Keys to an Empty House

Elihu Goulding, erstwhile novelist and current recluse, has just moved into an old house in New York. Its most distinctive features are the forest green front door and the fact that he will be able to live alone in it. Elihu is a man content with the music of Handel and his own thoughts for company, a fact that is driven home by the first several chapters. In them, he moves through the house, settling in and making it into a home, albeit a very solitary one. Not much really happens beyond observations and reminiscences.

Then his son appears on his doorstep.

The son's existence is not a surprise. Every now and then, the boy's mother would send Elihu a photograph documenting his growth: nine times in all. Elihu has, in turn, sent child support checks. It's his sole contribution as a father, besides the genetic material. What more could be asked for?

A great deal. At least, that’s what Elihu’s son argues.

The book is written in a simple yet poetic style, which I enjoyed a great deal at the beginning. As it went on, however, the book began to wear on me. It wasn’t the style that bothered me, that felt perfectly fitting for the book and the themes it explored. The characters didn’t wear on me either. While I wished Elihu’s son Ethan might have gotten more depth of characterization, on the whole, the characters were interesting and compelling. What took away from my interest in the book was the tone.

Keys to an Empty House begins in an observant, reminiscent manner, and it never lets up from that. The book is deeply cerebral, delving into Elihu’s thoughts for long paragraphs during and after every moment of action. Between this and the fact that it is less than two hundred pages long, not much happens. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing; it’s merely a matter of taste. (And for what it’s worth, I very much enjoyed the ending.)

Keys to an Empty House is the sort of book that I think will most appeal to older readers, people who enjoy when books take their time, even the short ones. At its best, it is touching and elegiac, mysterious and a little mournful. I may not have personally enjoyed the book, but I could see that it is well-written. I very much hope it finds its audience, for it richly deserves one.


Elsewhere: A Novel

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.


Girls Solve Everything: Stories of Women Entrepreneurs Building a Better World was a book about different girls and different things they did to change the world and make it a better place. There was one girl who helped to make a warming machine to help babies when they are born. The book was written to show strong girls who have done things and to show how girls can do things just like boys. In the book, girls did really good work.

The book had a lot of big words that I wrote down to look up and find out their meaning. There were pictures and text features that were very interesting. I would recommend this book to people who doubt the great work girls can do.


Living a Human Life: Coping with What Comes Before Us

Author, Edward Averill uses his advanced educational background as well as his life experiences to teach readers about the natural human instincts and the progression of behavioral changes throughout history. Averill combines his knowledge of evolution with personal stories to connect the reader to the subject. The author believes that individuals who force their opinions on others or only open their minds to a certain way of thinking can impede our natural evolutionary progress. He further explains that people will not have the opportunity to grow into a more advanced state if they are constantly being taught how to complete tasks or respond to situations, stating that this process is producing robots instead of more advanced beings.

Averill hopes that the natural evolution of man will lead individuals to become more empathetic. He believes the more recent change involving the overuse of technology has caused people to become self-centered and focus too much on shallow, menial aspects of life. Since the author talks about his higher education and unique perspective on the evolution of human life, I expected consistency and accuracy with the writing that was not present. There are several grammatical errors throughout this book that include issues with spacing, incorrect apostrophes, tense shifting, and overuse of hyphenated words. These obvious mistakes that are present on every page make this book difficult to overlook, overshadowing the text and meaning of his words.   I believe this book would be more inclusive if it included thoughts from social scientists, psychologists, human development specialists, and environmentalists. When he does reference other scientists, it is only to back up or prove his opinion or disprove an idea. Without a variety of beliefs, this text seems biased and repetitive.

The author believes that an individual's mindset content is made up of environmental factors, emotional/behavioral responses, intuition, memories, information from a trusted friend or family member, and the neurological circuitry of the brain. Since this book is labeled as “self-help”,  I kept waiting for the author to provide ways to relate with each of these components to get readers more connected with their mindset content. Instead, he repeats the importance of these factors throughout the book without offering a call-to-action or exercises for the reader to improve. I do not believe this book will help individuals strengthen their mindset content, but it will teach readers about Averill’s life and view on evolution. The author’s passion for this subject is apparent, but the lack of organization and editing cannot be overlooked. If Averill’s key points were condensed into a short essay or journal, I believe his words would be more powerful and the overall text would be enjoyed by a wide array of readers.


 Living A Human Life: Coping with What Comes Before Us  by Edward Averill is full of thought-provoking questions on human behavior, especially on how humans make emotional responses to various situations. The book is sectioned into three parts. The first part focuses on the interconnectedness of humanity, showing how all indirectly affect each other through decision-making. It emphasizes how our individuality is arguably very limited, as we rely on one another through goods and services. Averill draws historical evidence of the first early humans to make much of his argument. He presents his conclusions in a way that shows how humanity has developed and succeeded from the earliest of times to our current generation, solely from working as a community. He takes this evidence further throughout this section and the following parts, showing that as humans evolved, their physical minds evolved with them.

He also focuses much on human relationships and emotional responses to outcomes. Averill notes that our responses are very much influenced by where the situation took place, our upbringing, prior expectations, and the knowledge we gained from past experiences. For example, Averill grew up in the mid-1930s during World War II, where he was issued a gas mask and ration book in the wake of a possible German invasion. He draws from his own childhood to explain how he believes his upbringing and prior experiences have influenced the way he responds to situations.

Part two of the book talks about how religion and astrology control one’s beliefs, which in turn can lead to a certain lifestyle. In this section, Averill speaks much of his personal opinion on religion and draws from his own prior religious experiences to help support his points.

Finally, part three of the book focuses on the evolution of life, specifically the evolution of humans and their thinking capacity. He touches on innate predispositions, inborn nature, and how humans have developed their mindsets over the centuries.

Averill had some knowledgeable things to say in this book, but it was completely overshadowed by the incredible amount of repetition. This book could have been shortened almost in half to get the main arguments across. Not to mention, the vast number of grammatical errors, misspellings, and run-on sentences completely distracted me from being able to take in the book’s objectives. The errors were so numerous that I had to constantly stop my reading just to figure out what words were being used and where the sentence ended. Although I wish I had more positive things to note, this book is desperately in need of an editor!


Edward Averill has given evolution a lot of thought over the years. In Living a Human Life, he points out that every human has the ability and opportunity to further the evolution of humanity through the development of our awareness and what he terms our “mindset.” We are formed by our environment, memories, and how we act and react to each and every situation we encounter throughout our lives.

While Averill suggests that we are not as individual as we tend to think we are, we still need to be more aware of our emotions, motivations, and actions in order to know and understand how they affect us and those around us. He feels that we never make decisions in a vacuum. The actions and decisions that we make in the present will form the basis and foundation of the future, making it all the more critical that humans learn to work together for the sake of those yet to come.

Living a Human Life is divided into three parts, each examining how we develop our mindset, how our hierarchy of beliefs is formed, and how we affect others and society in general with our actions and encounters. While I think the overall subject of conscious awareness along with mindset development and its role in our evolution is interesting and fascinating, this book reads more like a first draft than a finished manuscript. It would benefit from some professional editing. Often words ran together on the page, and some sentences were long and, at times, awkward. I also found this work to be very repetitive. If the author had included more illuminating examples to showcase some of his abstract ideas, it would have created a more engaging and exciting text.

I did, however, enjoy reading about the author's life. I think he should have incorporated much more of this aspect into his discussions, especially where he could show how his decisions and encounters made him more aware of his beliefs and, in turn, how they led to change in his life and the lives of others. This would have been much more powerful than simply stating that there were times in his life when his emotions got the better of him or merely conveying that he was sometimes a stubborn person. I think the age-old adage of “show, don't tell” applies to non-fiction just as much as it does to fiction. Nevertheless, Averill shows that our awareness, beliefs, and actions have and will continue to drive the process of human evolution.


Living a Human Life: Coping with What Comes Before Us introduces some world-changing philosophical ideas that explore what life means for humans and the path to achieving further human evolution and a more unified world. The book delves into human history and archaeological discoveries, the impact of religion on human behavior, the interconnectedness of individuals, and the evolution of all life on Earth through "the actions of each human’s living at their time of living." Edward Averill's insights about human evolution are influenced by his engagements before retiring—including attaining BA, MSC, in the Natural Sciences, passing Ph.D. orals Geology and Paleontology, and experiencing seven or more years of fieldwork across the Canadian Shield, Middle East, and parts of Africa.

