The Sweet Side of Sourdough: 50 Irresistible Recipes for Pastries, Buns, Cakes, Cookies and More

Sourdough became all the rage during the pandemic, as people learned to love the special, slightly sour flavor and wonderfully crunchy crust. But once one has a good sourdough starter, there are so many other things one can make. If you don’t have a starter, don’t worry. Caroline Schiff starts with all the information you need to start your own, followed by fifty recipes that will satisfy any sweet tooth. Broken into five sections — Sweet Breads, Buns and Loaves; Biscuits, Scones and Morning Sweets; Pies, Tarts, Cobblers and Crumbles; Cookies, Bars and Sweet Little Bites; and Clever Cakes — there is something for everyone. Each recipe begins with an interesting paragraph from Schiff explaining what makes the recipe special or why it’s included or some such. All ingredients are listed in both grams and cups, and the instructions are extensive and very complete. Lots of mouthwatering photographs will help break down any resistance one might have. Unfortunately, there is no nutritional information, but maybe calorie counts would defeat the purpose of a cookbook for sweets. Do not miss the Milk Chocolate and Dark Chocolate Tart or the Milk Chocolate—Caramel Gāteau Breton. These will make you a sourdough believer.


The Murder Rule: A Novel

Hannah has just joined the Innocence Project, a group of lawyers and law students dedicated to freeing those who’ve been wrongly convicted. This team is working around the clock on their latest case, where a man named Michael Dandridge was convicted of raping and murdering a young mother, which was then overturned, but the DA is retrying the case. What the team doesn’t know is that Hannah is convinced he’s guilty and she’s going to do everything in her power to keep him in prison. The Murder Rule is all she can think about and Hannah won’t stop until he pays.

My highest praise for this book would be that it is filled to the brim with complicated characters. I agree with the tagline that “no one is innocent in this story.” I loved watching the characters evolve and change their viewpoints as they discovered more information and found out the truth about each other. The plot was intriguing and I enjoyed seeing how the Innocence Project works. There’s a prevailing theme here that the justice system is great, but it’s just as flawed and complicated as the people who are a part of it. You should check it out.


The Last Princess

The Last Princess is an intriguing coming-of-age tale about a young girl fighting for both the legacy she was born into and the legacy fate has offered her. Princess Edith of Northumbria is the eldest child of the Saxon king. Without a male heir, Edith is groomed to take the crown. However, when the king is betrayed by one of his Elderman, the succession plans die alongside him. Edith escapes the ambush, only to find herself captured and enslaved by a roaming band of pirates and later handed off to a Viking jarl. Motivated by revenge, Edith swears to return to the shores of England for both her crown and the usurper’s head.

The story is rich in historical lore from the Viking Age. The author clearly invested time in building a historically accurate world with authentic figures, places, and customs. However, with so much emphasis on the setting, other elements such as character development appeared to be a secondary focus. The characters lacked depth and often failed to express a range of emotions. Due to the noticeably absent human connection, the story felt rather anti-climactic.


Seeking Best Friend

A little girl is in need of a best friend, but there are certain things that this best friend needs to understand. First, the new best friend must be kind. And it will be nice if the new friend also likes bugs, but does not like them enough to eat them! Playing dress-up will be a plus, but not scaring her cat. The best friend should be able to help fix things and not break her bike. Treasure hunting is a good quality, but only if one doesn’t hog the treasure. And so it goes, with many more suggestions and requirements, but there is someone for everyone and this little girl is no exception. There is a friend for her.

Alison Marcotte has written a fun, simple text for very young listeners that will help them to understand what it takes to be a good friend, and perhaps what it takes to remain a good friend, a message youngsters and parents will find helpful. The repetition will help youngsters retain the information. The illustrations by Diane Ewen are quite charming and colorful, with lots of fun details to keep youngsters' eyes engaged with the book.


How to Train Your Pet Brain

How to Train Your Pet Brain is a great book to help understand how your brain actually works for you. IF you think of your brain like a pet that needs to be trained it can help you to control big emotions. It is not easy to train your brain and you must practice how to react to stressful or emotional situations, even if it feels stubborn or out of control. Some big feelings make it hard to communicate with your brain and that's ok sometimes you just need a hug or to sit calmly before you can find your words. Just keep working and in time you will have your brain trained just the way you want it.

This book is so funny and informative. I really like the colorful and funny illustrations that show how your brain is acting or running away when you get upset or feel out of control. What a great way to learn more about my brain.


The Orientation of Dylan Woodger: A Central New York Crime Story

The Orientation of Dylan Woodger by Chiuba Obele chronicled the life of young Dylan, a vibrant freshman embarking on his college career at Hamilton College in upstate New York. Shortly after he arrived, Dylan was captured and tormented by the mafia, which resulted in him losing his memory for three years and a litany of amnesia-related emotional and mental health issues.

Upon Dylan's realization of his lost years, he was determined to locate the memories of the past three years; memories locked deep within this subconscious were slowly released to his conscience mind for further exploration. As Dylan pieced his fragmented memories together, he discovered that he had stolen three million dollars from a merciless mob boss and did not remember how or when he committed the crime.

He learned that someone had ratted on young Dylan and drugged him with a memory deleting substance, which resulted in him ensconced amidst assassins, gangsters, detectives, and the heaviness of living with the crimes he had committed.

Also, Dylan grappled with the dichotomous nature of his psyche, which allowed him to commit egregious crimes and the other part of his conscience that inherently desired to live a civil life and do the right thing. Battling the polarized components of his personality, in tandem with PTSD symptoms, led him to seek help from a support group for trauma survivors, where he learned to manage his emotions and discovered tools for dealing with the traumatic memories associated with the past.

Furthermore, the novel tackles several macro-level social issues plaguing modern America regarding feminism, racism, sexism, and poverty. It gives the reader a bird's eye view of the various personality and psychological traits of criminally inclined minds and a nuanced perspective of criminality and how it is a component of humanity's past and present social problems.

Dylan's story highlights the importance of mental health services for men and demonstrates the lack of emotional and mental health services for men who have survived trauma and how the dearth of these services has determinately affected the male population of traumatic abuse survivors. Also, Dylan's survivorship provided an example of how men can heal and help each other find peace within support groups.

Although the mentioned social problems are controversial, it is crucial to ascertain nuance and an open mind when contemplating these social issues. Obele has provided an excellent framework for further discussions and thoughts about these ever-present criminalities and social problems that affect public health and safety.

The Orientation of Dylan Woodger is an excellent book for crime novel enthusiasts and anyone who would like to broaden their understanding of the macro-level social issues men face in the age of modernity.


A Coin for the Ferryman

A thrilling time-travel adventure story packed with interesting historical details, Megan Edwards’ A Coin for the Ferryman opens on March 15 in 44 BCE, a date perhaps better known as the Ides of March, as Julius Caesar awakes on what was originally destined to be a very bad day for him. Of course, Caesar is unaware of what is waiting for him on the steps of the Forum and so blithely goes about his business, which allows Edwards to set the scene in Ancient Rome and share engaging insights into his marriage and other relationships.

While Caesar’s fate appears sealed, the action then jumps forward to 2003, which sees Cassandra Fleury struggling through a sleepless night before she and her son finally move out of her mother’s trailer. Hoping to distract herself, Cassandra picks up a book written by Pippa Sykes, a former acquaintance who was dismissed by fellow academics as a crank after formulating an archeological theory involves aliens and time travel. As Cassandra reads, the narrative shifts to Pippa’s perspective as she writes about the unlikely origins of her revelatory findings and her estrangement from mainstream academia.

Cassandra’s story then shifts back in time to 1998, when she is struggling with heartbreak while working as a cocktail waitress in Las Vegas. She reluctantly lets a friend talk her into a night’s work as an escort, being paid a significant sum to keep a visiting businessman entertained. Fortunately, the man in question turns out to be philanthropist Alexander Hunt, who offers her the no-strings-attached chance to pursue her dream of studying classics at college. Meanwhile, Nobel laureate Andrew Danicek is building a new laboratory in which he intends to conduct pioneering experiments in time travel.

All these disparate characters and more are eventually brought together in the pursuance of a bold endeavor: an attempt to extract Julius Caesar from Ancient Rome at the exact moment of his assassination and transport him through time to Danicek’s lab in the California of 1998. In might sound like an extraordinary adventure, but it also poses significant moral questions. Can it ever really be fair to snatch someone from the jaws of death, transport them across time and space, learn everything you can from them, and then send them back to their tragic fate?

A Coin for the Ferryman asks these questions through its characters and in so doing elucidates the divergent views that people will have on the issues. While such aspects of the plot are quite weighty, there is still plenty of action and intrigue to enjoy too. A secret time-travel project was always going to face difficulty remaining secret, just as people were always going to be tempted to exploit the technology for personal gain. Still, it’s not always easy to tell the baddies from the goodies, although there are certain characters who are easier to root for than others.

Edwards has clearly done a great deal of research into the life of Julius Caesar, and she does a commendable job of integrating him into the story as a pivotal character, both in flashbacks to Ancient Rome and in scenes featuring the team from 1998. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the actual mechanics of the time-travel technology are not considered in detail, although the motivation and logistics behind the project do mainly seem plausible. With its novel plot point being the temporal kidnapping of Caesar, A Coin for the Ferryman is an exciting and innovative thriller with a solid historical foundation.


Unnatural Ends

Sir Lawrence Linwood has been bludgeoned to death in his study. His three adopted children, Alan, Roger, and Caroline, return home for the funeral only to be told he was murdered and that his will states that if he were to meet with Unnatural Ends, whoever solves his murder will inherit Linwood Hollow. As the three of them look for clues and dig into the past, forgotten memories surface, and while they always knew their father was bordering on cruel, they would have never guessed how far he would have taken things. As the bodies begin to pile up, the three siblings know they are going to have to be smarter before they meet their own unnatural end.

