or will he turn out to be a nightmare?

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Contemporary, Fiction Reviews, First Time Authors, Romance

Cathy Crowne, fictional boyfriend