The book's combination of an in-depth examination of archaeological findings, an ingenious explanation of human intelligence, and a creative imagination of life involving humans in the past provided me with a wealth of information about humanity that is pleasantly unique and different than what any other philosophical books I read previously taught me. I particularly liked the section that states the differences between humans and robots and their similarities. Finding out that robots cannot replace humans because they cannot direct their activities by employing perceptive input was quite comforting. Though the book contains several complex ideas that require critical thinking to process, the author connects with his audience by including real stories, lifelike scenarios, and a comprehensive narration of the events and circumstances that took him on a search for understanding the reasons behind his actions as a human.

Living a Human Life: Coping with What Comes Before Us will appeal to intellectual minds and philosophy enthusiasts who search for life's purpose and wish for a more favorable and progressive world. The chapters cover such diverse topics as astrology, conflict, evolution, divorce, religion, empathy, paleontology and anthropological studies, and self-knowledge. Whether you are on a journey of self-discovery and hope to discover why you behave in certain ways or you wonder why humanity, as a whole, exhibits some concerning, discordant traits, you will find logical and well researched answers in the book.

In a world divided by different destructive beliefs and egoism, we need to teach the profound insights in Living a Human Life: Coping with What Comes Before Us in schools and to share them with all humans as they promote consciousness, gaining control of one's thoughts, and being more empathetic as a race. Humanity's future evolution will have revolutionary individuals, like Edward Averill, to thank for speeding its departure from past problems, especially war, manipulation, and poverty.


The Daughter of Doctor Moreau

In this magical retelling of The Island of Doctor Moreau, Carlota Moreau lives in a luxurious, isolated estate in nineteenth-century Mexico. Her father, Doctor Moreau, has created a slew of “hybrids,” half-human half-animals, hidden away in the jungle. Despite their secrets, Carlota, Doctor Moreau, and the hybrids live peacefully as their own kind of family – until the son of Doctor Moreau’s benefactor suddenly arrives, threatening to unravel the life they’ve all known.

Silvia Moreno-Garcia proved her gift for haunting storytelling in Mexican Gothic and Velvet Was the Night, and she takes her talents to a whole new level in The Daughter of Doctor Moreau. Her writing transports readers right into the jungle and the eerie, isolated world of Carlota and her father. Though I have not read HG Wells’ The Island of Doctor Moreau, I have no doubt that Moreno-Garcia’s retelling is the perfect modern-day tribute with a feminist spin. Gothic in the best sense, with creative sci-fi twists and characters full of passion, The Daughter of Doctor Moreau is a gripping tale for readers of all kinds.


Lucy Checks In: A Novel

After working in the hotel industry for years, Lucia Giannetti has fallen for the owner of Fielding Hotel in New York. She thinks he's fallen for her until he disappears with the hotel's money. With her life in ruins, she's had to move back in with her parents, which is less than ideal.

Lucia is all in when a job offer arrives to manage a hotel in France. She imagines a glamorous life in a new city. Upon arrival, she's confronted with a run-down hotel and the prospects of a lot of work to get it going again. Luckily, she will have the help of some long-term live-in guests and the hotel's owner Claudine, who isn't afraid of a challenge or two. And there's Bing, an arrogant author living in the hotel, who challenges Lucia at every step. But he is alluring and attractive. Lucia doesn't trust her instincts anymore and tries to remain aloof. However, that may not be possible for long.

Lucy Checks In is a fabulous escape about recovering self-esteem, finding new friends and a new home, and learning to trust in love again. It's full of charming characters, beautiful descriptions, and a heartwarming storyline. I found it hard to put down.


A Prayer for the Crown-Shy (Monk & Robot Book 2)

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy is the sweet and thoughtful sequel to A Psalm for the Wild-Built. If you enjoyed the endearing characters and expansive optimism of the first book, you’re going to love this one.

The story picks up right where the first book left off, with Sibling Dex, a tea monk, experiencing the sometimes all-encompassing listlessness that often accompanies being human and Mosscap the robot emissary (the first one seen in hundreds of years) on a mission to answer the question “What do humans need?” by heading out of the wilderness and into the villages of Panga.

Chambers’ knack for creating cozy sci-fi/fantasy stories shines through every page, from the beautifully descriptive prose meandering through the roads and villages of Panga to the thoughtful diversity of the cast of characters. Chambers blends the tech-savvy future with a philosophical approach to fundamental questions about humanity, throws in a dash of buddy comedy, and a sprinkle of the hero’s quest into something truly unique that anyone looking for a comfort read can lose themselves in for a few short hours.


In the Spirit of Famous Mystery Icons Roundup

Classic mystery icons never die as authors keep their spirits alive with new works written in a similar style. These books are a roundup of new books that honor Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes. Experience the wonderful mystery-solving techniques of these two once again.

A Trace of Poison
Colleen Cambridge
Kensington
ISBN: 9781496732477

Readers will reveal in this delightful mystery set in the world of Agatha Christie. Entrants of a writing conference gather together for an evening of cocktails when one of the attendees drinks a lethal cocktail meant for Alastair Whittlesby, the man who is a shoo-in for the top prize. Agatha’s housekeeper, Phyllida Bright, is the sleuth in this story about jealousy, murder, and danger. With cameos from history's most famous writers, readers will love the twists and turns.

A Murder at Balmoral
Chris McGeorge
Penguin Publishing Group
ISBN: 9780593544136

The royal family has gathered at Balmoral Castle for their annual Christmas retreat. As King Eric is about to name his successor, he drops dead. The chef, Jonathan, plays the detective in this Agatha Christie-style locked-room mystery. Everyone in the family has a means, and a motive, and readers will guess one family member after the other. As secrets unfold, will Jonathan find out whodunnit before he himself becomes the victim? Clever and full of surprises, A Murder at Balmoral is like the game of Clue in book form.

What Child is This?
Bonnie MacBird, Frank Cho
HarperCollins Publishers
9780008521288

Sherlock Holmes takes on two cases in this book that masters the style and characters of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. With detailed illustrations by illustrator Frank Cho, fans of the Baker Street detective and his trusty sidekick Watson will enjoy these stories set during Christmas time. The stories both involve missing persons—one, a three-year-old of a wealthy couple who has been kidnapped, and two, an aristocrat’s son who has gone missing from his London pied à terre. This page-turner is perfect for fans of Holmes and Watson.

The Body Falls (5) (An Inishowen Mystery)
Andrea Carter
Oceanview Publishing
9781608094301

Set in Glendara, Inishowen, Ireland, Lawyer Benedicta (Ben) O'Keeffe and Police Sergeant Tom Malloy set out to solve a mystery. After a torrential downpour, a body falls onto a passing vehicle after being dislodged. The victim is a well-known charities boss and a snakebite is found. Being in an area where there are no native snakes, Ben and Tom investigate whether or not this could actually be a homicide. This is the fifth novel in this series and is written much like that of an Agatha Christie mystery.

Holmes Coming
Kenneth Johnson
Blackstone Publishing
9798200706884

When Dr. Amy Winslow finds a half-mummified man who calls himself Holmes and claims he was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s muse, Amy thinks the guy is out of his mind. After reviving him, she realizes this man really is the real Holmes (his first name is NOT Sherlock, however) and sets out to help him solve cases, including one that is very close to her. The San Francisco Police Chief died on her table after being attacked by a Bengal tiger. In this Holmes revival, readers will experience the time-traveled detective as he would be in modern times. Cleverly written and perfect for fans of the brash genius detective.


Forward March

Harper McKinley, a band nerd, had one main plan: keep her head low so as not to hinder her Republican father’s election campaign. But when she finds out that someone has created a fake - very gay - Tinder profile posing as her, she resolves to never let anyone know about it. If this gets out, Harper’s father could lose the election.
But who really created the profile? This was a messy situation to begin with, but then Harper meets Margot Blanchard. She’s cute and funny, and also, she swiped right. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to be just friends … right? As Harper begins to fall for Margot, she has to decide what’s more important: helping her father win, or being with the girl who has her heart?

This story was a heartwarming, adorable gay romance that hit all the right emotional buttons. It was easy to read, but still fun and well-paced with plenty of romance. The cast was inclusive with beautiful friendships and dynamics, and I liked the school band setting. Harper and Margot had the most charming banter, and I rooted for them throughout the entire book. I would recommend this to anyone who loves fun romantic drama!