I tend to scoff when someone compares a mystery writer to Agatha Christie. As if simply writing a mystery puts you in the same category as her. However, I found that Christopher Huang really deserves that praise. This story and the characters are so well written. The plot is engaging and full of suspense, but the slow-burning kind that keeps you pressing on until a big reveal at the end worthy of Hercule Poirot himself. I highly recommend this excellent book.


Abandoned in Death

A murder committed in the future with ties to the past. A serial killer is roaming the streets of New York on the hunt for the "perfect" replacement for a lost loved one. A young woman finds herself one minute in the throes of lust and the next in the cold and dark room of a man who does not seem to be "all there." She has unknowingly become the third victim, but will she the last? Once the first murder victim is found on a park bench in a children's playground, there are clues left but not quite enough. Without a break, nothing short of a miracle can solve this case. Leave it to Eve Dallas, though, to prove everyone wrong in the In Death series by J.D. Robb (aka Nora Roberts).

Abandoned in Death did more than tug at my heartstrings, it yanked them in all directions. The story alone was excellent, but to prevent many questions, it is advisable to read the series in order. I was not aware and struggled with questions throughout the story. Even with continuous characters for fifty-plus books now, Abandoned in Death showed its own character development with a solid and surprising end. Fans of the author or genre will enjoy this new addition to the series.


Cleopatra and Frankenstein

Mellors’s debut novel, Cleopatra and Frankenstein, is a portrait of love and becoming, spread across marriage, friendship, addiction, art, trauma, and all of the ugly and sparkling things left in their wake. The story begins with a RomCom meet-cute, young British artist Cleo running into middle-aged successful Frank in the elevator during a mutual friend’s New Year’s Party in the wake of the mid-2000s. Following their quick love and quick marriage, the narrative does not rely on plot as it weaves itself across the different characters that make up their lives: Cleo and Frank themselves, as well as the friends and family who step in and out of the scene, a RomCom cast fitting of both the novel’s story as well as its understanding of imperfect human relationships and what they reveal about identity and self.

Mellors’s voice is self-conscious and indulgent but aware, using its understanding of the ego to propel the novel’s themes on building one’s identity in the wake of trauma and personal growth. The narrative is brutally honest, indulging in the imperfections of human life as well as the ego built around a stereotypical bohemian sadness, while at the same time observing and giving grace to the fact that becoming better is often an asymptotic pursuit.


Live, Local, and Dead (A Vermont Radio Mystery)

Jaye Jordan may have shot the snowman, but she didn't shoot the man inside. Even if she did fire him when he was alive. It doesn't help her reputation or her argument that she's innocent when people start protesting. Re-building her life since her divorce and relocation to Vermont from New York City is derailed by running a radio station, reconnecting with an old crush, and investigating a murder to prove her own innocence.

Jaye is a delightful amateur sleuth with a quick-wit, a no-nonsense personality, and a voice that drives the story along through her attitude and humor. Balancing out her investigation is her job as a loving mother and her journey as a woman trying to rebuild her life after a major change. The tone is derived from the first-person narration to create a humorous and sarcastic attitude that completely encompasses the personality of Jaye.

The cozy mystery is set against a background that incorporates various social issues. A phenomenally sarcastic voice brings Jaye Jordan to life as Nikki Knight delivers a highly entertaining cozy that strikes out on its own with originality, social issues, and spunk.


Garbage Man

It was ambition that got Richard Morse the most lucrative clients, but after discovering that Titan Pharmaceuticals was involved in the illegal dumping of chemicals and questionable research practices, it was his morals that got him in trouble. To keep him quiet, Richard became Titan’s next test subject. After an explosion at the lab, Richard’s remains mixed with the toxic waste. What he became could no longer be called man. With revenge on his mind, he is on a mission to take out the trash.

Prolific comic book artist Aaron Lopresti has rereleased Garbage Man. First published for DC Comics in the “Weird Worlds” and “My Greatest Adventure” anthologies, Lopresti turned to Dark Horse Books to give his creation its own platform. Many superheroes are borne out of the crisis of the day. Lopresti’s creature is a product of rampant pollution and corporate corruption. He also touches on topics of domestic abuse and homelessness, using his platform to bring attention to today’s issues. The artwork is just as dark as the subject matter but no less spectacular. As an author and primary artist, Lopresti’s creativity is apparent. Garbage Man is just the monster needed to clean up the problems of today.


The Wrong Woman: A Novel (A Kendall Beck Thriller)

Years ago, FBI agent Kendall Beck barely survived her encounter with the serial killer known as the Reaper. Now, to deal with the pain and regret from the past, she hunts down monsters such as whoever took five-year-old Emily. While investigating this case, Kendall’s best friend and roommate, Gwen, is found brutally murdered. As Kendall digs deeper, she and Detective Adam Taylor begin to see that the cases might be linked, possibly even to the Reaper case as well. Was the killer actually after Gwen? Or was it Kendall he was after and he just got The Wrong Woman?. When your job is to hunt monsters, it’s inevitable that the monsters will hunt you back.

I’m very thankful that this is the beginning of a series, as the ending was wrapped up a little too neatly for me, with way too many questions left unanswered. I have an idea of who the Reaper really is and look forward to finding out if my hunches are correct. Anyone who is a fan of police procedurals involving serial killers and a strong female lead will enjoy this new series, especially fans of Meg Gardiner and Tessa Wegert.


The View from the Very Best House in Town

Asha has always been best friends with Sam. They play a game called HouseHaunt together, where they make houses and defeat the monsters that appear. They also play fake-soccer. Everything is perfect until Sam gets invited to go to Castleton Academy, where he becomes friends with Asha’s enemy, Prestyn.

Sam’s excited to be at Castleton. But everybody is saying “miracle boy” to him and suddenly he’s not so excited anymore. Only when Prestyn asks him to be his partner for a project does all the murmuring stop. Prestyn is nice at first… but is she actually that friendly?

I really enjoyed this book. I liked reading Asha’s point of view, Sam’s point of view, and even Prestyn’s house, Donnybrook’s, point of view. Anybody who likes stories about friendship and trust would like this tale.


Nom Nom Paleo: Let's Go! (Volume 3)

Try Something New!

Whether you like thumbing through recipes just for pleasure or are looking for inspiration for meals, these five cookbooks will definitely spice things up. Through reading them, you will be introduced to new homemade soup recipes, Chinese baked goods, simple and healthy paleo meals, new ways of cooking with eggs, and recipes born out of foraging.

Soup Club: 80 Cozy Recipes for Creative Plant-Based Soups and Stews to Share by Caroline Wright

This is a cookbook unlike any other. It is not only about the recipes, but is also a heartwarming story of a community coming together and giving to a member during a frightening period of her life. Caroline Wright was given a crushing brain cancer diagnosis, and not long after this, she found herself really craving homemade soup. She told her friends, who started rallying around her, and then Wright started finding soup on her doorstep daily for several months afterwards. Thankfully she survived, and this book is a thank you to those friends and followers who were touched by her story. The recipes in this book are plant-based and sound very delicious. They are not the blended kind but more the chunky kind, and many of the recipes use nutritional yeast. The instructions are for cooking on the stove, although there is a section dedicated to instant pot instructions. There are also recipes for breads and salads and how to make your own spice blends. Some of the soup recipes that sounded particularly delicious were the Moroccan Vegetable Stew, Golden Borscht, and Cowboy Chili. Soup Club really is a must-have for soup and stew fans, and you do not have to be vegan to enjoy these recipes.

Mooncakes and Milk Bread: Sweet and Savory Recipes Inspired by Chinese Bakeries by Kristina Cho

If you are interested in Chinese baked goods, then this book is for you! Mooncakes and Milk Bread is filled with Chinese bakery recipes, and it is made simple by the step-by-step instructions for the heavenly family-based recipes provided by food blogger Kristina Cho. If you are intimidated by the Chinese ingredients, Cho takes you through the experience of shopping in an Asian grocery store and explains the differences between ingredients and the equipment needed to create these recipes. The recipes included in this book consist of different types of Chinese buns and breads, cakes, cookies, dumplings, and drinks. Additionally, there are no-bake recipes for dim sum, pancakes, and potstickers. The pictures that accompany each recipe help to provide visual guidance, and all the food looks like it has been made by a modern Chinese professional chef/baker. The book is an all-round winner for fun and expanding your repertoire.

Nom Nom Paleo: Let's Go! (Volume 3) by Michelle Tam and Henry Fong

Michelle Tam and Henry Fong, the creators of the New York Times bestseller Nom Nom Paleo, offer a new Asian-inspired collection of paleo recipes in Nom Nom Paleo: Let’s Go! There are even keto, whole30, and vegan-based recipes, and they are all full of umami flavor. Tam and Fong emphasize that the best and healthiest meals are the ones cooked at home, and this cookbook will give you the enthusiasm necessary to get going in your own kitchen. You will be surprised at how simple these recipes are and how they are perfect for when you are cooking for others. Your guests will be surprised by how tasty the food turns out, even though they are wholefood recipes and free of gluten, dairy, grains, and refined sugar. Some of the delights include Cantonese Roast Duck, Bacon Cheeseburger Casserole, and Paleo-Friendly Cream Puffs. You only need to be a novice cook and you can make food that tastes heavenly!

The Fresh Eggs Daily Cookbook: Over 100 Fabulous Recipes to Use Eggs in Unexpected Ways by Lisa Steele

Fifth generation chicken keeper and top-selling author Lisa Steele shows how easy and appetizing meals can be after adding eggs. The Fresh Eggs Daily Cookbook teaches you all about eggs, such as debunking certain egg-related myths and explaining what particular labels on egg cartons signify. Steele works with you, starting from the basics of cooking eggs and moving through all the different techniques. The photography in the book is fantastic and really inspires you to try the recipes. You can learn how to make a French Tri-fold Omelet, Swedish Egg Coffee, and Hand Pies, as well as other sweet and savory recipes, and they all come with Steele’s own modifications. This book is an inventive and exciting cookbook for a novice or an accomplished cook looking to branch out and discover new things every day.

