Book Review: The Witch Elm by Tana French

March 19, 2026March 19, 2026 ~ Book Club Mom ~ 11 Comments

The Witch Elm
by
Tana French

I’ve read and liked three other books by Tana French, so I knew I would enjoy another one. Many of French’s books are from two series: the Dublin Murder Squad and the Cal Hooper books, but The Witch Elm is a standalone psychological crime novel set in Dublin. In this story, the effects of post traumatic stress disorder influence the main character’s ability to remember key events relating to a murder.

In his late twenties, Toby Hennessy had enjoyed a life of wealth, privilege, and luck and his friends liked to point that out. He had a great PR job at an art gallery and a girlfriend he hoped to marry. Even when he got caught up in an art scandal, he managed to talk his boss out of firing him. But Toby’s luck is about to change. When he discovers two men in his apartment, they brutally beat him and leave him for dead. Now he’s dealing with the aftermath of brain injury, including memory loss, a language disorder, and other physical weaknesses.

Out of the hospital, but still unsteady, Toby and his girlfriend, Melissa move in with his uncle, Hugo, who has terminal brain cancer. The Ivy House, in the family for generations, and a place where Toby and his cousins, Leon and Susanna spent summers while their parents traveled, continues to be a family gathering place. What Toby hoped would be a period of recovery and reconnection with Hugo during his uncle’s final months becomes a criminal investigation when a young family member unearths a human skull in the yard.

Detectives quickly identify the victim and, as they investigate, they delve into Toby and his cousins’ high school years. They uncover conflicting versions of the past, depending on who they ask. It doesn’t help that Toby has memory issues, and he thinks Leon and Susanna are holding back information. Soon Toby becomes a prime suspect, even to himself.

The mystery is what really happened to the victim and who is responsible. Along with Toby and the detectives, we untangle events and relationships from ten years earlier. While Toby insists these were happy times for him and his friends, his cousins tell a different story, underscoring Toby’s lucky life, but also showing how he has never understood how other people feel. The author takes us through a complex series of events that show who murdered the victim and why. The final chapters end in a shocking conclusion making you see the full effects of Toby’s PTSD.

I enjoyed this book, but at 526 pages, I thought it was overly long. But as with many books after I’ve had a chance to think about them, I thought Toby’s dilemma was original and interesting and that the author showed how peoples’ perspectives are different.

Thanks for visiting—come back soon!

Check out my reviews of these other books by Tana French:

The Likeness
The Searcher
In the Woods

Book Review: We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker

March 12, 2026 ~ Book Club Mom ~ 27 Comments

We Begin at the End
by
Chris Whitaker

Once I read All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker (read my review here), I knew I wanted to read another book by the author, so I selected We Begin at the End, a terrific story about complex characters who must navigate the challenges of love, family, grief, trauma, and moral decisions.

Set in the coastal town of Cape Haven, California, the story begins when Vincent King is released from prison, after serving time for the hit-and-run death of young Sissy Radley, his girlfriend, Star’s little sister.

Vincent was only fifteen when he went to prison, and he served additional time for a prison fight that ended in the death of another inmate. He has spent his life hating himself for what he did. Now in his forties, he returns to Cape Haven hoping to make a life for himself. Vincent has few friends, but his childhood friend Francis Walker (Walk) has stood by him. But Walk is now the chief of police and will soon face conflicting feelings about loyalty and the law.

A central character in the story is thirteen-year-old Duchess Radley, Star’s daughter, who calls herself an outlaw. She seems to live up the characterization, but as the story develops, we see a vulnerable child underneath, doing her best to act like she doesn’t need anyone. She takes care of her little brother, Robin and covers up for their mother, Star, whose alcohol addiction, job as a stripper, and string of boyfriends provide zero stability.

Whitaker tells the story through both Walk and Duchess, offering insight into two people whose unique impressions and feelings show how one situation or problem looks different to every person involved.

The author places his characters against the backdrop of the ever-changing town of Cape Haven, whose eroding coastline and economic downturn have created new pressures for the community. And when tragedy strikes, each must try to untangle the events to make it through. The story later moves to the wide expanse of Montana, where we hope for good things.

I really enjoyed this book, especially the idea that no one fully understands another person or a situation, how people make a lot of assumptions about who people are, only to discover how different they are beneath the surface. That sounds depressing, but I found it enlightening!