Fake It Till You Bake It

Fake It Till You Bake It: A Novel is an endlessly entertaining romp through both the classic enemies to lovers and fake significant other tropes with a sweet twist and even sweeter characters. Jada Townsend-Matthews, a national social media villain who turned down America’s sweetheart of the week on a reality dating show, ends up out of work, out of luck, and locked out of her trust fund. Donovan Dell, a professional football player turned cupcakery owner is struggling to figure out why his business is failing and doing everything in his power to avoid unnecessary distractions. But when Jada finds herself forced to work in the shop, with Donovan in no position to refuse, these two sweet and sour personalities collide in front of a reporter who mistakes them for a couple. The social media circus that follows boosts the bakery’s business, and helps Jada salvage her online image. Their chemistry practically jumps off the page, with each new misunderstanding between them deepening their connection and forcing them to consider if they’re really faking it, or if their feelings will lead them to a sweet ending.


Worlds of Exile and Illusion: Three Complete Novels of the Hainish Series in One Volume--Rocannon's World; Planet of Exile; City of Illusions (Hainish Cycle, 1-3)

In these three books, collected in one volume, the expertly written plots, while engrossing, are merely a vehicle to explore LeGuin's complex and beautiful ideas. Each of these only loosely connected stories can stand perfectly on its own, but reading the three in succession you see themes introduced, developed, echoed and revisited in multiple layers. Rocannan's World introduces themes of splitting apart what should be connected, and the way to reintegrate bifurcations into wholeness; for example, light and shadow, above and below, lord and servant, even predator and prey. Planet of Exile explores the idea of the alien, and how to treat "the other" -- but also revisits that idea of bringing together that which is separate. City of Illusions brings up themes of truth and of finding what something truly is, its "true name", and the power of that truth -- then you realize, that theme has been omnipresent in the other two books as well. There are depths and layers that weave these themes through all three of the books and connect them through much more than the superficial plots would lead you to believe. The perceptive will find many analogies to our own times as well.


The Cayenne & Cocoa Companion: 100 Recipes and Remedies for Natural Living

The Cayenne & Cocoa Companion is a beautiful book of one hundred recipes and remedies for natural living. Cayenne is antimicrobial, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, and is great for skin and hair. Cocoa is wonderful for circulation, blood sugar control, and is a potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory. The author, Suzy Scherr, has written several books highlighting healthful ingredients. Not only do her recipes have health benefits, but they also look oh-so-delicious. Some of the recipes I will be trying are Nashville Hot Chicken, Spicy Beer Cheese (a creamy, tangy, rich, spicy sauce that sounds amazing), All-Purpose Cayenne Marinade, and Spicy Chocolate Cake with Mocha Buttercream (need I say more?). This book is also wonderful because Suzy includes healing treatments. For example, her Rejuvenating Elixir is loaded with antioxidants, contributes to a glowing complexion, and is very detoxifying. The Relief for Nasal Congestion is another concoction that I would love to try since several family members have allergies. This one is a simple one with hot water, apple cider vinegar, raw honey, and cayenne pepper. . From delicious recipes to simple remedies, this is a book that all families should have on their shelves


The Clever Wife: A Kyrgyz Folktale

The Clever Wife: A Kyrgyz Folktale told by Rukhsana Khan and illustrated by Ayesha Gamiet is the story about, well, a clever wife! And this wife sure was clever! She made the Khan feel very silly for his behavior. When the new Khan helped the poor, it was very nice. It wasn’t nice how the other women were mean to Danyshman, but the one was nice to her. The khan’s riddles were funny and his wife’s answers were even better.

We felt like we got to visit another land and it felt like we were in a different house than we are right now. The pictures were really cool and we felt like we were really there. It’s always interesting to learn about other places and the people who live there. This book is really nice to cuddle up and read with. It’s a fable, so that’s cool. So if you like fairy tales, you’ll probably like this book. It made us feel really happy for the clever wife and made us laugh at the end.


Bet on It: A Novel

Bet on It: A Novel by Jodie Slaughter is a tender gem of a romance about acceptance, friendship, and finding love in all the wrong places. The story centers on Aja, a young Washington D.C. transplant who moves to the small southern town of Greenbelt to get a better hold on her anxiety disorder and bring some semblance of peace and order to her life. It was working relatively well; she had her weekly bingo game with the elderly Ms. May…and not much else. That is until Ms. May breaks both her arms and her grandson Walker temporarily moves into town to take care of her. After he helps Aja through a late-night panic attack at the Piggly Wiggly, she knows her heart is in trouble, and it’s not from the anxiety. Walker has issues of his own and returning to the town that gave him his PTSD is the least of his worries when just being in Aja’s presence makes his heart rate skyrocket. Slaughter writes about sensitive issues with an easy grace that seamlessly blends into the story in a way that enriches the plot and increases the tension in all the right ways.


A Collection of Murder and Mayhem

Need a book that will keep your attention from cover to cover? These brand-new crime fiction novels are sure to pique your interest. From cold cases to police corruption to a real-life kidnapping, readers will find their noses buried deep in these fascinating mysteries.

Duplicity (2) (A Brick Kavanagh Mystery)
Shawn Wilson
Oceanview Publishing
ISBN: 9781608095100

The second book in the Brick Kavanaugh series, this one can be read as a standalone and picks up with Retired Homicide Detective Kavanaugh going back to Washington, D.C., to teach criminology students about cold cases. In the meantime, his ex-partner’s family is kidnapped. With corruption and danger at the forefront of this story, readers will love this fast-paced, action-packed book with its hero of a protagonist. Perfect for fans of crime thrillers.

Standalone
Christopher Chambers
Three Rooms Press
ISBN: 9781953103239

Standalone is the second book in the Dickie Cornish series. Unlicensed Private Investigator Dickie Cornish struggles with sobriety, anti-psychotic meds, and counseling with the VA. When an ex-con holds him at gunpoint to solve the cold case of his missing daughter, Cornish finds much more, including police and child services corruption. This book will expose the underbelly of crime in Washington, D.C., and will have readers dredging through the streets alongside Cornish in this crime thriller.

No Plan B
Lee Child, Andrew Child
Random House Publishing Group
ISBN: 9781984818546

Jack Reacher is at it again. In this 27th installment of Lee Child’s famous character series, Reacher witnesses a woman getting pushed in front of a bus, the perpetrator taking her bag, and running. The police say it was suicide, but Reacher knows better. Then another homicide occurs, and Reacher knows something is fishy when it is marked as an accidental death. In true Jack Reacher fashion, he finds himself in the middle of something bigger than a single serial killer. In fact, as Reacher investigates, he discovers there are several people behind these crimes with an agenda that will stop at nothing. Fans of the Child brothers and Jack Reacher will love the latest in the series with its non-stop action and charismatic main character.

Lady Joker, Volume 2
Kaoru Takamura, Allison Markin Powell, Marie Iida
Soho Press
ISBN: 9781641290296

Kaoru Takamura, queen of Japanese crime fiction, delivers Lady Joker, Volume 2, inspired by the real-life Glico-Morinaga kidnapping. It brings to life the victims, the perpetrators, the good guys, and the bad. Readers will follow along as police track the crime group known as Lady Joker. Dark and complex, fans of seedy crime fiction will applaud this one.

Robert Ludlum's The Blackbriar Genesis
Simon Gervais
Penguin Publishing Group
ISBN: 9780593419977

Simon Gervais delivers this fantastic, action-packed book starring Robert Ludlum’s Treadstone and Blackbriar agents. When a Treadstone agent is killed in an explosion, the only thing suspicious is that no one knows why he was there. Two Blackbriar operatives, Jouvert and Wade, are sent into the field to find out why the agent was at this particular place at this day and time. Readers will love the two Blackbriar agents as they find themselves in a world of conspiracy, deceit, and betrayal.


Life-Changing Cross-Cultural Friendships: How You Can Help Heal Racial Divides, One Relationship at a Time

Award-winning author Gary Chapman and renowned educator Clarence Shuler merge their experiences and life lessons learned in a timely book about the promise of bridging racial divides through meaningful and mutually beneficial connections. In Life-Changing Cross-Cultural Friendships, the two men – Chapman is White and Shuler is Black – set their cross-cultural friendship as an example of what is possible when people from different backgrounds make an intentional effort to establish interracial friendships.  The authors focus on a Christian perspective that centers on Jesus’ ministry and is grounded in respect, forgiveness, grace, and serving others. Throughout the book, Schuler explains foundational diversity and inclusion concepts like culture, cultural differences, and color-blindness.

The friendly and inviting tone of Life-Changing Cross-Cultural Friendships reflects its intention to bring together people of the Christian faith from diverse backgrounds. It is a timely book given that Christians in America continue to worship in segregated church settings. In addition, we witness the worrisome trend of racial divisiveness and vitriol by particular faith communities. The authors’ appeal to followers of Jesus is simple: healthy, long-term friendships with someone from another race require intentional actions to enhance communication and resolve conflicts.