Field Notes for Food Adventure: Recipes and Stories from the Woods to the Ocean by Brad Leone

Brad Leone teaches us about being resourceful and inventive in the New York Times bestseller Field Notes for Food Adventure as he seeks out the wonderful natural ingredients of the North East. Exploring all that nature has to offer, foraging in fields, rivers, forests, and the sea, Leone captures your imagination by providing outstanding ideas for inspirational home cookery. He introduces you to ramps, different types of mushrooms, and the various ways of preserving them, as well as to undervalued oceanic ingredients such as squid and seaweed. All the recipes have the Brad Leone stamp, with the Spicy Tomato Chicken, Sous Vide Mountain Ribs, and the Cold Root Salad seeming particularly appetizing, in addition to the recipes for drinks such as Fermented Bloody Mary and Sumac Lemonade. There’s even a simple recipe for Chile Hot Sauce. Voted Food52’s Best Cookbook of the Year, this flavorsome tome is not your typical cookbook, but it will certainly open your mind to exciting new ideas and ingredients.


L.A. Burning: A Novel

Cody Bonner has just served time for a bank robbery and is being released back into her L.A. life. The daughter of a Hollywood actress, Cody lived a charmed childhood and then became tempted by drugs. While she was in prison, her twin sister Julie was killed. Now, Cody is desperate to find Julie’s killer, and she will stop at nothing to seek revenge.

After a slow start, I was hooked on L.A. Burning within a few chapters. Cody Bonner learned a lot in prison, including how to fight and get away with crime. I loved reading about her taking down sleazy men throughout the book, and I rooted for her to find Julie’s killer. This book was suspenseful and kept me interested, anticipating that Cody would solve Julie’s murder case and give the killer what he had coming. The backdrop of the L.A. film industry kept the book exciting and confirmed the stereotype of film moguls as shady characters. Cody is a strong female lead who won’t take no for an answer. This book is fast-paced, well-written, and tough to put down!


In The Garden With Flori

In the Garden with Flori by Sonja Danowski is a really good book. It has a girl, her family, and her dog, Flori. When Linn’s grandpa accidentally trips over a root in the garden and hurts his foot, he asks Linn to look after his garden for him. The mischievous Flori causes trouble in the greenhouse and things get all wacky from there. Flori is a lot of trouble but still a good dog. What will Linn do? Will her grandpa be mad? And where did all the snails come from?

We were worried about Linn taking care of the garden on her own. And because of the snails. We loved learning about common garden snails in the back of the book. So now we know what to do if they ever visit our garden! This could be useful for people who garden or who like gardens, because of the snail part. The pictures in the book are wonderful, even those painted by one of the characters, and it made us excited to garden.


Badger is Bored

Have you ever wondered what badgers do when they get bored? Well, this book is for you! When badger is bored and can't have any fun alone he seeks some friends for entertainment, but what happens when Badger gets bored with his friends? He finds more friends, of course! Eventually Badger and his friends are able to be entertained when they dive into a fun imaginary game full of excitement and the more friends the better!

This was a cute book. I liked reading about the adventures Badger and his friends take together in a world of imagination. The illustrations were delightful. I really liked reading about all the different woodland animals. This was a fun book to read, but it wasn't as funny as I expected.


The Summer Getaway: A Novel

Robyn’s life gets heavy with friends and family dumping their problems on her, and she finally has enough of it. Robyn’s great aunt invites her to come and spend some time with her in her beachside mansion. This sounds like an amazing escape to Robyn, so she hops on the next flight to California. Slowly, Robyn’s friends and family follow her to California, where all their problems are seemingly less problematic. Robyn finally can see her future and her ambitions spark again after four years.

Throughout the story, readers connect with the characters, creating their own opinions and emotions about them. Susan Mallery keeps readers engaged with the intriguing storyline. At the end of the story, readers are left with the message that patience is the greatest key to solving a problem. This book should be of interest to readers above the age of twelve. This was a great read and would be a great recommendation for readers.


The Midnight Girls: Sapphic Monster Girl Romance

Marynka and Zosia are witches, each bound to one of the three witch sisters that rule the forest. They are tasked with the important errand of stealing the hearts of princes to grow their patron’s magic, and failure means death.

When both girls are instructed to steal the pure heart of Lechija’s prince, their rivalry is reignited. Marynka doesn’t want Zosia to get away with this heart; she wants to bring it back to her witch to prove herself to be the best. Zosia wants the heart for herself in order to gain insurmountable power.

But Marynka and Zosia are slowly falling for each other, even as the competition for the heart grows fiercer. Will they be able to keep their love for each other intact, as well as their lives?

This book was an enjoyable read, with plenty of twists and turns. Marynka and Zosia were fun characters with an interesting dynamic and an entertaining romantic arc. Both the girls had distinct personalities, and I loved reading their scenes. The writing was good, and I liked the unique setting descriptions that made the story come alive. I really liked this book and can’t wait to see what the author writes next!


How to Fake It in Hollywood: A Novel

Run Away With Romance

Summer’s nearly here and what better way to while away the hours spent lounging by the pool than reading a host of cracking romance novels. In fact, if you’re looking for a bit of holiday escapism, look no further than the five recent releases included in this roundup.

The Moment I Met You by Debbie Johnson

When Elena Godwin’s life changed in an instant during what was otherwise a dream holiday in Mexico, it was a stranger who was holding her while she attempted to come to terms with things. She had previously believed herself to be firmly in control of her own destiny, but that one moment changed her outlook and caused her to recognize just how fragile life can be. Even ten years later, she can’t forget the face of that stranger, and when circumstances bring the two of them back together again, she begins to confront the truth of what happened back then and to question whether she really did the right thing. Debbie Johnson’s The Moment I Met You is an emotional roller-coaster of a novel that shocks, intrigues, and well and truly tugs at the heartstrings.

The Emma Project by Sonali Dev

Jane Austen’s Emma gets retold with an Indian American twist in Sonali Dev’s The Emma Project, a heartwarming rom-com with plenty of humor, family drama, and spice. Handsome, wealthy, and from a close and loving family, Vansh Raje appears to be living a charmed life, which is likely why he is able to dedicate his time to making the world a better place without ever really having to face any hardship or unpleasantness. By contrast, Naina Kohli has just ended a lengthy fake relationship with Vansh’s brother and wants nothing more than to never see the Raje family again. Well, that and to alleviate the poverty of millions of women in South Asia. When Naina and Vansh end up competing for funding for their respective projects, the sparks start to fly.

Birds of California by Katie Cotugno

When former child star Fiona St. James decided to drop out of the spotlight following a rather spectacular public meltdown, the paparazzi showed her no mercy, even going to far as to suggest that she was mentally ill. It has taken years for Fiona to regain a sense of peace and a modicum of privacy, and she’s determined not to let anyone take that away from her. However, while Fiona has come to enjoy the quiet life, her former costar Sam Fox still craves the trappings of fame, which is why he agrees to work on a reboot of their old show after his current one is cancelled. Unfortunately for Sam, the reboot project will only go ahead if Fiona agrees to participate, and there doesn’t seem to be much chance of that. Birds of California by Katie Cotugno follows the pair as, against Fiona’s better judgement, they get reacquainted and their former friendship possibly starts to develop into something more.

How to Fake it in Hollywood by Ava Wilder

Ava Wilder’s How to Fake it in Hollywood centers on television mainstay Grey Brooks, who is desperately seeking a means of keeping her career on track now that her long-running and much-loved series has been cancelled. She’s so desperate in fact that she’s willing to go along with her publicist’s shady plan to fake a relationship with a washed-up former heartthrob and then milk it for all the publicity they can get. Meanwhile, Ethan Atkins just wants to be left alone with his grief following his divorce and the death of his best friend, seemingly content to drink himself into an early grave. However, Ethan would like to get one last movie made, and the only way he can achieve that is to attract the viewing public’s attention once again. What better way to do that than to agree to a fake relationship with Grey? The chemistry between the pair sizzles as they each attempt to use the other to boost their Hollywood star.

The Perfect Crimes of Marian Hayes by Cat Sebastian

When Marian Hayes, the Duchess of Clare, shoots her husband, she has little choice but to flee the country in an effort to avoid justice. It doesn’t seem to matter that the man only got what he deserved, and all her former friends have turned their backs on her. Marian’s only hope of escape might just be Rob Brooks, a criminal who has been blackmailing her and who she recently left tied up in a dodgy inn. For his part, Rob is no stranger to the need to escape, although he is surprised to find himself so willing to help the woman who has cost him money and caused him so much trouble. As the two of them go on the run across the country, stopping only to drink and engage in some petty theft, they come to realize that they have far more in common than they could ever have imaged. Cat Sebastian’s The Perfect Crimes of Marian Hayes is a historical romance packed with plenty of humor and excitement.


Whispers of the Gods: Tales from Baseball’s Golden Age, Told by the Men Who Played It

Americans may be without baseball this year, at least for a while, but for baseball fans out there comes this wonderful compendium of baseball stories. Peter Golenbock is a baseball writer with several baseball books under his belt and hours and hours of taped interviews with some of the great players from the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s — players like Ted Williams and Phil Rizutto and Roy Campanella, whose names everyone knows, and players with names that aren’t so familiar but who also had great careers and experiences to share. There are seventeen chapters in the book representing sixteen different big leaguers telling stories about their own time in the show. Jim Bouton, who wrote a pretty good baseball book himself, has two chapters, bookending all the other stories. Each has a little introduction by Golenbock, but the rest seems to be a transcript of the tapes Golenbock made all those years ago. There are wonderful old photos of the players and those they are talking about. This will be a welcome addition to the library of any baseball fan, especially those who love the history of the game. Whispers of the Gods is definitely a home run.