Thanks for visiting—come back soon!

TV Series Review: My Brilliant Friend Season 1

March 9, 2026March 12, 2026 ~ Book Club Mom ~ 19 Comments

After reading My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante, I checked out Season 1 of the HBO series. Created by Saverio Costanzo, the coming-of-age series is based on the author’s four Neapolitan novels and stars, Gaia Girace, Margherita Mazzucco, Alba Rohrwacher, and Irene Maiorino. The show is in Italian with English subtitles.

The show begins during the 1950s in an impoverished neighborhood of Naples. Season 1 closely follows the first book and depicts the lives of two friends, Elena and Lina, first as childhood playmates and later as teenagers and young women.

Lina’s genius and their close relationship, as the title suggests, is one of main subjects of the story, especially as the friendship changes. A key turning point occurs when Lina leaves school to work at the family shoe repair business. Elena and her teacher convince Elena’s parents to let her continue her studies and this becomes a source of tension between the friends. In addition, they must navigate generations-long feuds between families in the neighborhood, causing complex conflicts and alliances. The season concludes when Lina marries a man with ties to organized crime and we’re left wondering if the marriage will last.

I enjoyed seeing the book brought to life and thought the portrayal was excellent. I liked being able to see what the neighborhood and living conditions were like. I would describe the style of the series as slow-moving, but engrossing. There are also moments of violence, cruelty, and abuse that make it clear how difficult life was in the neighborhood. People were used to tragedy and loss and violence was part of their lives. A New Year’s Eve scene full of chaotic fireworks was particularly dramatic, emphasizing the fierce divides between the neighborhood.

I was sorry to see the season end and hope to watch the rest of the series. Do I read the next books first? I haven’t decided!

Click here to read my review of the book My Brilliant Friend.

Thanks for visiting—come back soon!

Catching up

March 9, 2026 ~ Book Club Mom ~ 25 Comments

Today I decided to catch up on reviews of a couple of books I’ve read (plus a show I watched) and when I looked through my notes, I discovered that it’s more than just a couple books: I have read six books since my last review! I need to break the habit of moving right into a new book before posting a review because now I’m faced with having to remember what I read.

I take good notes so I’ll be able to catch up, but it’s not going to happen in a day!

This post is just a check-in so you know I’m still out there and to tell you what’s coming up soon:

We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker
The Best Lies by David Ellis
The Witch Elm by Tana French
The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
Heartwood by Amity Gage
A Very Typical Family by Sierra Godfrey

Thank you all for your patience while I work on a better schedule for reading blogs and writing posts. And even though I have a new book in the queue, I’m going to force myself to post these before I start!

Thanks for visiting—come back soon!

What’s That Movie? Youngblood Hawke

February 24, 2026 ~ Book Club Mom ~ 11 Comments

I finally got around to watching the movie Youngblood Hawke! You would think I’d watched it a long time ago, since the book is my all-time favorite book, but after a snafu in the nineties when we tried to record it on our VCR (haha!), life got busy and I forgot about it. I wasn’t sure it was even going to be good. But I was wrong: it was very good!

The 1964 drama film, directed by Delmer Daves, starring James Franciscus, Suzanne Pleshette, and Geneviève Page, and written by Daves and Herman Wouk, tells the story of Youngblood Hawke, a truck driver from the Kentucky coal mines who writes a novel and makes it big in New York. Wouk’s novel is loosely based on author Thomas Wolfe, an American novelist and short story writer.

Soon after Hawke arrives in New York, everyone wants a piece of him. He’s in love with his editor, Jeanne Green, but he can’t resist the lure of Frieda Winter, an attractive older married woman, who is eager to set him up in the Plaza and manage his affairs. The movie also features Hawke’s mother, played by Mildred Dunnock, who is obsessed with a lawsuit about mining rights, convinced she was bilked out of a huge sum of money by her dead husband’s unfriendly relatives.

The whole time we were watching it, actors with familiar faces kept appearing, including Mark Miller, the dad from the TV show Please Don’t Eat the Daisies and Werner Klempererfrom Hogan’s Heroes!

I only knew Suzanne Pleshette from The Bob Newhart Show and thought she was very good in her role as Hawke’s editor. As Jeanne, a woman who worked her way up in the publishing world and didn’t have a lot of money, she was a great contrast to her rival, Frieda, who came from money and lived a luxurious life.

