Super popular right now … but it didn’t work for me.
It’s original. Very contemporary. Funny. But a bit too schmaltzy.
Margo Millet is a confident, outgoing College student — who gets involved with her older, married English professor.
Using the Rhythm Method, she gets pregnant. And decides to keep the baby.
As everyone else expected, it ain’t easy to be a naive, vulnerable, single teen mom in California.
The plot combines the struggles of single motherhood with, improbably, pro wrestling and the online porn site OnlyFans.
Nobody wants to help Margo, until her father arrives. Jinx was a legendary professional wrestler, with a history of history of heroin and opioid addiction,.
Margo turns online sex into a type of performance art, where she is writing scripts, directing and world building. It’s weird.
This is certainly no book for children.
The crux of the book is when the father (who had never once seen the child) divorces his wife and NOW wants full custody of the boy — since Margo is a sex worker.
There is no doubt this book gets people talking. It would be ideal for a book club discussion.
Elle Fanning will star in the planned Apple TV adaptation. With Nicole Kidman as the mom.
The 11th book (2018) in the Virgil Flowers series ➙ Holy Ghost.
Virgil Flowers investigates a miracle — and a murder —
Pinion, Minnesota: a metropolis of all of seven hundred souls, for which the word “moribund” might have been invented. Nothing ever happened there and nothing ever would — until the mayor of sorts (campaign slogan: “I’ll Do What I Can”) and a buddy come up with a scheme to put Pinion on the map.
They’d heard of a place where a floating image of the Virgin Mary had turned the whole town into a shrine, attracting thousands of pilgrims. And all those pilgrims needed food, shelter, all kinds of crazy things, right? They’d all get rich! What could go wrong?
When the dead body shows up, they find out, and that’s only the beginning of their troubles — and Virgil Flowers’ — as they are all about to discover all too soon.
I’d given up on Karen Slaughter, finding her early books simple too violent against women.
They are horror.
For some reason I downloaded this short book — and found it excellent.
Protecting someone always comes at a cost.
At the age of thirteen, Charlie Quinn’s childhood came to an abrupt and devastating end. Two men, with a grudge against her lawyer father, broke into her home—and after that shocking night, Charlie’s world was never the same.
Now a lawyer herself, Charlie has made it her mission to defend those with no one else to turn to. So when Flora Faulkner, a motherless teen, begs for help, Charlie is reminded of her own past, and is powerless to say no.
But honor-student Flora is in far deeper trouble than Charlie could ever have anticipated. Soon she must ask herself: How far should she go to protect her client? And can she truly believe everything she is being told?
From bestselling authors Janie Chang and Kate Quinn, a thrilling and unforgettable narrative about the intertwined lives of two wronged women, spanning from the chaos of the San Francisco earthquake to the glittering palaces of Versailles.
San Francisco, 1906. In a city bustling with newly minted millionaires and scheming upstarts, two very different women hope to change their fortunes: Gemma, a golden-haired, silver-voiced soprano whose career desperately needs rekindling, and Suling, a petite and resolute Chinatown embroideress who is determined to escape an arranged marriage.
Their paths cross when they are drawn into the orbit of Henry Thornton, a charming railroad magnate whose extraordinary collection of Chinese antiques includes the fabled Phoenix Crown, a legendary relic of Beijing’s fallen Summer Palace.
His patronage offers Gemma and Suling the chance of a lifetime, but their lives are thrown into turmoil when a devastating earthquake rips San Francisco apart and Thornton disappears, leaving behind a mystery reaching further than anyone could have imagined . . . until the Phoenix Crown reappears five years later at a sumptuous Paris costume ball, drawing Gemma and Suling together in one last desperate quest for justice.
Of the other characters, I enjoyed Alice Eastwood most. Based on a real person of the era.
BUT I wouldn’t recommend bikepacking the Ring Road (Route 1) around Iceland. 1,332 km (828 mi) long.
I met people who had done it. And they were not thrilled.
The shoulder is nearly non-existent — and tourist drivers are often gaping at the scenery, not watching for cyclists.
In fact, 4 guys who had spent 2 years cycling Alaska to the tip of South America found it tough.
There are buses, but many only run once a day. SOME take bikes underneath — but only if there is space.
Hvalfjörður and Vaðlaheiði tunnels do not allow cyclists. You’d need to find a ride through.
You can easily lose a day if you can’t get on that bus.
I took buses most of the way from near Egilsstaðir to Reykjavik. That was after only 2 days trying to cycle the Ring Road. For me it wasn’t worth the danger.
I had cycled a couple of days with Léonce Kircher from France on a minor highway and gravel roads. Those were great — but not easy due to wind and steepness.
We had come off the ferry together in Seyðisfjörður.
On the upside, campgrounds are frequent and inexpensive. Most with free hot showers.
There are many hostels, as well, though some are full in August.
GREAT would be to have a mountain bike and stay off the Ring Road. Of course to get to the best mountain bike trails, you would probably want a motor vehicle. 😀
BEST would be to plan well in advance. Fly up to the remote N.W. to do the Westfjords Way – 575 miles (925 KM).
Life isn’t going well for Myron Bolitar. His business is struggling, and his father, recently recovered from a heart attack, is facing his own mortality – and forcing Myron to face it too.
Then Emily Downing, Myron’s college sweetheart, reappears in his life with devastating news: her thirteen-year-old son Jeremy is gravely ill and can be saved only by a bone-marrow transplant – from a donor who has vanished without trace.
Before Myron can absorb this revelation, Emily hits him with an even bigger shocker: Jeremy is Myron’s son, conceived the night before Emily’s wedding to another man.
Staggered by the news, Myron plunges into a search for the missing donor.
But for Myron, finding the only person who can save the boy’s life means cracking open a mystery that involves a broken family, a brutal kidnapping spree, and a cat-and-mouse game between an ambitious reporter and the FBI.
Pokerface stars Natasha Lyonne as Charlie Cale, a casino worker on the run who entangles herself into several mysterious deaths of strangers along the way.
Recent rainfall has exposed a hidden grave in the woods close to Portland, Maine.
Parker is retained by a local lawyer to identify the woman’s body, and establish what happened to a baby that forensics believe may have been born just before she was killed.
Parker’s best guess is that the child may have been adopted locally by whoever buried the woman …
Themes like gender violence and systemic cruelty are woven into the plot. The plight of women escaping abusive relationships plays a crucial role.
The highlight for me are Charlie’s entertaining cast of friends: Louis and Angel, a Gay couple who are loyal friends and killers for hire. And his frequent boss, lawyer Moxie Castin, who turns out to be Jewish … ish.
There is a parallel story line of a racist criminal and his very stupid son.
There is a supernatural element in this one, but it doesn’t distract.
Cliff hanger ending. I’ll buy the sequel on Audible.
Rick McCharles 