Rabbits: A Novel

From the mind behind the hugely successful Tanis podcast and the popular Rabbits podcast comes a book set in the same universe, Rabbits. It is a standalone novel that can be enjoyed whether you’ve listened to the podcast or not, and regardless, you will be taken on one wild ride.

It’s thought the game started in 1959, though it’s possible it truly began in some form much earlier. There have supposedly been ten iterations of the game, nine winners who remain in obscurity, as do their winnings. People have also died playing the game. Our main character is K, who is obsessed with the game that has colloquially become known as “rabbits,” who is approached by a billionaire who won the sixth iteration, saying something has gone terribly wrong with the game, which could have ramifications that will affect the entire world.

Terry Miles has the same way with words on the page as he does with words in your ears. From the very beginning, this book sucks you in and does not give you a chance to breathe until the final page, and you just end up wanting more.


One-Shot Harry

Since Harry Ingram came back from the Korean War, having served in an integrated unit, he has made his living in Los Angeles as a photographer and process server. He spends most of his time in Black neighborhoods and clubs, but stays in touch with White friends as well. When Ben Kinslow, a White buddy from the war, turns up dead following a very questionable accident, Harry gets some interesting pictures and decides to try to find out what really happened. Needless to say, it puts Harry in some difficult, dangerous positions.

Gary Phillips, with this first book in what will become a mystery series, takes readers to Los Angeles in the 1960s and into areas not often written about. He imbues the text with the slang of the time and place. There is an old adage in writing that if minor characters don’t have an impact on the story, they shouldn’t have names. Not only does every minor character have a name, but a backstory as well. This really slows down what should have been a fast-moving story. A round of good editing could solve this. If future books solve the writing problem, they should be good.


Long Overdue at the Lakeside Library (A Lakeside Library Mystery Book 2)

Rain Wilmot has decided to keep the library attached to her log cottage in Wisconsin open for the winter season. The snowstorm on the horizon is keeping the library humming with locals. There's also the local fishing jamboree, a yearly event that everyone is eager to attend despite the bitter cold. But before the gathering can get underway, the body of Wallace Benson is found in his ice-fishing hut. Rain's friend Nick is accused of the murder, which leaves his wife Julia and Rain to try and clear his name before the oncoming blizzard snows them in. But will the killer strike again before Rain and Julia find any evidence to clear Nick's name?

I have to admit that it took me a few chapters to get into this novel. But by the end, I came to appreciate the friendship between Rain and Julia as well as the warm and cozy feeling the author was able to convey through setting and atmosphere. In addition, I liked the overall plot and the unexpected ending. Overall, Long Overdue at the Lakeside Library turned out to be a fast-paced, enjoyable read.


Babylon

Tomi Ungerer, noted French cartoonist of the last century, had the knack of exposing the vices sequestered in the mythic Pandora’s box and of capturing the perverse behaviors within contemporary culture with his fluid pencil sketches.

Included in this volume entitled Babylon, recalling the biblical city noted for immorality, vice, and wickedness, are about fifty reproductions of his flowing ironic caricatures of the visible human defects evidenced in the middle of the last century. These scribbled images are as relevant today as when they were first committed to paper. Each of the cartoon drawings draws on the imagination while challenging the viewer to fathom its significance in the political, militaristic, religious, or egoistic milieu.

Check out the moneymaker fingering his paunchy calculator or recall a more familiar cartoon of the blind militarist working his phallic weapon, testosterone trumping reason. Cartoons can scald the senses with their piercing revelations of human folly, as this master sketcher appears to achieve by brilliantly caricaturing the ongoing issues in politics, race relations, the women’s movement, self-idolatry, and other social questions. This is a work that will appeal to artists, cartoonists, and the engaged reader.


Holding Her Breath: A Novel

Holding Her Breath by Eimear Ryan is a book about a college student named Beth, who is the granddaughter of a famous poet. Her grandfather was barely spoken of growing up, and now as an adult, she learns more and more about him.

 Starting the book was very rocky, and I had trouble getting into a flow. I think that sometimes there was too much going on with the plot, and it had many complications. I got to learn a lot about Beth and her family's past. Although the writing was a bit hard to follow, I could picture the scenes in my head, and I could envision what was going on.

I would recommend Holding Her Breath to people ages fourteen to sixteen and people that are interested in the coming-of-age genre. Although I didn't like it as much as I had wished, I hope you enjoy reading this book.


Killing Time

Natalie Temple, a graduating high school student and avid reader of true crime, lives in the small Connecticut town of Ferry. Nothing happens in Ferry until Natalie’s favorite teacher and fellow true crime addict, Lynn Halsey, is found dead. Natalie is especially upset because her last words with Lynn were spoken in anger during an ugly exchange precipitated by Natalie’s over-protective mother.

Aided by her friend and two possible boyfriends (one dark and street-smart, the other dull but nice), Natalie investigates her teacher’s death. Posing as a reporter, her career aspiration, she surreptitiously interviews the main suspects. Meanwhile, a parallel story tells of her mother’s own investigation during her student days––a missing person case and surely the origin of her need to bubble wrap her daughter.

Despite a sprinkling of four-letter words, Killing Time appears to be aimed at a young adult audience rather than seasoned mystery fans. It is well written and has some clever twists at the end, but it is a long, slow read to get there, with Natalie’s fears and feelings clogging the development of the plot. In sum, an entertaining read, but not a riveting one.


A Dash of Death (A Cocktails and Catering Mystery)

A Dash of Death is the perfect beach or waiting for the bus read. It reads like a small town mystery even though it takes place in Houston, Texas. Main character Samantha is just getting over a bad break-up with her ex-fiance Greg. Her best friends Marisa and Beth convince her to take the homemade cherry bitters she made for the wedding to a benefit being thrown by the Highlands Historic Commission. A few hours into the event, however, a man named Mark gets sick. His girlfriend, Darcy, takes him home but Mark ends up going to the hospital and then passing away. Samantha and her friends later find a glass in the bathroom with a poisonous oleander flower in it. Those were not the flowers Sam had used for the drinks. Sam gets blamed for the murder but then goes on her own investigation to find the real killer.

This book is an easy-to-read pageturner with delightful characters and a wonderful setting. Although a bit predictable, the mystery bounces from theory to theory as Sam tries to figure out who could want to kill the dead man. There's nothing like great food, great cocktails, and a good old fashioned town murder.


My Little Green Umbrella

Reminiscent of Shel Silverstein's classic, The Giving Tree, My Little Green Umbrella tells the story of a young girl who owns a green umbrella. The green umbrella takes the girl on many imaginary adventures protecting her from invaders, rough seas, and the like. In fact, the umbrella also has magical qualities that make the sun come out on a rainy day. The girl loves the umbrella very much. But as time passes, the girl outgrows the umbrella and puts it away in a coat closet. It sits in the coat closet for many years. Then one day, a little boy finds the umbrella in the closet. The little boy also takes this magic umbrella on many adventures and loves it just as the girl had many years ago. It even protects him from monsters at night. But the boy also outgrows the umbrella and many years pass once again. An elderly woman and man come to retrieve the umbrella and the umbrella realizes that it is the little girl and boy, a mother and her son, who played with it all those years ago.

My Little Green Umbrella is a simple story that young readers will request over and over again. It is a heartwarming tale about an inanimate object that seems to come to life and even more so becomes the best friend of the child who plays with it. It symbolizes safety and gives laughter and happiness to the child.

The pictures in the book are by Tom Lintern and he does a beautiful job of illustrating the girl, the boy, and all of the adventures they go on with the green umbrella. The style of drawing reminded me a lot of Tomie dePaola's Strega Nona with its calming muted colors and soft lines.

I would love to see a few more adventures added to this story as I think that is what will capture the imaginations of its young readers and listeners. The story also ended a little abruptly and I really would have liked to be able to follow the woman and her son and the umbrella a bit more.

My Little Green Umbrella will become a favorite bedtime story for many young children as it emphasizes the importance of imagination, giving, and the things in our lives that create happiness no matter how big or small. This is a beautifully written and illustrated story.


The Vegetable Grows and the Lion Roars: My Peace Corps Service

I felt like I was with Gary Lindberg in the Ivory Coast of West Africa in his book, The Vegetable Grows and the Lion Roars. The novel focuses on Lindberg’s recall of his Peace Corps Service in the 1960s. Full of great adventures and wonderful stories, I loved hearing about his experience, especially about his exposure to many different cultures.

Gary Lindberg joined the Peace Corps right out of college and was soon sent off for training with other prospective volunteers. Not long after, he found himself on his way to West Africa. Upon arrival, Gary’s assignment was to work with locals on creating school and community gardens. The Peace Corps was hoping to promote healthy eating, leave the people a long-lasting skill, and teach of the lucratively of agriculture to overall improve the Ivory Coasts’ way of life. Gary describes both his trials and joys of this process, from teaching the people how to make planches, prepare a pepiniere, and the importance of palliage (mulch) and of keeping a garden maintained. Traveling extensively from village to village, Gary taught as many as he could how to make these gardens and checked up on them periodically to see their progress.

One of my favorite parts of this book was reading about Gary’s interaction with the native peoples. I found it fascinating to learn about their tribes’ ways of life and local customs. I was touched when I read about the extensive generosity and kindness everyone had towards Gary and the way he treated them in return. I also found the chapters about Gary’s personal vacations in Africa, apart from his Peace Corps assignment, to be interesting. The book is full of pictures from these stories, from safari adventures chasing lions, visiting various historic and famous sights, and images of traditional African dress.

Prior to reading this book, I was familiar with the Peace Corps group but honestly unsure of a lot of what they actually did. Therefore, I found this book a great introduction to the Peace Corps and the various work they partake in. I appreciated how authentic Lindberg was in his recall of both the good and bad of his service, making this book especially beneficial for someone who may be considering joining themselves. I think this book is a wonderful insight into the life of a Peace Corps volunteer, from their daily routine to tasks they are expected to perform.