The movie follows the main events of the book most of the time, but its Hollywood ending was different. I was a little disappointed by that, but it makes sense now that I’ve thought about it.

If you’re into old black-and-white movies, I recommend you try it out!

And if you want to read more about the book, check out my review here.

Thanks for visiting—come back soon!

Ten books I’m waiting to read

February 23, 2026 ~ Book Club Mom ~ 22 Comments

Today is a snow day where I live and what better thing to do than spend the morning browsing the library catalog for books I want to read. Now I have 10 on hold and will need to juggle them as they become available!

I’m particularly interested in reading these:

Buckeye by Patrick Ryan because I love World War II historical fiction
A Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhirst because I can’t get enough of the boats-in-a-storm books
Marjorie Morningstar by Herman Wouk because I read it a long time ago, loved it, and want to read it again
The Woman in Suite 11 by Ruth Ware because I liked The Woman in Cabin 10 and I think her books are a cut above the typical thriller.

Here’s my future haul: All descriptions are from Goodreads.

The Bright Years by Sarah Damoff: One family. Four generations. A secret son. A devastating addiction. A Texas family is met with losses and surprises of inheritance, but they’re unable to shake the pull back toward each other in this big-hearted family saga

Buckeye by Patrick Ryan: In Bonhomie, Ohio, a stolen moment of passion, sparked in the exuberant aftermath of the Allied victory in Europe, binds Cal Jenkins, a man wounded not in war but by his inability to serve in it, to Margaret Salt, a woman trying to obscure her past. Cal’s wife, Becky, has a spiritual gift: She is a seer who can conjure the dead, helping families connect with those they’ve lost. Margaret’s husband, Felix, is serving on a Navy cargo ship, out of harm’s way—until a telegram suggests that the unthinkable might have happened.

Her Last Breath by Taylor Adams: From the critically acclaimed author of No Exit and The Last Word comes a story of two friends who embark on an ill-fated caving expedition—and the dark truth of what happens deep underground.

The Irish Goodbye by Heather Aimee O’Neill: In this debut, three adult sisters grapple with a shared tragedy over a Thanksgiving weekend spent in their childhood home, navigating complex relationships and old tensions.

The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave: Before Owen Michaels disappears, he smuggles a note to his beloved wife of one year: Protect her. Despite her confusion and fear, Hannah Hall knows exactly to whom the note refers—Owen’s sixteen-year-old daughter, Bailey. Bailey, who lost her mother tragically as a child. Bailey, who wants absolutely nothing to do with her new stepmother. My coworker recommended this and the next one. And since I enjoyed The Night We Lost Him (read my review here), they made it to my list!

The First Time I Saw Him by Laura Dave: Five years after her husband Owen disappeared, Hannah and her stepdaughter Bailey have settled into a new life in Southern California. Together they’ve forged a relationship with Bailey’s grandfather Nicholas, and are putting the past behind them. But when Owen shows up at Hannah’s new exhibition, Hannah knows that she and Bailey are in danger.

Marjorie Morningstar by Herman Wouk: Marjorie Morningstar is a love story. It presents one of the greatest characters in modern Marjorie, the pretty 17-year-old who left the respectability of New York’s Central Park West to join the theater, live in the teeming streets of Greenwich Village, and seek love in the arms of a brilliant, enigmatic writer. You know this is by the author of my #1 favorite book, Youngblood Hawke, right? Check out my review here.

A Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhirst: The electrifying true story of a young couple shipwrecked at a mind-blowing tale of obsession, survival, and partnership stretched to its limits.

The Storm by Rachel Hawkins: St. Medard’s Bay, Alabama is famous for three things: the deadly hurricanes that regularly sweep into town, the Rosalie Inn, a century-old hotel that’s survived every one of those storms, and Lo Bailey, the local girl infamously accused of the murder of her lover, political scion Landon Fitzroy, during Hurricane Marie in 1984. I liked another of her books, The Heiress and you can read my review here.

The Woman in Suite 11 by Ruth Ware: In this follow-up to the multi-million copy mega-hit The Woman in Cabin 10 from #1 New York Times bestselling author Ruth Ware, Lo Blacklock returns to attend the opening of a luxury hotel, only to find herself in a white-knuckled race across Europe.

