Month: June 2025

The Last Secret Agent, Pippa LaTour with Jude Dobson. St. Martins Press, 2025, 304 pages.
Thank you to St. Martins Press and NetGalley for an advance readers copy of this book.
Pippa Latour had a life of tragedy and adventure even before she became a secret agent for the British in WWII France.
Though she never wanted to speak of her experiences, and did not, in her old age her children learned she had some role in WWII, and she finally opened up and worked with writer Jude Dobson on this memoir. She died at the age of 102, just before its publication, as she hoped.
This is a book to become absorbed in and from which to learn little-known information about both WWII France and the kind of vital work that was rarely reported.

Please see, “Reviews-Non-Fiction”

Murder Takes a Vacation, by Laura Lippman. William Morrow, 2025. 269 pages.
Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley for an advance readers copy of this book.
This light, entertaining mystery introduces us to Muriel Blossom, 68 year-old widow from Baltimore, who is using her lottery winnings to take a river cruise on the Seine with her childhood friend, Elinor.
Lippman takes this opportunity to address, through Muriel, issues around women’s aging and being more than the ideal weight in our culture. Self-understanding and self-acceptance all play a part in enjoyable first read for the summer.

The Road to Tender Hearts, by Annie Hartnett. Penguin-Random House, 2025. 363 pages.
Thank you to Penguin-Random House and NetGalley for an advance readers copy of this book.
This quirky, dark comedy about a makeshift family is both funny and poignant, and I’m glad I could be with them for their road trip from Massachusetts to Arizona.
The family relationships are complicated, some of the situations are absurd, some are touching, but in either case, along their journey, love and understanding builds.

6/7/25