Relentless

Relentless is the inspirational true story of a woman who climbs her way to the top of her industry after finding herself homeless at age sixteen. It's Christmas in 1987 and sixteen-year-old Natasha Miller is excited for the boy who she has begun dating, Philip, to come over. But in a split second, Natasha's mother decides to threaten her with a knife, telling her she is going to kill her. A chase ensues and although Natasha's dad loves her, he isn't willing to stand up for her. In fact, he himself turns to the bottle which seems to numb him to the chaos in their household. He tells Natasha to pack up some of her things and brings her to a local teenage shelter.

The mental abuse and anguish from her mother makes it impossible for Natasha to go back home. She ends up getting a job and staying with Gram, her dad's mother. As I read the story, I felt so incredibly sad for this young girl. All she wanted was to be part of a loving family. Instead, the abuse led to anxiety and hopelessness.

But Natasha was a tough young lady. She was a budding violinist and was even given a scholarship to the University of Kansas and attended the school until she had to drop out due to mononucleosis. Through everything, Natasha perseveres. She works hard and meets many different people along the way. Moving to California with her new husband, Nick, Natasha becomes pregnant with their daughter Bennett. Although the relationship doesn't last, she finds herself loving her daughter so much and is able to work from home while raising her.

Relentless is beautifully written and much of it feels as if you are sitting in a room listening to an old friend tell you stories about her childhood. The words flow naturally onto the page. I truly believe that Natasha's entrepreneurial spirit is what pushed her through the hardest of times. She was able to release music, manage gigs, start businesses, and raise her daughter all at once. Her ability to shift from one project to another and figure out how to make things work, especially through the Covid pandemic, is one hundred percent admirable. One of my favorite parts of the book is when Natasha describes her relationship with famous songwriter, Bobby Sharp. I felt like he became a grandfather figure to her and motivated her through stories of his own to reach for her goals.

Relentless is a book that any person can learn a great deal from. No one is without some kind of struggle, and if a sixteen-year-old homeless girl from Iowa can make it onto Inc.'s 5000 list of America's fastest-growing companies, then really, the sky is the limit.


The Nobodies

Summer Reading

If you’re looking for the perfect holiday read this summer season, then look no further than the five recent releases included in this roundup. Fun, fabulous, and filled with both romance and intrigue, all five books are excellent escapist novels that are just begging to be read at the beach.

The Boardwalk Bookshop by Susan Mallery

While Bree, Mikki, and Ashley might have achieved their collective lifelong dream when they opened a beachside bookshop in sunny California, their personal lives sadly remain far less successful than their professional lives. After an early experience of heartbreak caused Bree to swear off romance forever, she has been a fairly contented singleton; however, a close encounter with a visiting author might just persuade her to change stance on the matter. For her part, Mikki has been unable to properly move on since her divorce, although she is keen to find a way to do so. And as for Ashley, she has been planning her dream wedding since she was a little girl, but her boyfriend’s reluctance to tie the knot is making that dream seem increasing out of reach. As the bond between the three friends strengthens as their business prospers, they also find new ways to challenge and support each other in achieving what is truly important to them. Susan Mallery’s The Boardwalk Bookshop is a tribute to the power of friendship and the need to never give up on finding the perfect romance.

The Cherry Robbers by Sarai Walker

The Cherry Robbers by Sarai Walker is a gripping gothic page-turner that offers a surprisingly contemporary interpretation of the traditional coming-of-age tale. There might be ghosts and socially coerced marriages, but there are also fresh feminist takes and bold artistic expressions. Sylvia Wren is recognized as one of the most important American artists of the last century, although she is equally well known for her reclusive lifestyle. From the relative safety of her New Mexico home in 2017, Sylvia looks back on a past that she has tried hard to distance herself from, a past that stretches back to her childhood and adolescence in 1950s Connecticut. Originally known as Iris Chapel, Sylvia was born into the wealthy Chapel munitions dynasty. The second youngest of six sisters, she grew up in an apparently privileged but emotionally cold household with the expectation that she, like her sisters, would secure a good marriage as soon as possible. However, when her oldest sister dies of an unknown cause shortly after getting married, a tragedy that is repeated when her next oldest sister marries, Sylvia determines to find a way to escape both the family curse and the burden of the expectations placed on her.

The Nobodies by Alanna Schubach

To the outside world, Nina and Jess seem like typical best friends, close and willing to do almost anything for each other. Yet, no one suspects just how close they really are nor the massive secret that they share: when Nina and Jess touch their heads together, they are able to switch bodies. Nina is a self-assured and assertive extravert, and being in her body prompts the naturally shy and retiring Jess to say and do things that she otherwise wouldn’t dare. By contrast, being in Jess’s body allows Nina to experience the close and loving family situation that she has always craved. Although time and distance eventually separate the pair, they are drawn back together following the death of Jess’s father and soon fall back into their earlier body-swapping antics. However, this time around, they are both more prone to deceiving the other and more likely to lose themselves in the alternative life that is temporarily available to them. The Nobodies by Alanna Schubach examines the blurred boundaries between friendship and obsession, exploring what can happen when friends become so close that their identities start to overlap.

Adult Assembly Required by Abbi Waxman

Laura Costello finds herself adrift in downtown Los Angeles after her life falls apart in a tragically unspectacular way: a fire at her apartment building has left her homeless, being dumped by her high-school sweetheart has left her heartbroken, and being caught in a rare downpour has left her within even dry clothes on her back. Fortunately for Laura, she decides to take shelter in the bookshop run by Nina Hill and ends up becoming acquainted with an eclectic bunch of folks who are happy to serve as a makeshift new family for her. Her new-found friendships with Nina, Polly, and Impossibly Handsome Bob eventually show Laura that everyone needs a little help to reassemble their life at some point. Serving as an almost sequel to The Bookish Life of Nina Hill, Abbi Waxman’s Adult Assembly Required is a quirky contemporary romance novel that focuses on the importance of nurturing all relationships and finding a place to truly belong. Perfect for any romance-loving bookworm, it’s a light-hearted and cozy tale that is sure to delight.

Elsewhere by Alexis Schaitkin

Thought-provoking, other-worldly, and rather beautifully sinister, Elsewhere by Alexis Schaitkin is a captivating account of motherhood in all its many facets, from the delightful to the downright tragic. Vera has grown up in an isolated and arguably bleak community in which everyone must adhere to rigid rules and constrained roles, where girls know from a young age that they are destined to marry and have children. However, what really sets the community apart from all others is that fact that every so often, some mothers simply disappear, vanishing up into the clouds without any explanation. When it’s Vera’s time to become a mother, she joins her contemporaries in gossiping and speculating about who among them will one day disappear. What is it that marks a certain mother out for disappearance: paying too much attention to her offspring or not enough? This is the question that plagues Vera as she attempts to do what’s best for her child, all the while wondering whether she will get the chance to see them grow or instead simply vanish like so many have done before.


A Comb of Wishes

Following her mother’s death, Kela feels lost. She spends most of her time on the beach collecting sea glass, “mermaid’s tears,” hoping to find the final piece of her mother’s rainbow. One day, when she’s collecting the shards of glass, Kela comes across a mysterious and powerful object—a mermaid's comb. She realizes her mistake too late—she has summoned the powerful mermaid Ophidia.

Ophidia makes a deal with Kela—the return of her comb for a single wish. Kela wants her mother back more than anything, even when Ophidia warns her that the bigger the wish, the higher the cost. As the waves of fate churn the sea, Kela realizes just how dangerous a price she might have to pay…

This story is full of Caribbean folklore, weaving a tale of magic and wishes with a heartwarming story of family set at its center. I liked this book because Kela was a relatable and interesting character. The book is told from the perspectives of both Kela and Ophidia, making the story even more interesting! I would recommend this book to any tween looking for a fun, heartfelt story with twists and turns on every page!


Snowstorm in August

The eyes of the city’s denizens are fixated as white flakes fall from the sky. The calendars show August, so something must be off. Eventually, those unlucky enough to be on the ground are covered in the powder. The substance is not from the heavens, it is a gift from a drug lord intent on vengeance.

Danny Corcoran is a member of a covert unit within the NYPD. A training op is marred by the death of a celebrity who wormed his way into a photo opportunity that went awry. The unit is soon disbanded and Danny is retired. His personal life is similarly suffering. His father-in-law, a judge ailing from cancer, acts as executioner after having to throw out charges against a drug trafficker. The judge’s actions set off a chain of events leading to the cocaine blizzard and the dealer that Danny is soon tasked with taking down at any cost.

Snowstorm in August is the latest blazing thriller from Marshall Karp. The action consumes the reader from the chaos of a mass drugging to the covert operations of an off-the-books vigilante group. The chances for a breather are few and far between in this high-stakes drama.


Love Letters from Janey: 50 Years of Breaking Barriers Together

Love Letters from Janey tells the story of the late Janey Mildred Young, a most remarkable Chinese American woman who successfully built a career in science in the 1960s. Written as a tribute to his wife, Richard Cheu shares more than 100 letters written by Janey during their 50-year partnership. Richard writes about important moments of their lives as a Chinese-American couple who overcame the limits of societal expectations within and without the Asian American community.

Richard keeps Janey’s memory alive in his heartfelt and wide-eyed reflections. More than a love story, Love Letters to Janey represents a moment in time in the history of Asian America. As American-born Chinese who pursued academic and career excellence at Stanford and Bell Laboratories, Janey and Richard were a dual-career couple during a time when U.S. women were still fighting for gender equality in the workplace. In addition to career achievements, the book also focuses on common issues faced by any couple: reconciling beliefs about religion, raising a family, and sharing finances.

Memoirs about people of color bring light to often-overlooked stories of struggle and triumph. The most memorable ones shatter racial and gender stereotypes and offer a new way to look at collective and individual thriving in the face of adversity.