I’ve also read these books by Ruth Ware. Click on the links to read my reviews:

The It Girl
One by One
The Turn of the Key
The Woman in Cabin 10

While I’m waiting all these books, I won’t be idle because I have plenty of others waiting for me!

What’s up next on your reading list? Leave a comment!

Thanks for visiting—come back soon!

How well read are you? Take this quiz and find out!

February 20, 2026 ~ Book Club Mom ~ 39 Comments

Every year I take this quiz, but I’ve lost the record of my scores. I think I did a little better this year, but I’d have to dedicate the rest of my life to read them all. There are some books on this list I would never read, but I suppose if I did, that would make me a more well-rounded reader.

Want to see your rating? Take this quiz and feel free to leave a comment!

https://www.listchallenges.com/if-youve-read-10-of-these-books-youre-very

Thanks for visiting – come back soon!

Blog views and other obsessions: a bot scraped my website!

February 18, 2026 ~ Book Club Mom ~ 73 Comments

Last week I noticed an increase in views on my blog. At first, because the increase was nice, but not outrageous, I thought, “That’s great!” But as the days went on, my stats weren’t just booming. They had broken into the stratosphere! As much as I wanted to believe that tens of thousands of people were enjoying my posts every day, it seemed unlikely.

What was happening? I have the free version, so my stat insights are limited, but my first clue was that the number of referrers was way out of sync with the number of views. In addition, there were no likes or comments. I jumped on the WordPress chatbot (I know, ironic, right?) and figured out that the traffic was caused by aggressive scraping bots, programs copying blog content for AI training, spam sites, content farms, and SEO data mining.

I did more digging. There’s not much you can do except wait it out. My research tells me that sooner or later, most websites will experience scraping. And no one is trying to log in to my account. I have no spam. I have received no security alerts. My site isn’t slow loading and the traffic is focused on hundreds of posts, not just one. Those are the warning signs.

The storm is over. I’m back to my regular views. Phew!

Has anyone else experienced a huge uptick in stats? Give me a like or leave a comment to show me you’re human!

Thanks for visiting—come back soon!

Watch me open a new prize from my Ultimate Reading Challenge book!!

February 6, 2026 ~ Book Club Mom ~ 29 Comments

Hi Everyone!

Last week I attended a virtual author event featuring the Liz Moore. I’ve read and loved two of her books: The God of the Woods and Long Bright River. Watch me open my NEW reading prize from The Ultimate Reading Challenge book I won!

Thanks for visiting—come back soon!

Book Review: My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

February 2, 2026February 2, 2026 ~ Book Club Mom ~ 27 Comments

My Brilliant Friend
by
Elena Ferrante

I’m not sure why I had not already read My Brilliant Friend, but I’m so glad I finally got to it! Originally published in 2011, the book is the first of Ferrante’s four Neapolitan novels spanning sixty years. The television series premiered on HBO in 2018 and completed its fourth season in 2024.

Set in an impoverished neighborhood of Naples, My Brilliant Friend follows the lives of two friends, Elena and Lina. The story begins in the present when Elena learns that Lila has disappeared, likely by choice. From here, the we return to the 1950s when Elena and Nina first become young playmates. Considered the brightest students in school, Lina’s genius puts her ahead of her friend. The friendship works, however, because the girls’ personalities complement each other nicely: Elena’s nature to please counters Lina’s difficult and scrappy personality, and Lina’s bravery gives Elena the courage she needs. Through their early years, the competition between them in the classroom keeps them both at the top, earning special recognition. The friendship changes, however, when they become teenagers and Elena continues with her education while Lina leaves school to work in her father’s shoe repair shop.

In addition to the story about Elena and Lina, Ferrante describes the city of Naples and the complex relationships that have developed over generations between eight families of grocers, carpenters, railroad workers, bakers, and fruit sellers, including mob boss Don Achille of the Caracci family and the mad widow of the Cappuccio family. As Elena and her friends become teenagers, they must confront decades-old feuds and alliances as well as the violence that shapes their lives. Elena must decide whether to continue studying while Lila weighs the benefits, and costs of marriage.

Book One ends just as Elena and Lila begin separate paths, with plenty of unknowns, including Lila’s disturbing reference to an overwhelming psychological experience of what she calls “disappearing margins.”

I recommend My Brilliant Friend to readers who like sagas about families and friendship. I just reserved Season One on DVD at the library and hope to read and watch the rest of the series in the coming year!