Nightwork: A Novel

Much of the beginning of this novel is very similar to a recent novel by Atticus Lish, The War for Gloria, wherein a young son grows up way too early in order to care for his mother, who has been stricken with a deadly disease. That, however, ends the similarity, as Nightwork is the story of an attractive master thief with an unlikely moral center.

As this is a romance novel with a suspense-based overstory, the reader is asked to suspend any disbelief and enjoy the love story. The two main characters are the thief, Harry Booth, and the beautiful Miranda Emerson. Miranda, of course, complicates his life by becoming the kind of love and attachment who could derail the sleuth’s identity as he slips through jobs whilst remaining undercover.

The story is well told and interesting, although this reader found the last one hundred pages predictable and unnecessary—and yet there is a postscript to boot. Nora Roberts is the first inductee into the Romance Writers’ Hall of Fame as well as a New York Times best-selling author. She has written over two hundred books and has honed her craft well so that her fans will be delighted by this latest entry in her catalogue.


MEG: A Novel of Deep Terror (MEG, 1)

Seven years after his tragic last dive, Jonas Taylor is talked into returning to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. Convinced that what he saw down there could not be real, Jonas once again travels seven miles below the ocean's surface, only to have disaster strike again. This time the carnage leads a prehistoric monster from the depths. Now there is a seventy-foot-long megalodon lose, and everything she encounters becomes her next meal. Jonas knows this giant beast needs to be stopped, but how does one hunt the most deadly apex predator the world has ever seen?

MEG: A Novel of Deep Terror by best-selling author Steve Alton is a fast-paced oceanic adventure. A cross between Jaws and Jurassic Park, Alton’s action-packed story thrills and excites. This book is only the beginning of Alton's deep sea horror saga, but he has set an incredible stage in this first volume. MEG is a modern-day fantasy filled with plenty of oceanographic and paleographic data. With many scenes of blood and gore, Alton does not hold back when trying to scare his readers from ever getting near the ocean again.


This Woven Kingdom (This Woven Kingdom, 1)

Alizeh only wants to keep her head down, live her life in safety, and if she can, comfortably. Unfortunately, she's no normal girl; she's a jinn and jinn don't get to live normal lives, especially one with secrets. She's been hunted her whole life and one mistake could ruin everything. Kamran is the prince. He was raised for the throne, knows his duty, and is ready to except his fate. Yet, a chance encounter with a girl who is not all she seems threatens to upturn everything he knows. Kamran could lose everything to save this girl, or he could lose everything if he doesn’t.

Forbidden romance, a hiding queen, and a prophecy wrap together to create an exciting tale. Every character has a purpose, even the ones who don't seem too. They're all unique with different personalities as well. The writing style is poetic and visual, different from a lot of young adult fiction, and I found that I enjoyed it. Some things were confusing at first but explained by the end, leaving a cliffhanger.


The Lying Club: A Novel

Natalie is an office assistant at an elite private school in Colorado, where she spends her days watching women like Brooke and Asha, parents who seem to have it all. Brooke and Asha’s girls are coached by the handsome Coach Nick, whom everyone wants. When Nick chooses to date Natalie, she thinks some of her own dreams are coming true. But it will all end with two bodies and three women forming The Lying Club to take their secrets to the grave.

There is a lot of similarity to Big Little Lies here, so those who are fans of Liane Moriarty will enjoy it, as well as those who just like reading about creeps getting their just desserts. One thing is really clear in this story: money does not buy you happiness, just a lot of drugs and alcohol to help dull reality. I really enjoy the storytelling method of knowing that someone has been murdered, but you don’t find out who until much farther in as you watch the story unfold. It adds to the suspense and mystery as you try to figure out who did it, even though you aren’t even entirely sure who the victim is.


Remember Me: A Novel

When a note shows up telling Blue to board the blue bus at a specific time, she does it. She feels as if something is missing and hopes that whomever she meets or whatever she sees might answer her questions, but when Adam boards, Blue only has more questions. In order to get answers, she confronts Adam, asks her family, and even considers hypnosis. She overhears conversations that are meaningless until she discovers that she has purposely paid to remove her memories. What could she have wanted to forget so badly that she would erase memories of the recent past?

This tale is not so much a trip into a mystery as a fall into grief and loss. Set in the not-so-distant future, Blue’s plight is contradictory: why did she have a message that would reverse what she did to forget? Some readers will embrace Blue’s reasons for wiping out her past, but others may want to avoid this due to mentions of suicide and death. It may be a challenge to finish as the big mystery is answered in the first half. Readers who prefer more mystery behind memory loss should look for Remember Me Gone by Stacy Stokes.


Hello, Baby!: I'm Your Mom

This sweet story of moms taking care of their babies starts from tiny little human babies and expands to all manner of creatures from cats to birds to rhinos and more. No matter what the species, all the moms take care of their babies in their own special way.

Eve Bunting is a wonderful and loving creator of children’s books. Her books are sometimes fanciful and sometimes they teach about difficult subjects. They don’t all have happy endings, but they all have hopeful endings, which is much more instructive for young children. In this book, the illustrations are executed by Jui Ishida, who brings lovely colors and warm mom/baby interactions to life from a circle of protective mother elephants to the porcupine’s maternal hug.

All the moms in this book have caring messages of protection and love for their little ones. At the end of the book are pictures of ten different animals with facts about them. The author is an Irish-born Californian who has written over two hundred and fifty books for children in order to make them think. This is the latest delightful addition to her catalogue.


Mushroom Rain

Popping up mysteriously out of nowhere, mushrooms are abundant and seemingly magical. Some look like umbrellas waiting for the rain to fall, while others emerge in magnificent shades of neon green, illuminating the ground with their otherworldly appearance. Some grace the atmosphere with delectable aromas like coconut and bubble gum, while others fill it with ghastly scents of spoiled cabbage and decaying wildlife. They provide sustenance to creatures big and small, and as suddenly as they appear, they disappear, their roots stretching deep underground, and their spores spreading far and wide, a few escaping to the clouds to help make rain: a mushroom rain.

Mushroom Rain is a valuable contribution to the body of nonfiction children’s books concerning the natural world. It’s full of simple yet confounding truths about mushrooms and the environments in which they thrive. Gorgeous illustrations gloss the pages with vibrant hues and articulate detail. They’ll pull youth in, capturing their attention and admiration, sparking their curiosity and interest, challenging them to peruse them like a lost journal. The lightly sprinkled text, as well as the additional information inserted at the end, will be favored by many. Elementary school educators will find this a treasurable resource for their classrooms.


Feeding Women of the Talmud, Feeding Ourselves (Jewish Food Hero Collection)

In this intriguing cookbook, you will find much more than just recipes. First, there are plant-based recipes that range from simple teas for various occasions to complex main dishes as well as snacks, desserts, and breads. I was pleased to see recipes that included traditional techniques, like the Seven Herbs and Spices Focaccia, which uses sourdough culture, as well as quite innovative riffs, like the No-Bake Vegan Millionaire Squares. The latter is really nothing like its namesake caramel shortbread cookies but is nevertheless a sweet and tasty treat that is simply made with readily-sourced ingredients. Even more interesting are the included stories that accompany the recipes. The book recounts the stories of dozens of women from the Talmud, the text of Judaic law and commentary, told directly from that. Each woman's story is told directly from the Talmud with questions for reflection or discussion. Being unfamiliar with the Talmud, I especially appreciated the contextual explanations as well as the modern commentary. Centering on these women, the stories invite new perspectives on traditional and evolving ideas and encourage you to dig deeper into this text and history. There is much to savor here, for the body, mind, and spirit.


51

On the way back from his AA meeting, Adam Pagnucco stopped to help a down-and-out stranger who turned out to be Adam’s best friend from collage, Winston Koop. Their lives couldn’t have been more different since school. Adam became a photographer and sobered up. Koop became entangled in a conspiracy that became a massive government coverup. Koop revealed that he collected people’s stories then erased their memories, but Adam could still sense that Koop was hiding something. Now on their way to Roswell, Adam feels it was a bad idea to have stopped and helped Koop in the first place.

51 is the surreal new science fiction novel by Patrick O’Leary. Spanning over fifty years, the timeline jumps around enough to make one’s head spin, with endings as clear as a kaleidoscopic daydream. It is a quirky, offbeat take on a popular plot. O’Leary takes the Roswell conspiracy and sets it on its ear. This outlandish paranormal chronical pushes science fiction in a new direction.  O’Leary’s bizarre, hallucinogenic narrative is the Naked Lunch for a new generation. In fact, 51 has all the elements of a cult classic in the making.