The Magnolia Palace: A Novel

Set in dual timelines between 1919 and 1966, The Magnolia Palace features the eccentric and wealthy Frick family. Overwhelmed with her household duties, Miss Helen Frick employs Lillian Carter as her private secretary. However, Lillian falls into the job under false pretenses, as she is a model also known as Angelica, who is entangled in a police investigation that she keeps hidden from Miss Helen. Lillian becomes entrenched in the Frick family, and she is unexpectedly endeared to Miss Helen. However, she cannot hide her past for long and must face the Frick family fury once her true identity is revealed. Many years later, Veronica and Joshua uncover clues to the Fricks’ past and set out to unearth the famous Magnolia diamond.

The Magnolia Palace is full of rich depiction, and it features an interesting family in the Fricks. Between Lillian’s alter ego of Angelica and the tension within the Frick family, the book is full of drama. There were quite a few characters to keep track of, and at times, the plot was over the top. The novel was entertaining enough and offered a bit of mystery, but the plot was not compelling enough to make this a must-read.


King of Battle and Blood (Adrian X Isolde Book 1)

Romance Roundup

Whether you prefer your romance contemporary, historical, or paranormal, the five books included in this roundup all feature compelling characters and sizzling storylines that are certain to set your pulse racing.

King of Battle and Blood by Scarlett St. Clair

Believing it to be the only way to end a decades-long war, Princess Isolde de Lara agrees to marry her mortal enemy, King Adrian Aleksandr Vasiliev, although she also intends to kill him at the first opportunity. Such an attempt at mariticide would have been difficult in the best of circumstances, but when the fact that Adrian is a vampire is factored in, Isolde’s plan seems pretty much impossible. As it happens, he catches her when she attempts to pull off the assassination and threatens that, if she tries it again, he will turn her into one of the undead, just like him. Knowing that she can’t risk being turned into the thing that she hates most in the world, Isolde looks for other ways to thwart her new husband and survive in the vampire court. However, none of her schemes can fully distract her from either the growing attraction she feels toward Adrian or the gnawing doubt she has regarding why he would choose her as his bride. Scarlett St. Clair’s King of Battle and Blood is a paranormal romance packed with plenty of trysts, twists, and turns.

An Impossible Promise by Jude Deveraux

In 1844, when known thief Liam O’Connor fell in love with shy squire’s daughter Cora McLeod, he unwittingly changed history. Fate had decreed that Cora would marry another man, and a group of angels have been waiting to set things right ever since the fateful moment Liam and Cora first met. Although Cora doesn’t remember it, she and Liam have lived through several lifetimes since then, ultimately both winding up working as cops in modern-day Providence Falls, North Carolina. Liam knows the truth and has done his best to avoid her, but when the pair of them are partnered to work on a murder investigation, they end up being increasingly drawn to one another. The angels decide that it is time to more forcefully step in and ensure that Cora falls for Finley Walsh, but she is no longer the timid and naïve young woman she once was. In <An Impossible Promise, the second book in the Providence Falls series by Jude Deveraux, Cora is a headstrong woman who is used to making her own decisions, including in all matters concerning love. It makes for a thrilling time-traveling romance.

He Said Never by Ruth Cardello

Ruth Cardello’s The Lost Corisis series centers on a powerful and dangerous family with more than a few buried secrets. In He Said Never, the second book in the series, Riley is keen to keep her reunion with her paternal relatives, the infamous Corisis family, secret from her mother. Her biological father had put her mother through hell, so while Riley wants to know more about her paternal heritage, she doesn’t want to spark her mother’s fear by mentioning anyone with the Corisis surname. Meanwhile, Gavin’s father has decided that it’s time for his son to find a wife and start a family, and he’s not prepared to let Gavin inherit the family firm until he does so. Gavin knows that he needs to get back into his father’s good books, but he’s not sure how to accomplish that since his relationship with Riley went disastrously wrong. At the time, Gavin hadn’t really been looking for romance, although he now recognizes that he would rather be with Riley whatever the circumstances than be with someone else in order to secure his place within the family.

The Immortal by Gena Showalter

In the second installment in Gina Showalter’s Rise of the Warlords series, the merciless son of a war god and a beautiful yet troubled harpy find themselves doomed to repeat the same twenty-four hours again and again, with the day always ending with the harpy’s murder. The Immortal sees Halo Phaninon, assassin to the gods, challenged to kill twelve of mythology’s greatest monsters within just a single day. Never one to pass up a challenge, he readily accepts the dangerous and seemingly impossible task, only to find that he wakes up each morning thereafter to discover that it is the same day, during which he must face unimaginable horror. For her part, Ophelia is used to being a disappointment to her family. As a harpy who has never killed anyone, she is considered powerless and useless by many, although she has hidden reserves of strength that no one would expect. This comes in handy when she’s forced to repeat the same day and live through her inevitable murder over and over, all the while fighting off the advances of Halo, who is at least determined to save her.

Good Catch by Jennifer Bardsley

Former ballerina Marlo Jonas has both beauty and grace, but she also has truly terrible taste in men. When her latest disastrous romance ends after her boyfriend cheats on her, Marlo’s father suggests that she should try dating guys on the basis of their personalities, rather than based on their looks. She’s willing to give anything a go, particularly if it keeps her devastatingly hot nemesis Ben Wexler-Lowrey out of sight and out of mind. Ben is also trying his luck at the dating game, although he focuses on women whose personalities outshine their looks. His mother thinks he could do better, however, and suggests that he gives online dating a go. As Marlo and Ben make it through terrible date after terrible date, they’re both left feeling deflated and demoralized. Surely it shouldn’t be this difficult to find the right person? Jennifer Bardsley’s Good Catch follows the charming yet frequently infuriating pair of frenemies as they navigate the small-town dating scene while stubbornly refusing to acknowledge the romantic possibilities right in front of them.


The Library: A Fragile History

History Roundup

As Carl Sagan (1980) noted, “You have to know the past to understand the present,” and all five books included in this roundup can help you to develop just such an understanding. Examining subjects as diverse as an apparently doomed expedition to the South Pole, art portraying the American Revolution, the history of emotion, libraries from around the world, and the legacy of slavery in contemporary US society, these fives books are sure to both educate and entertain.

A Human History of Emotion: How the Way We Feel Built the World We Know by Richard Firth-Godbehere

In A Human History of Emotion, Richard Firth-Godbehere sets out to answer a couple of very weighty questions: How have emotions shaped the course of human history? How have humanity’s experience and understanding of emotions evolved with them? A major distinction that is often drawn between humans and other living creatures concerns the fact that humans are said to be rational beings, capable of reasoning and calculating in order to survive. However, even the quickest glance back at human history reveals events and situations that appear to disprove this apparent rationality, clearly hinging on emotions rather than on facts. In light of this, Firth-Godbehere guides readers through the highly important yet often overlooked roles that emotions have played in human societies across both time and geography. Drawing on fields of research as diverse as psychology, art, neuroscience, and theology, he explains how the understanding and experience of emotions have changed over time as well as how human beliefs regarding emotions have shaped both the species and the world in which people live.

Madhouse at the End of the Earth: The Belgica’s Journey into the Dark Antarctic Night by Julian Sancton

When the Belgica set sail in August 1897 hopes were high for the voyage and the crew were looking forward to being the first scientific expedition to reach the snowy wilderness of the South Pole. However, hope fairly quickly turned to despair when the ship became stuck in ice in the Bellinghausen Sea, making it likely that the crew would have to endure an Antarctic winter and the associated months of endless polar night. Things managed to get even worse when an unidentified illness swept through the crew and, coupled with growing fears about the numerous rats that were attacking supplies in the hold of the ship, took an extremely heavy psychological toll. In Madhouse at the End of the Earth, Julian Sancton explains how two officers––Frederick Cook, the ship’s doctor, and Roald Amundsen, the first mate––hatched a daring plan to free the Belgica from the ice, a plan that would either save them or doom them all. Sancton draws on diaries, journals, and the ship’s logbook to bring to life a perilous Antarctic adventure worthy of a thriller.

The Library: A Fragile History by Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen

With The Library: A Fragile History, Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen offer the first major historical investigation of the library as both a concept and an institution (and perhaps as an obsession, too). Libraries nowadays come in all shapes and sizes, from former phone boxes to brutalist 1950s structures to glorious conversions of historical buildings, and they cater to a wide range of tastes. They also now fulfill many functions that would cause the librarians at Alexandria to scratch their heads. However, the quiet and thoughtful atmosphere that typically characterizes libraries belies their turbulent and sometimes controversial history. Pettegree and der Weduwen explore that fractured history, taking in famous collections from the ancient world, personal archives, cash-strapped contemporary resources, and everything in between. In doing so, they introduce some of the famous and infamous individuals who have contributed to compiling the world’s greatest book collections, track changing trends, and reveal the sometimes extreme lengths people have gone to in order to secure particular manuscripts.

Liberty: Don Troiani’s Paintings of the Revolutionary War by Don Troiani and the Museum of the American Revolution

American artist Don Troiani is famed for his historical paintings, which principally focus on the American Revolution, the War of 1812, and the American Civil War. Known for being highly detailed and realistic, his oil and watercolor works have been featured in numerous history books, art compilations, and military and government exhibitions. His most famous paintings portray crucial moments from American history, such as the 1775 Battle of Bunker Hill and the American and French victory at Yorktown in 1781. Liberty: Don Troiani’s Paintings of the Revolutionary War serves as the catalog for the exhibition of Troiani’s work currently being held at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, which runs until September 5, 2022. Highlighting key moments from America’s revolutionary history and elucidating Troiani’s research and artistic processes, the exhibition matches forty of his paintings with forty artifacts from various collections, which are all beautifully reproduced in the catalog. The book also features Troiani’s latest work, a painting of African American sailor James Forten watching as Black and Native American Continental Army troops march past Independence Hall on their way to Yorktown.

