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Hi.

Welcome to This Awful/Awesome Life! My name is Frances Joyce. I am the publisher and editor of this magazine. We'll be exploring different topics each month to inform, entertain and inspire you. Meet new authors, sharpen your brain and pick up a few tips on life, love, entertaining and business. Enjoy and please share!

June 2023 Reading Recommendations for Adults

June is the perfect month to enjoy reading, especially reading outdoors. Enjoy a coffee or tea on your porch or back deck in the morning with a good book or a cool drink in the afternoon. We have an eclectic assortment of books for you including a new cookbook based on diets in the blue zone, the area where people live long and happy lives. Enjoy!

Sparring Partners By John Grisham – Three stories –

1. Jake Brigance is back in Ford County helping his friend, Mack Stafford, who stole from his clients, divorced his wife, filed for bankruptcy, and disappeared for three years. Can Brigance help him return home and fix the mess he’s in?

2. Cody Wallace, a young man on death roll seems to be out of options, With three hours left before his execution, what will be his final request?

3. The Mallory brothers loathe each other. When their father dies and leaves them both his legal practice, they make a mess of things. They turn to the only person who can save the business, but who will save her?

Twenty Years Later by Charlie Donlea – Avery Mason, the host of  American Events, knows how to get an audience’s attention. Her latest story is a murder mystery guaranteed to be a hit. New DNA techniques have identified a 9/11 victim, Victoria Ford who was accused of murdering her married lover. In her chilling farewell phone call, Victoria begged her sister to clear her name. Can Avery honor Victoria’s last wish?

Heart Bones by Colleen Hoover – Beyah finally has a way out of Kentucky and her impoverished life – a full-ride scholarship to Penn State. Before she can leave to start her knew life, an unexpected death forces her to spend the summer in Texas with a father she barely knows. When she meets Samson, the boy next door, there’s an immediate attraction, but they are headed for schools on opposite sides of the country. Can Beyah handle a summer fling?

Simply Lies by David Baldacci – Mickey Gibson , single mom, and former detective, is raising two small kids and working remotely for ProEye, a global investigation company that hunts down wealthy tax ad credit cheats. When Mickey’s sent to inventory the vacant home of a suspected arms dealer, she finds a dead body in a secret room and somehow becomes a suspect. How will she prove her innocence?

Home Front by Kristin Hanna – Michael and Jolene are juggling career, family, bills, and trying to save their marriage. After Jolene’s unit is deployed in the Middle East, Michael must become a single parent to his two daughters. Jolene tries to downplay her experiences to her family, but war changes her. When tragedy strikes, Michael must face his darkest fears and fight for his family.

The Irish Boarding House by Sandy Taylor – When Mary Kate Ryan receives an inheritance from the mother who abandoned her when she was an infant, Mary Kate struggles to come to terms with the knowledge that her mother knew where she was and never sent for her. She considers refusing the money until she sees an old house for sale in Dublin. Mary Kate decides to make a rooming house and a safe place for unwanted girls and women. She creates a happy family until an older woman with disturbing knowledge about Mary Kate’s mother checks in. Will these secrets destroy Mary Kate’s new life?

The Lost Monument by Michael Grumley – After a fatal plane crash near Denver, NTSB investigator Joe Rickards tries to figure out why the crash occurred and why an elderly man chartered a plane in bad weather  after receiving a mysterious old letter. Why would he choose a pilot with no recent experience to fly in such dangerous conditions? The passenger’s granddaughter insists her grandfather would never be so reckless, but the evidence says otherwise. What was in the letter?

The Greatest Gambling Story Ever Told by Mark Paul – A true tale of three gamblers, the Kentucky Derby, and a Mexican cartel.

The Right Kind of Unexpected: A New Adult Summer Feel Good Romance by Rayne York – After Tess’s boyfriend abandons her at a gas station with no money, car, or cell phone, she is out of options. Calling her family is out of the question. When the family that owns the gas station offers to help her, Tess might have finally found her “happily ever after.”

The Blue Zones Kitchen: 100 Recipes to Live to 100 by – author Dan Buettner – Recipes from the Blue Zones – home to the healthiest and happiest communities in the world.

 

 

June 2023 Reading Recommendations for Kids by Fran Joyce

Author Page: Where to Find Your Next Great Read