Elephants in Our Yard

Elephants in Our Yard by Meral Kureyshi is a novel of loss – in the passing of a loved one, in fleeing and migrating to a new country where one feels unwelcome, and in returning to the motherland where one feels they no longer belong but to which they are still tethered. The narrator acts as cartographer, mapping grief in physical landmarks as she illustrates her family’s journey from their hometown of Prizren in former Yugoslavia through the various Swiss towns they move through while their status and fates are processed. Moving through the places that swallow the migrant in an unfamiliar tongue and cold indifference, she speaks in the second person to her late father, whose passing has further disoriented the family and whose promises and dreams of a better life seem to haunt more than comfort.

While poignant and at many times bleak, Kureyshi’s voice also offers the glimmers of hope that appear universal in the Western diaspora. The story is broken into vignettes, oscillating between the emptiness in her father’s absence and the feeling of becoming a stranger to her homeland, and the moments of joy and triumph in establishing her and her family’s identity in the face of isolation and alienation. These moments, like when they finally have a phone and find their names in the Swiss phone book, echo a universal desperation known to many in the diaspora, one that aches to be a part of one’s new world without having to succumb to its colors, and while still saturated in the names and textures of one’s motherland. Kureyshi outlines this paradox in simple but affecting tones, not arguing against it or apologizing for it but rather embracing the idea that straddling multiple cultures is often a messy and beautiful experience.


Our Fermented Lives: A History of How Fermented Foods Have Shaped Cultures & Communities

Our Fermented Lives: A History of How Fermented Foods Have Shaped Cultures and Communities by Julia Skinner provides a valuable history of fermentation throughout human history. This profound and important text on the intersection of culture and fermentation offers not only history, but also guidelines on fermentation and recipes as well. How better to understand a culture or a time period than to understand and prepare its food?

As the author says of fermentation, “An act of co-creation with the microbes… and with whomever you are fermenting with.” This beautiful idea of how the act of fermentation can reconnect us with the world, ourselves, and the people around us permeates the text.

The interconnectedness of the two species is mind-blowing and intricately woven, in life and in this narrative. The impact of fermentation and culture cannot be understated, even in how the words are related—a colony of bacteria used for fermentation is a culture, as well as referring to the collective society of a group of people. The interactivity between fermentation cultures and cultures of people is fascinating and an escape from homogeneity, both in our food and in our societies.


A Map for the Missing: A Novel

If one wants to travel to China, this book provides the map. It is the story of a college professor teaching in the United States and searching for his father in his homeland of China. In order to return to the place of his birth, the professor is required to reunite with the past and fill in the missing spaces of his history and family relationships.

Initially, the main character is elusive, but as one reads further, the story captures his rich inner life and the shame that has plagued him into a narrow existence. Things happen to the main character without any volition on his part. Tang Vitian, the main character, is estranged from his father, who has gone missing. Vitian flies to China to search for his father, who has always been a distant and missing figure to his son.

In telling this intriguing story, the author also manages to underline the tremendous cost and deprivation caused by the revolution. Read this book for the travel, and through it, learn more about the world.


Olympians: Dionysos: The New God (Olympians, 12)

This book begins from the point of view of Hestia, the Goddess of the Hearth. While in her point of view, it explains what Hestia went through during the time she was in her father's stomach after he swallowed her. Soon afterwards, the point of view transfers over to Dionysos, the God of Wine. The book then follows Dionysos as he invents wine, and it explains the tragic results of that invention.

One of the stories is about how Dionysos falls asleep in pirate territory and gets captured. One of the pirates recognizes Dionysos as a god and insists that they set him free, but the rest of the pirates think he's crazy. Dionysos is offended and summons a jungle to sink the boat.

This is a very well put together book. The illustrations are very fabulous and give you a perspective inside the story. This is a very good book, and it a great final book in the Olympians series. I am sad this is the last! I would recommend this book to everyone who is interested in ancient myths.


The Skies Above: Storm Clouds, Blood Moons, and Other Everyday Phenomena

The Skies Above explains nearly any and everything weather-related. The author, Mersereau, begins with aspects of our sky that we see (or maybe not) on a daily basis and topics including the different types of clouds and precipitation, and then works his way to how objects and occurrences in space affect the weather we observe and experience, starting with the lunar phases, lunar eclipses, and then the transition of space rocks from asteroids, comets, and meteors. Weather phenomena related to the different seasons come next and finishes out the book.

 The information is detailed and explained well; there is minimal jargon, and when there is it is explained with plenty of illustrations to aid. Mersereau explains topics from an evolutionist's belief. I found the book enlightening and a worthwhile source to have accessible when I see a cloud that I can't identify or wonder about how the wind works and its effect on our daily weather. The illustrations are the right amount in quantity, the quality is bright and detailed, and they enhance the book overall. The Skies Above is relevant today and will continue to be, for as long as humans exist, there will be weather, working as he explains.


The Latecomer: A Novel

As a newly married woman, Johanna Oppenheimer wants nothing more than a baby. When she has triplets via IVF—a brand-new technology in the early 1970s—she’s thrilled. But the triplets co-exist as little more than reluctant housemates, eager to be free of one another. Johanna and Salo’s marriage is equally distant, and Salo searches for true intimacy elsewhere—in his art collection, but also with another woman. When Johanna decides to bring a fourth child into their family—the fourth embryo from the IVF round, long frozen—the adult triplets all but ignore her. Still, the family dynamic shifts. Not immediately, and not easily. But it turns out that the “latecomer”—Phoebe—is what the family most needs after all.

Following each sibling—Sally, Harrison, and Lewyn—as they move through high school, college, and early adulthood, the novel shifts point of view and shows just how intractable the siblings’ expectations and behaviors are. There are opportunities for connection, mostly ignored or recklessly destroyed. What Phoebe brings, very late, to the Oppenheimer party is a new view of how important family ties are, and a certainty that it’s never too late to build those bridges. The Latecomer is more of a family drama than Korelitz’s The Plot or You Should Have Known, but no less of a pageturner.


Hendrix Vol. 1: Electric Requiem

The 1960s was a time of new freedoms in America as well as ongoing civil strife. It was also a time of drugs, sex, and rock-n-roll. The electric guitar played a major role in the soundtrack of the times. When guitarists were gods, at the top of the pantheon was Jimi Hendrix. He was loved by many and is considered one of the best to ever take the stage.

Hendrix Vol. 1: Electric Requiem is a new graphic novel perfect for any Jimi Hendrix fan. Written and penciled by Mattia Colombara, the book tells the compelling life story of the little boy from Seattle who grew into a man loved worldwide. Colombara portrayed the young imaginative Jimi in the Prince Valiant-style graphic. The illustration signified different eras in Jimi’s life, from the use of darker tones in his foundational years to more vibrant colors that appropriately represent the musician’s psychedelic period. Colombara does not shy away from the hardships Jimi experienced, choosing to focus on the ongoing racism, much of what Jimi personally went through. Even as an illustrated story, this is one of the most complete Hendrix bios. With chapters named after his songs, it’s hard to get through without Jimi Hendrix playing in your head.


The Partnership: George Marshall, Henry Stimson, and the Extraordinary Collaboration That Won World War II

Henry Stimson and George Marshall were from different parts of the United States, and they were on diverging paths in life. Stimson was a Wall Street lawyer raking in big fees. Marshall was a lifelong soldier who could get things done. However, the call of service to their country beckoned them both. Their response would be swift, their service would be lengthy and noteworthy.

The two men were previously acquainted during World War I, when Stimson had briefly answered to Marshall. The growing conflict in Europe would result in Franklin Roosevelt calling on both men to mobilize men and arms as World War II consumed the globe. Stimson, as Secretary of War, and Marshall, as Army Chief of Staff, would oversee the US effort in supporting and partnering with the Allies.

The Partnership functions as more than a dual biography of two wartime leaders. The enduring legacy of Stimson’s and Marshall’s leadership has left its mark on the decade since their service concluded. Edward Farley Aldrich examines the two men with a fine-tooth comb and leaves the reader more than satisfied with the research and his views on Stimson and Marshall, through thick and thin. A notable book for 2022.


The Nineties: A Book

To borrow a friend’s phrase, "I am the arrow through the bullseye target market" for Chuck Klosterman’s latest book The Ninetie. As a 1994 high school graduate who majored in English and became a high school English teacher, the social, political, economic, and musical research in the book scratched nearly every one of my pop culture itches.