The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story by Nikole Hannah-Jones

When an unprepossessing ship carrying enslaved people from Africa arrived in the British colony of Virginia in August 1619, it marked the start of the barbaric practice of human chattel slavery in America, which would continue for around two hundred and fifty years. This practice has been described as America’s “original sin,” and its impacts are still being felt today. The New York Times Magazine launched the “1619 Project” in an effort to reframe understanding of American history by situating slavery and its ongoing consequences at the heart of the narrative. The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story expands that initial project by collecting eighteen essays that explore the legacy of slavery in contemporary American society alongside thirty-six poems and narratives that portray instances of struggle and resistance. Together, these works speak directly to the present moment, situating long-standing systems of race and oppression in the context of daily life today. They shine light on overlooked moments from the birth of the country as well as on upspoken issues within the constitution, and they elucidate how the legacy of slavery continues to cast a shadow over American life.


Northwind

Leif is an orphan; his father was unknown and his mother died giving birth. He was raised on the docks by a variety of people, but he never belonged to anyone. He grew up being used pretty much as slave labor on a number of ships. Now around thirteen, he’s lucky enough to be taken under the wing of one of the sailors, Old Carl, who, with some other men, makes a fish camp. One day, a strange ship comes to the camp and sick men come onto shore, spreading disease. The men begin to die, and Old Carl tells Leif to flee to the North. He takes a dugout canoe and a few supplies and heads out, but he hasn’t missed the sickness entirely.

Gary Paulsen was the king of survivor stories for middle graders. This one is set hundreds of years ago off the coast of Norway and is written in such a way to convey the time and place. The characters are interesting and believable, and the story is very compelling with lots of tension on every page. Paulsen was a master storyteller and this book is no exception. Youngsters will love it.


Cold as Hell (Black Badge)

In life, James Crowley was an outlaw. A bank-robbing, train-heisting, murdering outlaw. He was not a very good guy. After his own murder, he was brought back to life to serve a higher power. Now controlled by his angelic handler Shargrafein, he is sent to battle against witches, werewolves, demons, and monsters. Armed with Peacemakers loaded with silver bullets, Crowley is no marshal, nor is he a bounty hunter. He is a Black Badge, and he works for the White Thrown. His job is to bring hell’s evil to justice.

Rhett C. Bruno and Jaimie Castle once again team up to produce another exciting series. Cold as Hell is the first book in the Black Badge series of novels. When Bruno and Castle work together, the results are otherworldly. This new project is an action-packed Western fantasy that can best be described as Sandman Slim meets Josey Wales.

With a seriously flawed protagonist and antagonists that run the gamut of evil, this character-driven thriller has a strong Bruno anti-hero feel to it. Bruno excels at integrating everyday faults and weaknesses into a hero who is easy to root for. The West has never been wilder and now it’s Cold as Hell.


Wingbearer (Wingbearer, 1)

“You’d think that living in the tree would be boring, but no single day is ever the same.”

Wingbearer is about Zuli, who lives in the trees where birds go when they die. Zuli travels to the real world to save the souls of the birds because they have stopped dying. On the way, she meets a goblin, the Captain of the Kalinar Guard, and many more.

I liked the graphics in this a lot. They definitely seem like they are in a fantasy world and it is believable. It was my first time learning about goblins, and now I think they are interesting. The book was adventurous and had a great surprise.

Wingbearer is not a boring book at all. I enjoyed reading it and going on adventures with Zuli. It is a fun book, and I would recommend it. I can’t wait to read more about what is happening to the souls of the birds. I am looking forward to the next book.

Kids ages eight to ten who like fantasy, birds, and graphic novels would enjoy this book.


Send Her Back and other stories

Not long ago, Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota was greeted with cries of “Send her back,” a cruel reference to the fact that despite our high ideals, America has never been truly welcoming to immigrants. In her anthology, Munashe Kaseke references this explicitly, even naming the title story after the cry. The whole book is a look into the modern immigrant experience, illuminated by Kaseke’s own history as an immigrant from Zimbabwe.

First, I want to say that her prose is a delight to read. Kaseke has a light, deft touch that initially put me in mind of Bolu Babalola. As I read further, though, I found much more depth in this book and realized that the two authors really should not be compared, especially not when their collections have such disparate aims. The lighter moments in Kaseke’s writing are like stars in the night sky; when you really look at them, they only make the difference between them and the darkness surrounding them all the more stark.

This is a dark book to read at times. The immigrant experience, especially for Black people (I could say especially now for emphasis, but has it ever been easy?) is a difficult one. Some of the stories deal with little more than the cultural divide between America and Zimbabwe, where Kaseke’s protagonists come from, but others bring racism and the knotty mess that is our immigration system to the forefront, giving the reader no excuse to look away. Some stories reference rape and violence, and one brings up suicidal ideation.

Are the stories still beautiful, like the night sky behind the stars? Yes, but to focus on that is to miss the point entirely. The easy charm and high quality of Kaseke’s writing are reason enough to pick up this book, but the real reason to pick it up and read it all the way through is that she has a knack for telling a compelling tale. Even the story in which arguably the least happens (a young woman experiences snow and finds she does not like it at all) caught me and held my attention all the way through, both because it made me smile and I felt empathy for the protagonist, but also because it was never just about snow.

Send Her Back and other stories is Kaseke’s debut, and I hope it is not the last of her writing that I see. Work like this suggests that she deserves a celebrated career.


Send Her Back and other stories

Send Her Back contains fifteen unique and heart-wrenching stories about women who have immigrated from Zimbabwe to America. Although these stories are fictitious, the emotion, passion, and intensity behind each narrative will leave you feeling immensely connected to the dynamic characters. Every chapter focuses on a unique Zimbabwean woman who feels disconnected or out of place due to their experiences in America. This anthology ranges from light-hearted love stories to more intense themes such as racism, immigration stipulations, and abuse.

Women in several chapters recount the unfortunate experiences brought on by blatant racism; Vimbiso fears she will be deported for driving without a license and must resort to extreme circumstances in order to stay. In “Not so Subtleties”, the main character rushes out of a social gathering due to insensitive comments about her hair and incessant pleads to change her name to something “easier to pronounce”. Many women express not feeling like they belong in America or Zimbabwe, due to the immense cultural differences they are exposed to.

“The Collector of Degrees” is about a woman who continues to go to college in order to stay in America-borrowing money from friends turned enemies and living in enormous debt to avoid going back to a country she barely knows. She is forced to work a minimum wage restaurant job due to the lack of employee sponsor opportunities in her chosen field. In the final chapter, Rudo struggles with feelings of hopelessness when she is unable to provide for her family back home. She had to drop out of college when she was unable to make the grades while working full time. She had been lying to her family for 12 years; working multiple jobs and living out of her car to afford enough money to send back home. When she discovers her family used her money to throw a party bragging about their wealthy daughter, her anxiety and depression become overwhelming and cause her to spin into a dark downward spiral.

The author intentionally places each story in its perfect place; allowing the reader to emotionally connect to the characters while not becoming overwhelmed in their grief and frustration. As a White individual who has experienced many privileges in life, I am thankful that this book exposes so many injustices that I have been blind to my whole life. The overall theme of this book is not meant to cause pity for immigrants or shame privileged people for their ignorance; the beauty of this book is found in the insightful language carefully created by the author. Each scene and situation is explained in a straightforward but well-rounded manner, leaving the reader wanting more content but needing no further explanation.


Send Her Back and other stories

The experience of migration, adaptation, and survival in a new country is life-changing, often wrought with turbulence. Send Her Back and Other Stories is a collection of short stories that tell clear-eyed truths about life in the diaspora for women from Zimbabwe. Munashe Kaseke tells diverse stories with women protagonists – sometimes hopeful, often heart-breaking – of losing and finding oneself and of transforming racial and ethnic identities. Each story offers a lens into struggles in parenting, friendships, romantic involvements, and other relationships complicated by diasporic experiences.

Reading the anthology from my point of view as an immigrant woman, many stories are all-too-familiar. Stories such as “The Collector of Degrees'' and “Send Her Back” tell of a broken immigration system that keeps immigrants in a constant state of insecurity and hypervigilance because of their precarious status. These stories deal with how undocumented people are often forced to engage in questionable but necessary activities to stay in the country, such as engaging in sham marriages and stacking degrees.

Kaseke’s stories are based in many parts of the United States, from Baltimore to North Dakota, from Silicon Valley to Minnesota. Whether in Mozambique or in Indiana, each story offers a lens into being a woman in Zimbabwe and the transformational effect of moving to a different place. The stories “Unseen” and “Imported Husband'' discuss the complexities of navigating gender roles and establishing one’s identity. Dating is often a thorny path for Black, immigrant women, as depicted in “Territorial” and “When Zimbabwe Fell for Wyoming.” When not dealing with microaggressions or everyday subtle insults and invalidations, a Zimbabwean woman who dates white American men must contend with the contradictory harms of invisibility and hypervisibility, of being shunned and being exotified.

Immigrants often carry the burden of caring for parents, siblings, and other family members back home, while also trying their best to survive in America. The stories “Globe-Trotter” and “The Zimbabwean Dream” explore the disconnects between expectations and the reality of life as immigrants from Zimbabwe to the United States. Visions of success and transcending economic limitations are common, and often incompatible with gargantuan effort and sacrifices required to thrive in the U.S., where success is often measured by accumulating wealth, material possessions and other status symbols.

The author sheds light on often-untold stories of the immigrant experience, stories that focus on desperation, loneliness, isolation and longing for home. Kaseke shares the guilt and shame of balancing assimilationist tendencies, while also staying true to Zimbabwean heritage and culture. Newcomers work hard to create a life in America, while also providing for family back home. Pursuing the American dream can be costly, and the price a woman must pay for belonging and affirmation almost always involves a broken heart and endless tears.


Send Her Back and other stories

Told in a series of vignettes, Munashe Kaseke’s Send Her Back tells readers stories of the Zimbabwean experience in current America. There are fifteen short stories, some connecting with each other told over a nonspecific amount of time. Although the shape and perspective of the stories are different, the underlying themes of cultural experience, family, racism, and womanhood are interwoven throughout. Kaseke’s words are captivating, and her characters and their situations have a real-world impact on them. This is a daily-life representation of women of color in America. It feels real, raw, and simultaneously heartbreaking and hopeful.

