Welcome to Allison’s Book Corner! AWPL staff member Allison Petrus-Wilkins, an avid reader, offers occasional recommendations and insights on a variety of fiction and biographical titles. Find some inspiration, discover a new author, and perhaps head in a new direction with your reading! Click on the links below for new reviews.
2020
January 2020 : From Scratch (memoir) by Tembi Locke;
February 2020 – The Winter Street series by Elin Hilderbrand
March 2020 – Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover and Me by Adrienne Brodeur
April 2020 – The Longest Ride by Nicholas Sparks
May 2020 – The Cactus League by Emily Nemens
June 2020 – The Way Through the Woods: On Mushrooms and Mourning by Litt Woon Long (trans. Barbara J. Haveland)
July 2020 – Cleaning Nabokov’s House by Leslie Daniels
August 2020 – 28 Summers by Elin Hilderbrand
August 2020 – I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown
September 2020 – Becoming by Michelle Obama
September 2020 – The Chiffon Trenches: A Memoir by Andre Leon Talley
October 2020 – Perfect Once Removed: When Baseball Was All the World to Me by Phillip Hoose
October 2020 – Except the Dying (Murdoch Mysteries Bk. 1) by Maureen Jennings
November 2020 – Live in Love: Growing Together through Life’s Changes by Lauren Akins
November 2020 – The Broken Road: George Wallace and a Daughter’s Journey to Reconciliation by Peggy Wallace Kennedy
December 2020 – The Last Story of Mina Lee by Nancy Jooyoun Kim
December 2020 – Robert B. Parker’s Fool’s Paradise by Mike Lupica
2021
January 2021 – A Promised Land by Barack Obama
February 2021 – The Dig by John Preston
March 2021 – Just As I Am by Cicely Tyson
April 2021 – The Choice: Embrace the Possible by Dr. Edith Eva Eger
May 2021 – Beautiful Things: A Memoir by Hunter Biden
June 2021 – Early Morning Riser by Katherine Heiny
June 2021 – Laundry Love: Finding Joy in a Common Chore by Patric Richardson, with Karin B. Miller
July 2021 – Live Your Life: My Story of Loving and Losing Nick Cordero by Amanda Kloots with Anna Kloots. Allison also discusses the book here – enjoy!
September 2021 – The Woman They Could Not Silence: One Woman, Her Incredible Fight for Freedom, and the Men Who Tried to Make Her Disappear by Kate Moore
September 2021: A Farewell to Gabo and Mercedes: A Son’s Memoir by Rodrigo Garcia. Allison also discusses the book here, along with a review of Why Peacocks? An Unlikely Search for Meaning in the World’s Most Magnificent Bird
December 2021: The Boys: A Memoir of Hollywood and Family by Ron Howard and Clint Howard
2022
February 2022: Hooked: How Crafting Saved My Life by Sutton Foster
2023
March 2023: Love, Pamela by Pamela Anderson
June 2023: The Last Heir to Blackwood Library by Hester Fox
June 2023: From Scratch (Netflix TV Mini-Series Adaptation)
December 2023: Friends, Lovers and the Big, Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry
2024
March 2024: Dear Mom and Dad: A Letter About Family, Memory, and the America We Once Knew by Patti Davis
December 2024: From Here to the Great Unknown: A Memoir by Lisa Marie Presely and Riley Keough
2025
April 2025: Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa & Eric Ozawa
May 2025: The Next Day by Melinda French Gates