What Klosterman gets perfectly right is identifying the moments that resonate from that wild decade thirty years later. He hits on the television and music shaping those days in a way that makes them seem fresh even for someone like me who remembers the moments in real-time. His breakdown of the Nirvana video for Smells Like Teen Spirit transported me back to my thirteen-inch screen television with its bootlegged cable box, tuning into MTV and feeling cooler and a little afraid for reasons I was too young to understand.

What The Nineties is doing, I think, is justifying and outlining a decade that can often feel like a joke. Low rise pants and wallet chains, Ross Perot as a presidential candidate, popular sitcoms like Seinfeld that were arguably about absolutely nothing—how could any self-respecting person take the nineties seriously? But Klosterman makes the case that even the most ridiculous elements of the age had, and still have, weight, and to know where we’re going, it would do us all some good to revisit where we’ve been.


Room Service Please

It all starts with a pair of too-tight shoes from the dime store. Ugly, black pumps for Edith to wear. But her mother wants her to wear them so that's what Edith does. On the eve of her sixteenth birthday, Edith goes dancing without a proper escort and is mistaken for a movie star. No one believes she’s not the rising starlet, no matter how much she tries to convince them otherwise. She only wants a fun night of dancing, to not lose her virginity, and to not have a whirlwind of problems the following morning. No obstacle will stop her; Edith is determined to confront the man who seduces her and demands he makes it right. As she performs a role she wasn't prepared for, Edith starts to find her true self, not whom her mother wants her to be or whom her dance teacher wants her to be, but whom she's meant to be.

Room Service, Please is a coming-of-age story wonderfully spun through the eyes of a sixteen-year-old from a different era. With vivid characters and a rich storyline, Edith shows us that growing up and away from expectations is as complicated and confusing now as it was a hundred years ago. It's hard to get to know characters in such a short time span, but I found that every time Edith lost a bell boy I was sad because I liked their charm. Even characters that are only mentioned have their own uniqueness to them. Edith herself was hard to like because she was snotty and selfish but she was also just a lost teenager trying to please everyone around her even when she didn’t want to. I still enjoyed her story and could relate to her struggles of growing up and finding herself. The story was sometimes confusing, the way things are written with flowery descriptions that were hard to tell if they were metaphors or real, how Edith thinks, and sometimes jumping from past to present without much explanation. The middle of the story started to drag a bit repeating almost the same scene several times. The cover is beautiful, almost like a painted portrait of Edith, and is one more thing that makes her come to life. Overall, I enjoyed the story and recommend it to not only teens but adults as well. It’s an easy afternoon read that will have you wanting to know how it ends from the first page.


On the Ledge: A Memoir

This Is Me: Memoirs to Remember

In a world filled with stories waiting to be told, there's something uniquely captivating about diving into the pages of a memoir or biography. These first-hand accounts offer a window into the lives, experiences, and innermost thoughts of individuals who have left an indelible mark on history, culture, and society. In this roundup, we explore six recently published biographies and memoirs that promise to leave readers inspired, enlightened, and deeply moved. From tales of resilience and triumph over adversity to reflections on identity and the human condition, these books offer a diverse range of voices and experiences that will linger in your thoughts long after the final page is turned.

The Long Road Home by Debra Thompson

The Long Road Home by Debra Thompson is a poignant exploration of identity, belonging, and the multifaceted experiences of being Black in North America. Thompson embarks on a transformative journey, delving into her family's ties to the Underground Railroad in Shrewsbury, Ontario, before revisiting four American cities, each with its own complex history of racism and democracy. From Boston as the birthplace of revolution to Eugene as the western frontier, she unveils the uncomfortable truths about racism's persistence in American society. Settling in Montreal, Thompson uncovers the complexities of acceptance and belonging within a city with a storied history of transnational Black activism. This book goes beyond being a personal narrative, offering a vital examination of racism in the United States and Canada while highlighting the enduring power of freedom and the shared dreams that connect Black individuals across borders.

America Made Me a Black Man: A Memoir by Boyah J. Farah

Boyah J. Farah’s America Made Me a Black Man: A Memoir is a searing and deeply personal account of the profound impact of American racism on an immigrant from Somalia who, after surviving hardships in his homeland, confronts a different kind of dehumanization in the United States. Born in Somalia and raised among nomads, Farah's upbringing instilled in him a code of male bravado that helped him endure deprivation, disease, and civil war. Upon arriving in America, he believed this code would serve him well, only to be confronted with systemic racism, police brutality, and pervasive prejudice. Farah's account not only explores the challenges of being an African in America but also delves into the complex experience of becoming African American. This memoir challenges readers to confront uncomfortable truths about the destructive forces that threaten Black lives while offering a unique perspective on the fractured identity of Black men in America.

On the Ledge: A Memoir by Amy Turner

On the Ledge: A Memoir by Amy Turner is a powerful and highly personal narrative that spans multiple generations, exploring the enduring impact of childhood trauma and the journey toward self-discovery and healing. Turner's childhood was marked by the traumatic incident of her father's attempted suicide, which haunted her throughout her life, leading to a state of hypervigilance. Years later, after surviving a near-fatal accident, she embarks on a remarkable emotional odyssey, delving into the trauma of her own brush with death and, unexpectedly, unearthing deeper childhood wounds. Through acupuncture, somatic-oriented therapies, and serendipitous experiences, Turner unravels the layers of her trauma and finds healing, not only for herself but also for her relationship with her parents. This poignant and intimate memoir underscores the resilience of the human spirit and the transformative power of self-discovery, proving that it's never too late to seek self-acceptance and healing.

The Daughter of Auschwitz by Tova Friedman and Malcolm Brabant

The Daughter of Auschwitz is a profoundly moving memoir co-authored by Tova Friedman and Malcolm Brabant. Friedman, one of the youngest survivors of Auschwitz, shares her heartbreaking and harrowing account of being a Holocaust survivor, from her childhood growing up during the Holocaust to her near-death experiences in a Jewish ghetto, a Nazi labor camp, and the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp. Her story serves as a testament to the indomitable human spirit and the enduring obligation to remember the 1.5 million Jewish children who perished during the Holocaust. Through meticulous research by Brabant, the memoir immortalizes Tova's memories, ensuring that her story will endure, even as the years pass, and serve as a powerful reminder of the strength of the will to survive and the importance of preserving its memory for future generations.

The Yank by John Crawley

John Crawley’s The Yank is a gripping and brutally honest memoir that takes readers on a harrowing journey through one man's life during some of the bloodiest days of the Irish–British conflict in 1975. As a young Irish-American, Crawley seeks out the most intensive military training by joining an elite US Marine unit. He later joins the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in Ireland. Crawley shares the grueling challenges of his Marine Corps training and how he puts his skills to use in the service of the IRA. Readers are taken on a tumultuous ride as Crawley recounts running guns with notorious American mobster and secret IRA fundraiser Whitey Bulger, evading British troops by moving from safe house to safe house in the Irish countryside, experiencing capture and imprisonment, and even fending off a recruitment offer from the CIA. He also reveals his involvement in a campaign to disrupt London's electrical system. Throughout the memoir, Crawley offers unvarnished insights into the people he worked with, including IRA leader Martin McGuinness and the psychopathic Whitey Bulger, as well as others in the Boston IRA support network.

American Demon by Daniel Stashower

In American Demon, Daniel Stashower delivers a chilling tale of historical true crime centered on the iconic lawman Eliot Ness. During the depths of the Great Depression, Cleveland finds itself terrorized by a gruesome killer known as the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run. The horrors begin in 1934 when a beachcomber discovers the lower half of a female torso on the shores of Lake Erie, earning the victim the grim title of "The Lady of the Lake." Over the next four years, a dozen more bodies are discovered, all meticulously dismembered with surgical precision and drained of blood, some even beheaded while still alive. As the city is gripped by fear, its beleaguered mayor turns to Eliot Ness, renowned for his exploits in Chicago battling Al Capone's bootlegging empire. Ness faces a case that will redefine his career as he hunts for a calculating and composed mastermind who has managed to hide in plain sight. With American Demon, Stashower sheds fresh light on this notorious crime and uncovers the gripping story of Ness's relentless pursuit of a monster.

Year of the Tiger: An Activist's Life by Alice Wong

Year of the Tiger: An Activist's Life by Alice Wong is a groundbreaking memoir that invites readers into the mind of an activist as she discovers and nurtures her community while continuing the fight for disability justice. Wong, the founder and director of the Disability Visibility Project, provides a profound glimpse into her life through a collection of original essays, previously published works, conversations, graphics, photos, and commissioned art by disabled and Asian American artists. Wong's unique talent creates an impressionistic scrapbook of her life as an Asian American disabled activist, community organizer, media maker, and dreamer. She shares her thoughts on various topics, including creativity, access, power, care, the pandemic, mortality, and the future. With incisive wit, joy, and passion, this memoir is a galvanizing exploration of Wong’s journey marked by the energy of the big cat, the tiger.


