Books & Benches

Parent Teacher Association by Jennifer Soosar

arent Teacher Association is, as the cover states, a “Novel of Suspense” which it very much is. The female protagonist is Lizanne Demeter, a young teacher looking for a second chance in life. She finds herself reborn, recently released from a mental institution to which she was committed after a foolish suicide attempt due to a failed romance. On a new wonder-drug for depression called Zedorn, she feels that her traumatic past is behind her and she wants to move on and start teaching children again.… Continue reading

Murder on Highway 2 a Claire Burke Mystery by Emma Pivato

Emma Pivato is a Canadian author who writes “cozy mysteries” a popular mystery genre that shuns graphic violence, sex, and profanity. It is quite popular amongst young adult readers and mature ones alike.

Murder on Highway 2 is book number 5 in the Claire Burke Mystery series (Book #6  was Deadly Care) and while one need not have read the previous titles in the series, it certainly helps in familiarizing oneself with the various characters in Claire’s ever-widening circle of friends and family.… Continue reading

Forty-Niner: The Extraordinary Gold Rush Odyssey of Joseph Goldsborough Bruff by Ken Lizzio

While many North Americans are familiar with the term “Gold Rush of 1849”, they likely have a romantic idea of picturesque covered wagons slowly heading west over the prairie, of bearded miners panning for gold (as the cover depicts), and so on. The reality is quite different, as Forty-Niner: The Extraordinary Gold Rush Odyssey of Joseph Goldsborough Bruff by Ken Lizzio (2017, Countryman Press) informs us.… Continue reading

Promises to Keep by Genevieve Graham

Promises to Keep won a 2017 The Very Best! Book Award for Historical Fiction.

during the time of the Acadian expulsion in 1755 (“Le grand dérangement”) from what is now Nova Scotia. Promises to Keep (2017, Simon & Schuster) contains a stronger, deeper story than its romantic cover art might suggest. While there is a strong attraction between the Acadian girl Amélie Belliveau and the English army Corporal Connor MacDonnell, there is little time for any romance for the English army is determined to rid their newly acquired territory of the Acadians as soon as possible.… Continue reading