The Wedding Gift by Lisa Kevin > recordedbookreview.com

Remarkably lean and unfussy novelette about a female chef who rediscovers that experimentation is the best part of cooking…

19 Years of Reviews

He still thought wistfully of what he might have become... a Carrie Hawes, or a Paul or a Richard, but more than any of those, the name he most cherished -- and he had never revealed this to a soul -- was Lefty, Lefty Hawes. Was there a criminal anywhere in the worldLet's Hear It For the Deaf Man by Ed McBain read by Jonathan Marosz

The last of the Rabbi Small series narrated with an annoying over-aggressive punkishness by Guidall -- to intimate, perhaps, the intellectual aggression of Rabbi Small, the clever not-to-be socialized puzzle solver and prayer leader of the Conservative Jews of Barnard's Crossing Massachusetts. The characters are at least as aliveThe Day the Rabbi Resigned by Harry Kemelman read by George Guidall

Read this series by Jan Karon about a diabetic Episcopalian rector in a small town in North Carolina whose fat happy female parishioners cant stop baking him pies cakes and cookies. Very very funny scenes with neglected husbands eating unthawed church sale cakes the minute their wives aren't looking, aJan Karon: The Mitford Series

A newly widowed Bostonian author of children's books sells her house and drives to Chicago looking at pretty houses and a town to live in. She finds an old Victorian house and buys it. She calls up old friends and discovers other lives running alongside hers. She moves on... A Year of Pleasures by Elizabeth Berg read by

How is it possible to account for irrationality in a scientific way? What kind of a science, what kind of a scientist studies the the irrational side of human behavior? How, moreover, can irrational decisions be measured, explained and controlled? Arielly describes experiments which do just this. The Upside of Irrationality by Dan Arielly

The conservative Rabbi of a small Massachusetts town inserts himself into the secular and criminal affairs of his congregation, illustrating that the same hypocracies, connivances and plots have been at work in American Jewry since at least 1960....Thursday the rabbi Walked Out by Harry Kemelman read by George Guidall

There's nothing like a kitchen-fuck, standing up against an old refrigerator, the ketchup bottle and the jar of mayo rolling around inside, the bag of peaches falling off the top.... There's nothing like two cops, fucking. But its a signature love scene, painterly, pointilistic, confessional. Mushrooming metaphors. And very veryDarkness Peering by Alice Blanchard read by Alyssa Bresnahan

Meg, a rude, prickly, well dressed matchmaker goes to a celebrity resort with a famous actor, hiding his homosexuality. The resort promises privacy, secrecy, security. She spars and eventually falls in love with the owner. But instead of privacy and secrecy, the resort harbors someone who takes pictures of the actor and hisSeduced by Sunday by Catherine Bybee read by Tanya Eby

An unusual and captivating account of a Manhattan social scene rapt by cocaine, bondage, dying gays and too much money. Vince Cardozo as the NYPD detective lieutenant who is pretty enough and straight enough to correct wrongs and fall in love at the same time... Privileged Lives by Edward Stewart narrated by Christian Rummel

Within the first minute and 34 seconds you know you are going to understand this book because Denning quotes James Dyson: "Of the world's ten largest corporations by revenue, 9 make big, heavy things, like cars." This is easy to follow, sensible stuff - and just the kind of obviousness thatThe Bull Hunter by Dan Denning

Whatever falls from the sky above, thou shalt not curse it. That includes the rain. No matter what might pour down, no matter how heavy the cloudburst or how icy the sleet, you should never ever utter profanities against whatever the heavens have in store for us. Everybody knowsThe Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak read by Laurel Merlington

Yes, this is about a French woman who is preparing to be married, about the dozens of chores, duties, invitations, financial arrangements, foods, realtors, contracts and miscommunications fringing the prolonged event called a 'wedding'. But it is more about the bureaucracy of French life, the stiff protocols, the delicateLe Mariage by Diane Johnson read by Suzanne Toren

Whatever else Ruth Rendell does or does not do, she demonstrates what might, could, would or should be said while helping the police in their inquiry. The mystery lies not so much in who did it but in who lies about doing it: who said that he didn'tBabes in the Woods by Ruth Rendell narrated by Nigel Anthony

Sydney has a sister, a reporter, who is murdered. Dissatisfied with her powerful mother's decision to stop the investigation, she traces the last story of her sister's career, and discovers some very dirty truths. The Betrayed by David Hosp read by Richard Ferrone

Grace, who practices psychiatry on Manhattan Island, relays a story about one of her patients to the interviewer from Vogue: At a very early point in their relationship, before they were married, her husband told her that she had ugly feet. She accepted this, and having accepted this one instance ofYou Should Have Known by Jean Hanff Korelitz read by Christina Delaine