This book transcends cultural experience into the human experience and creates a bridge into understanding both. Everything from blatant racism to familial expectations in daily life is explored. In "When Zimbabwe Fell for Wyoming", microaggressions disguise themselves as compliments as an interracial relationship is explored and a woman faces meeting her significant other’s family. "The Collector of Degrees" is a story about student visas and dependents in America and how the system forces students to stay in the cycle of schooling in order to stay in the country. Despite the want and willingness to break out, work hard and “realize the American Dream,” the main character is constantly turned back into the system that denies her jobs.  The titular story, "Send Her Back", showcases the ripple effect of circumstantial racism. "The Rising" is about an ancestral fight for a better future seen through the eyes of a child.

The stories pivot back and forth from different points of view. Some characters have names (Vimbiso in "Send Her Back") and others are told in the second person (“You” in "The Collector of Degrees"). The changing perspectives allow the reader to experience these stories to varying degrees. It’s a clever device the author uses to make the reader see these stories from every angle. Whether you are a window viewer or standing in the middle of the narrative, the intention is powerful.

An immigrant of color herself, Kaseke creates this series showcasing the experience of women in America. The characters are all women of different ages, statuses, and experiences. Some characters have multiple stories interweaving within each other and the timeline isn’t linear making the perspective interesting and keeping the pace moving. Themes of police aggression, familial expectations, cultural shifts, money, material items and their values, and toxic relationships are all expanded upon in these different segments and stories. According to the author’s bio, this is a debut novel. This is certainly an author to watch out for. The clear prose and interweaving storylines are both eye-catching and beautifully written.


Showmances and Stage Kisses

"Welcome to the world of teenage acting, where it’s not all rainbows and sunshine. Showmances and Stage Kisses showcases behind-the-scenes drug and alcohol use (ouzo, anyone?), oh-so-complicated teen relationships with accompanying hormones, and show business antics. Join the teen heartthrob and star of Heights High, Nicholas, and his Harvard-bound best friend, Sebastian, as they navigate life among dysfunctional adults and girls galore, amidst a world of chaos in the mid-1980s. This story is both frantic yet heartwarming with an exceptional cast of characters." ---Kristi Elizabeth, San Francisco Book Review


Dream Big, Little One

Dream Big, Little One is all about helping little ones, like helping a sibling to have confidence. It helps little ones to know that even if your dreams seem big, they can be accomplished! No matter how your dreams change and take shape as you grow, it is okay, and your dreams help you to grow and change as a person.

This is a really cute book. I think the illustrations are stunning with the different shades of blues, whites, and grays. It also helped me to visualize what it looks like when you do make dreams for yourself. I really enjoyed reading this book to my baby sister and I think it would be a great book for all families to read to their little ones so that they know any dreams can be accomplished.


Pretty Perfect Kitty-Corn

Pretty Perfect Kitty-Corn is the story that comes after the first book in the series, Itty-Bitty Kitty-Corn. In this book, Kitty-Corn and her friends, Gecko and Parakeet, are still in love with Unicorn and how perfect he seems to be. The friends say lots of nice things about Unicorn, like his horn, fur, and tail. Then Kitty-Corn says she wants to paint Unicorn to show how perfect he is all of the time. Unicorn isn't sure that he's as perfect as his friends think he is, but he's going to keep trying to seem perfect so they don't find out that maybe he's not. Kitty-Corn finally finishes her painting and it's so funny to see!

I like Pretty Perfect Kitty-Corn just as much as Itty-Bitty Kitty-Corn. Both stories are about the characters working through something that they're not happy about, but each one has a happy ending. I loved reading another book with both a cat and a unicorn in it and looking at the pictures that made them look cute and pretty! I hope there's a third book that comes out after this one, which I'll read all of the time!


Goodbye, Bear

Beaver and Mole are wondering how they’ll ever make it without Bear. He was their best buddy, and now that he’s gone, they feel terribly lost. They decide the best way to move forward is together; they’ll even finish building his tree house in remembrance of him. Rabbit, Hedgehog, and Mouse offer to help in the effort. Working as a team eases their sadness and allows them to discover new things about Bear. When their task is complete, they celebrate together and look out into the beautiful night sky at the Great Bear constellation, a forever reminder of their dear friend.

Young children ages four to nine who are fans of Jane Chapman, who has become a prolific author and illustrator, will welcome this sweet and thoughtful tale with open arms. Woven through its pages are so many important and relevant themes for little ones: friendship, community, loss, and healing. The illustrations are poignant, precious, and powerful. The soft, watercolor hues create a perfect blend of serenity and strength.

Goodbye, Bear is ideal for youth who’ve suffered a recent loss. They’ll find comfort and encouragement in its message. Those who haven’t will savor it just as much and will likely mark it as a treasured pick.


Mommy Ever After

Mommy Ever After follows a mother and daughter from the time she is a baby up through the daughter being ready to start school. The mother tells the daughter magical stories but always ends them with “and they lived mommy ever after” and “Because we are not always going to feel happy but I am always going to be your mommy.”

The text was beautiful. I loved how the mother used storytelling to teach the daughter about the good and hard things in life. The author has a gift with words. I am just in awe. The illustrator was a perfect choice for this book. She did a great job of blending reality along with the fantasy stories. The purples and blues were just a great palate choice.

I highly recommend this book for moms to read to their young daughters. I think this is a perfect book for a birthday or baby gift for anyone that has a little girl. I hope to read more by this author and illustrator. I hope they will get to work together again on a book because it’s just a stunning piece of art.


The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward

Look back on your life. Do you have regrets? Of course you do. Things you wish you had done, or had not done, or done differently. Regret is so painful we often want to avoid it, but it's an important part of the human experience and can even be extremely beneficial. Regrets show us what we value, and offer us a path forward to improve. Embracing regret can lead us to our best life.

This excellent book was such an entertaining, as well as informative, exploration of the idea of regret. Filled with solid science neatly parsed for the general reader, and peppered with anecdotes and sampled regrets from participants in Pink's World Regret Survey, it's a fast read with lessons for a lifetime. Compelling support for the value of regret as well as suggestions for how to use this uncomfortable feeling give you hope, and the experiences shared are humanizing. Rather than ignoring regret, or wallowing in “what might have been”, you can decide to act, and act differently, if you let your regrets guide you.  Regret is a healthy and adaptive part of being human. Read this book to understand it better --you won't regret it.


Homeward from Heaven (Russian Library)

Even though he died before he was forty years old, escaped the Russian Revolution, and only published a handful of excerpts and works before he died, Boris Poplavsky was hailed as one of the leading writers by his peers in France and within surrealism. Readers are treated to a translation to his final novel Homeward From Heaven in which readers are given a taste of what it would have been like living in the French Riviera between the world wars.

 We follow Oleg who loves two different women, both of whom will impact Oleg’s life. This is a semi-autobiographical novel. He follow Tania to a seaside resort who jilts him after a passionate intimacy. Oleg then meets Katia who finds intimacy and emotional candor. Oleg meets with Tania one last time to comprehend the laws of physical love.

The reader's enjoyment of the book will entirely depend on how they feel about surrealist writers, who worked to do away with conventional plots, narration and the like; though ultimately they were unsuccessful to change the novel in society.


Astroquizzical: Solving the Cosmic Puzzles of Our Planets, Stars, and Galaxies: The Illustrated Edition

This is a fantastic book about our atmosphere, stars and planets, and our galaxy. It's very interesting, with great photographs. It does an excellent job explaining the different topics. The book is very much like a science textbook but not at all boring or dull. It flows well from topic to topic but you can dip into any chapter and enjoy it without having read the previous ones. It sometimes asks questions and then answers them, which is really fun. For example, what would we see if we replaced the International Space Station with a supercarrier ship – how much more visible would it be? These questions are added to illuminate what they are talking about, and the answers help to make the concept a lot clearer. The pictures are very high definition and full color, and quite beautiful. At the beginning of the book you read how these colors were obtained, as we can't really get full color photos of galaxies with our current technology because the light these stars produce is not all part of the visible spectrum.  This is a great book for anyone who wants to learn more about our galaxy or the stars.


I Love You More Than Ice Cream

I Love You More Than Ice Cream is a new favorite book because it includes two of my favorite things: talking about how much I love people and things that are sweet (like ice cream)! In the story, a little girl is getting ready for bed, and a different family member tucks her in each night.

Part of the bedtime routine is to hear how much each person loves her and then she tells them how much she loves them, except it's not just normal "I love you," it's a whole story in a short amount of time. When the mom tucks her in, she loves her more than ice cream and chocolate-covered mountains. But when it's her grandpa's turn, he loves her more than dinosaurs in space driving fast cars in a race.

I liked this book because it sounds like how I already talk to people when I'm being silly and telling them how much I love them. The pictures are pretty to look at, with lots of color, and the story is easy to understand and read for my age. I liked seeing each family member take a turn getting the girl ready for bed, even the dog!


Kat Hats

Kat Hats is the story about a town that has a place that makes hats for people, but the hats are actually cats. The cats are trained to sit on people's heads and to be the right kind of hat. The man who trained the cats, Matt, has a wife and two kids and a cat named Thermal Herman 6 7/8ths, who lives in the house. One day, a man named Old Thirdbeard came to visit because his mom went up a mountain in the snow while licking a giant fruitsicle and hadn't come back down yet, and his mom gets brain freeze easily. Thermal Herman 6 7/8ths is on the case to find the mom and bring her safely back down the mountain.

Kat Hats has a lot of words. I didn't understand everything that was happening in the story because of the big words and the people's names, which are different than other names. I might understand it better if I were a little older. I liked the pictures in the story but they were also too busy sometimes. This isn't my favorite book but I like that it's about cats.