Rise of the School for Good and Evil

Rise of the School for Good and Evil is not a great book. The book is about filling in the backstory. It is about what happened to the School Masters of the previous books. It starts with a new student called Aladdin who should be put in Evil but is put in Good. The School Masters wonder what has tipped the balance. Can they keep the balance or will they suffer losses instead?

I felt parts of it were slightly creepy, more than the rest of the series. Rise of the School for Good and Evil has several pages of gorgeous full-color images of the text, which I definitely enjoyed. I feel that the book could do with a little less description at the beginning of the story; I found it hard to follow during the first few chapters. I really like the plot aside from the fact that there is a fair amount of violence.

I recommend Rise of the School for Good and Evil to children aged eight to fourteen who read for enjoyment.


The Village Idiot

If even half of what is in this book is accurate, Chaim Soutine was a fascinating man. Unfortunately, he was also a man intent on his own mystery; the acknowledgments mention there are few biographical writings about him. My mild forays into research revealed mostly anecdotes and stray stories.

So: I am left with the novel. It is experimental, but not so much that it becomes off-putting or too clever for its own good. It jumps back and forth between years in Soutine’s life, always anchored by the story of him walking along the bottom of a river. Bit by bit, pieces are stitched together, forming a whole. It is beautiful in the same way Soutine’s paintings are beautiful. It is never entirely real and, at times, reveals the fascinating grotesque of the perfectly ordinary.

It wouldn’t be right to say that I couldn’t look away. It’s better to say I had no wish to.

Stern has crafted a biographical novel that drew in even me, someone only occasionally interested in art history. I’m very glad I had the chance to delve into the richness of this book.


Beyond the Sunset, a travel memoir - Volume 1: Adventures Outside My Comfort Zone

Beyond the Sunset Vol. 1 is a travel memoir presented by Sherry Knowlton. You may know her as the author of the Alexa Williams novel series. Having had the privilege of reading and loving one of these novels, entitled Dead on the Delta, I was immediately drawn to the book. I couldn't wait to learn more about Mrs. Knowlton's travels and adventures, especially those in Africa. The essays in this work provide readers with a glimpse into her background and her first forays into travel by way of camping and hiking in the United States. Before moving on to more exotic locations. It also gives some good advice and a fantastic array of memories and musings about the many exciting and far-flung locations visited over a lifetime of holidays. As she explains, early on, it was reading and literature that sparked an interest in learning more about people and places far from her home in Pennsylvania. And some of her favorite writers are mentioned throughout the book, giving readers a chance to discover or rediscover their works.
To my mind, there was never a dull moment in this book. Whether recounting an unforgettable journey that took her to Woodstock for the famous music festival in the 1960s, where unfortunate circumstances resulted in missing the long-awaited performance by Jefferson Airplane, or trekking through Indian forests searching for elusive tigers, she recounts adventures with a flair and talent that made me feel almost like I was a part of the journey. I hadn't expected how much her stories would remind me of my own travels, which brought back fond memories long forgotten.

I especially loved her tales of all the people she encountered. The account of a scuffle that broke out while trying to view the famed Komodo dragons in Indonesia was memorable, as was her account of being charged by a rogue hippo in the Okavango Delta in Botswana. And I found the advice to give yourself an extra travel day a wise one. But the best advice was her motto of being prepared but relaxed. Enjoy the journey because you never know what you might discover. Whether you are an armchair traveler or one who seeks more adventure, Mrs. Knowlton's memoir is sure to impress. I can't wait to read volume two. She shows us how much we can learn if we open ourselves up to the wider world, which is out there to discover and experience.


Growing up in a small town in Pennsylvania, Sherry yearns to see beyond the limited perimeter of what she’s been exposed to. When she attends Dickinson College, just a short distance from her childhood home, opportunities ignite a flame that still burns in her today. During her senior year, she meets the love of her life, Mike Knowlton, and they embark on their first cross-country trip together. They explore the Grand Tetons, Yellowstone National Park, Acadia, and the Grand Canyon, to name just a few of their notable excursions. Before long, they find their way along the Appalachian Trail and the White Mountains of New Hampshire and eventually reach Canadian soil.

As time progresses, they fly to the Virgin Islands and then spread their wings all the way to South America, the North and South Islands of New Zealand, France, Italy, Greece, India, Nepal, Laos, Myanmar, and more. The African terrain is yet another of their destinations, where they visit Botswana, Kenya, Uganda, and South Africa, among others. At each place, they build enough memories to last a lifetime and create an unbreakable bond between the two of them.

Beyond the Sunset: A Travel Memoir is the first of two volumes of Adventures Outside My Comfort Zone. It’s exquisitely written by award-winning author Sherry Knowlton. She takes readers on an adventure across the world. From the national parks of the U.S. Virgin Islands to the pristine waters of the Puerto Rican coast and far beyond, Knowlton recounts the details of each destination with clarity. She elucidates her early adoration of camping and hiking and then expresses her passion for the sea.

She and Mike become entranced with the ocean and its many wonders and share breathtaking moments like the one when they come face-to-face with a manta ray in the Polynesian island of Bora Bora. She writes, “…out of the depths of the lagoon, a giant shadow came sweeping toward us, its huge wings gracefully undulating.” She goes on to say their encounter felt like a “moment frozen in time.” Fascinatingly, she also documents one of their rendezvous with a Bengal Tiger in India. Coming close enough to touch it, she states that her paws were “as big as dinner plates” and “her golden-orange coat glowed like fire in the midday sun.”

In the final chapters of the text, Knowlton outlines some of the cultural, safety, and travel precautions to consider before sojourning far from home. Her recommendations are practical, time-saving, and thoughtful, and they range from how to blend in with one’s surroundings to registering with the State Department before departure. They’re an added bonus to an already noteworthy read. Her expertise, gift with words, and amazing photographs all contribute immensely.


The Man in Cabin Number Five

Annie Parker ignores the disapproval of her parents and gets married to the man she has her heart set on. Unfortunately, her decision leads to a painful divorce, after she finds out about her husband's affair. Annie doesn't let the heartbreak bring her down but decides to move to the cabins in the mountainous town where her family used to spend summers in Lake Arrowhead, California.

Thirty years after her father's demise, Alyce Murphy discovers that her father died of murder-suicide and not a heart attack, like she was told. In The Man in Cabin Number Five, Chrysteen Braun narrates a deeply compelling, inspiring, and adorable narrative about the mountainside cabins of Lakewood Arrowhead, shocking secrets, and two women that are linked to the cabins in different ways—one by a buried past and the other by optimistic plans for the future.

The aesthetic, calm, and sometimes chaotic atmosphere of The Man in Cabin Number Five drew me in right from the beginning, and I wished it wouldn't end. Different aspects of the story contribute to its addictive and pleasant feel: falling in love, building a family, visiting one's family with a lover, renovating a cabin in a mountainous environment, and more. Chrysteen Braun does a mind-blowing job of building the characters and making them lifelike and easy to relate to. The first-person narrative is done to perfection as it reads like the narrators are speaking to friends—natural, lively, and jovial. I laughed out loud when I read the part where Anne claims that a bag of chips and a soda are "just what the doctor ordered."

You can't read The Man in Cabin Number Five without feeling the strong emotions of the characters—like betrayal, shame, disappointment, excitement, hope, and loss. I found the events quite relatable and realistic. The part where Anne disagrees with her parents, regarding her choice of lover, reminded me of an experience I witnessed with a friend. A good number of themes are explored and adroitly woven together in The Man in Cabin Number Five, including real estate, family, infidelity, romance, PTSD, war, sexual assault, substance abuse, and divorce.

The Man in Cabin Number Five inspires anyone recovering from betrayal and infidelity to keep living and working towards a better future. The picturesque descriptions of the scenes and characters will appeal to readers who wish to get completely immersed in and escape into a fictional world. Chrysteen Braun creates a masterpiece with smooth storytelling that juxtaposes the serenity of the mountains with the eruptive chaos of dangerous secrets and ends with a bang. What a terrific story! What a talented writer!


Child of Etherclaw

Fenlee Harper and her adopted younger brother, Elliot, are navigating the world mostly alone. Since her mother’s passing, her father is always away working, which leaves Fenlee to look after herself and Elliot. Life in the low tier has been hard, but she has aspirations for a better life, and applying herself in the Mechatronics class at The Academy was the way she was going to do it. For her, it was a priority to be in the top of her class, and for that she needed access to materials that were hard to find.

