They find the key to Mona's blindness is a pendant her late grandmother gave her, or rather her association of the mysterious loss of her grandma with the pendant. What's been kept secret is revealed. Photos of the 52 masterpieces discussed are featured inside the fold-out dust jacket. 3/3 #BookSky

While mom Camille takes Mona to undergo hypnosis to recover memories, Camille and Paul, Mona's dad, allow her grandfather Henry to accompany her to sessions with a psychiatrist. Instead they take weekly visits to view famous works of art so Mona can retain the beauty and learn life lessons. 2/3

no closer to reconnecting to life until death hits close to home. Bud finally realizes that we best honor the dead by living our best life every day, for as long as we live. Both witty and poignant, this 2025 book, which won the AudioFiles Earphones Award, made me laugh and cry. 3/3 #BookSky

but likely to be fired when the system resurrects him. When Bud and Tim, his paralyzed landlord and friend, attend funeral services for his ex-wife's mother, he's intrigued by Clara, a woman who attends services for strangers "bc it's the secret to life." Attending strangers' funerals bring Bud 2/3

to Eddie's and Bridie's platonic relationship that occurred five decades earlier. The "will they or won't they meet again" question is resolved after another Eddie Winston dies and our Eddie and Bella are in an auto accident, followed by a funny chapter in which Eddie thinks he died. 3/3 #BookSky

Starting there in hopes of finding a locket lost by his one true love, an unhappily married wife/aide to a philandering senior prof, Eddie befriends Bella, a young woman grieving the death of her boyfriend. Bella helps Eddie navigate the online dating scene, while readers learn the backstory 2/3

Saw the show on April 18 at the Bryce Jordan Center at Penn State...finally completed that item - attending a Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band concert - on my bucket list! Loved it!

From a 1991 speech at the National Preservation Conference: "I have often thought and said that the digital watch is the perfect symbol of our time. It only tells you what time it is now as if there had been no time before and no time to come." 3/3 #BookSky

A favorite essay is about Harry Truman, the subject of one of McCullough's two Pulitzer-Prize winning tomes. Others concern the importance of history (at a time when too many don't know - or whitewash - history) and how the study of the arts and other writers help improve one's writing. 2/3

Loy was active in politics, as an early critic of Adolph Hitler (and later Hollywood blacklisting) and an early advocate for civil rights. She was a longtime active member of the US National Commission for UNESCO. Loy later lived in NYC and took to the stage, mainly touring productions. 4/4 #BookSky

And so "the perfect wife" was born in more than a dozen films with William Powell; and in dramas and comedies, notably in "The Best Years of Our Lives" and "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House," with a favorite film scene: youtu.be/s33ScN4D-HU?... Sadly, her four marriages ended in divorce. 3/4

Born in Montana, Loy spent some time in California due to her mother's health, before relocating after her father's death. Trained as a dancer, Loy worked at Grauman's before getting in the movies, where she was typecast as a vamp before director Woody Van Dyke insisted on Loy for "The Thin Man" 2/4

I'll keep it in mind, thanks, for my collection of short stories. I think I'm reading "The Splendid and the Vile" for a 500-page book.

the murder of her granddaughter, one of the prime suspects. Amid his church's Advent and holiday preparations, Tudor is again called upon by the local constabulary to lend his investigative skills from his MI5 days to help solve the brutal murders. 2/2 #BookSky