Scavenging in the Undercity of New Cascadia was dangerous but a necessity. Little did Fenlee know that a typical day of scavenging would change the trajectory of her life for good. There was more to the cheap opal her mom left her than meets the eye. She’s introduced to a power she never knew existed and some strange characters that help her along the way. From then on, Fenlee’s world is never the same.

This sci-fi fantasy novel introduces us to a futuristic world where a class system exists that is both literal and metaphoric. From the beginning, it opens with action that just sucks you in. I had no idea what was going on, but I was down for the ride. First we meet Fenlee and Elliot, both capable and street smart, but they get themselves into some trouble, and as the story unfolds, we see that they aren’t as alone as they may have thought.

The characters were well developed and the storyline was exciting and imaginative, with an evil villain and endearing allies. The descriptions of the environment were vivid and really made me feel like I was in New Cascadia experiencing the sights and smells. The story is unpredictable, full of futuristic technology and government conspiracy. The author does a good job of introducing the history of this world mixed into the storyline so that the reader was not inundated with too much information.

I love a good coming-of-age story and this definitely fits the bill. It has the right amount of teen angst mixed with action, mystery, and even a little bit of romance. If this is the first in a series, I’d say it’s off to a great start and I would definitely love to read a sequel. I would recommend this novel to all readers who enjoy this genre.


Child of Etherclaw

A young-adult dystopian thriller in a similar vein to The Hunger Games, The Maze Runner, and Divergent, Matty Roberts’ Child of Etherclaw is set in a well-developed near-future world characterized by technological advancements, peculiar magic, factionalism, and the collapse of civilization as we know it. Against this backdrop, a young engineering student has to rely on her wits and bravery to unravel a family mystery and save those she loves from the nefarious forces hiding within the upper echelons of power.

Sixteen-year-old Fenlee Harper divides her time between her mechatronics studies, scavenging expeditions to the desolate ruins under the city of New Cascadia, and looking after her younger brother, Elliot. Clever and ambitious, she aims to move her family out of the lower tier and higher up the ladder of New Cascadia society, and the only way to do that is to secure a job with Norfayne Labs, the all-powerful science and engineering conglomerate.

Unfortunately, despite her academic and street smarts, Fenlee can’t seem to resist venturing to the undercity in search of parts and materials to use in her engineering projects, which regularly places her in danger from both surveillance drones and mysterious subterranean citizens.

During a near-disastrous expedition that ends up costing Fenlee her new prosthetic leg, she and Elliot encounter a pair of undercity dwellers and learn that the necklace given to Fenlee by her mother before she died is actually made of etherclaw, a powerful substance somehow linked to the Void Pillars crafted by alien beings centuries ago to help save humanity. While the etherclaw necklace allows Fenlee to destroy a deadly Guardian drone and so temporarily saves her and Elliot, it also places her in danger from those who want the power of the necklace for themselves.

Events accelerate rapidly from this point onwards and Fenlee is forced to confront the fact that everything she thought she knew—about both her family and the world in which they live—might not be true. As she seeks answers to the various mysteries that confront her, Child of Etherclaw develops into an exciting and action-packed story featuring complex characters that the reader really comes to care about. Fenlee is a hugely sympathetic lead character with a great deal of strength and determination, and Matty Roberts has ensured that the villainous forces she faces seem truly devious and threatening.

Roberts has also dedicated a great deal of attention to world-building, constructing a detailed history for New Cascadia that includes the devasting events of the Great Collapse, the arrival of the Aeons and the construction of the Void Pillars, and the mythology that has developed around such events and is still used to control the lives of ordinary people. Fenlee’s world features plenty of unusual and advanced technologies too, and the existence of magic/otherworldly forces really enhances the atmosphere of the story. Overall, Child of Etherclaw is a thrilling sci-fi novel that is sure to appeal to young-adult readers.


Leech

Doctors at the Interprovincial Medical Institute are connected in a way only they understand. Each doctor might be their own person, but they share a consciousness and a connection to the Institute itself. Research, text, and others’ thoughts and ideas are all intertwined. But when one of their own is lost, the replacement doctor must solve the mysteries of their predecessor’s death. Before their descent into madness, the doctor will have to confront a predatory parasite that challenges humanity for its spot atop the evolutionary ladder.

Leech is the creative debut novel from Hiron Ennes. This gothic medical horror is brilliantly written. As a medical student, Ennes infuses a lot of scientific detail in their book. The unique twist on shared consciousness makes this a story like no other. Ennes’ characters are full of both depth and intrigue. The neo-baroque setting is creepy and bizarre. Ennes is a master of the dark and surreal, an expert at vividly describing places, people, and scenarios. The reader feels dread, terror, and turmoil in this suspenseful thriller. It will leave one checking dark corners carefully. For fans of the eerie and grotesque, let Leach suck you in.


Dressing Up the Stars: The Story of Movie Costume Designer Edith Head

I enjoy watching movies, both with animated and real-life characters. I don't normally pay attention to the outfits that the characters wear, but I will now, after reading Dressing Up the Stars! The story is about a real girl who lived in the desert but dreamed of living in a big city. She knew how to sew, so she'd make outfits for her dolls, her pets, and her friends when they would put on plays. The girl grew to be a woman and lived in Los Angeles, where she got a job making outfits for characters in movies - both people and animals! The woman is Edith Head, an award-winning costume designer who designed outfits for famous actors from 1927-1981.

 I normally don't read about other people's lives too often, because I usually read fiction stories, but this was interesting, and I could relate to Edith when she was a little girl with how she felt. I am also trying to learn how to sew right now, so it is fun to see the things she made with her sewing skills, even when she was so young! Edith has made me wonder what might happen to me when I grow up if I keep trying.


Kismet: A Thriller

I was really excited to receive a copy of Kismet for review. The story sounded so intriguing and is about two women who moved from New York to Sedona only to be caught in a serial killer's web. Ronnie is Pakistani and has lived with her abusive Aunt since she was six years old after her parents died in a car accident. She meets Marley, the daughter of a wealthy woman who also claims to be a healer and life coach. After taking some empowerment lessons with Marley, Ronnie decides to move to Sedona, Arizona, with Marley for more healing, yoga, and the desert air.

I did not like Marley from the very beginning because she seemed very fake and selfish. In one part of the book, she has a woman come to their house to take Ronnie's blood for a vampire facial for her and her friend Caroline without asking permission from Ronnie. The book has chapters that are told from the point of view of the serial killer who seems to be killing "bad" people only, and we know it is a woman.

The ending is not surprising, and the book seemed to drone on forever. It started off really interesting, but the characters started to become more unlikeable and strange as the book went on.


The Binding Room: A Novel (An Inspector Anjelica Henley Thriller, 2)

A pastor, dead in his own church, was stabbed forty-eight times. A young man, tortured to the brink of death, was found in an upstairs room. The officer investigating these crimes, DI Anjelica Henley from the Metropolitan Police Serial Crime Unit, soon identifies several suspects in the murder of Pastor Annan, or The Prophet, as he calls himself – women whom he has sexually misused and the cheated-on wife. The discovery of a second torture victim, this one female and long dead, and the presence of a Bible and other religious symbols (also found beside the first) raise the ugly possibility of a serial exorcist. Is the pastor behind these efforts to cast out the devil? If so, who killed him and why? Or are his stabbing and the purging of the other two victims unrelated? While dealing with her own troubled marriage, Henley painstakingly draws on CCTV footage, interviews, DNA evidence, and autopsy results to unwrap the tangled mix of motives and suspects. With an intriguing premise, careful, step-by-step detailing of the investigation, and some surprises along the way, The Binding Room is an excellent choice for fans of police procedurals.


Love on the Brain

Neuroscientist Bee has the opportunity of a lifetime when she is selected to lead a project between NIH and NASA, and she couldn’t be more ecstatic…until she realizes that her co-lead is Levi. He hated her during their Ph.D. program, and she’s had enough of the overconfident men in her field. As the project progresses, Bee finds herself becoming closer to Levi and considers that she may have misinterpreted his cool exterior.

This was a cute and nerdy romance, and I adored Bee and Levi’s relationship. They each had their own anxieties that kept them from opening up to each other, but once they trusted one another, the relationship blossomed. I enjoyed Bee’s point of view and how she expertly dealt with men challenging her intelligence and competency as a female scientist. Bee wasn’t afraid to stand up for herself, although it took several setbacks for her to gain this confidence. This was a fun and empowering romance, and I look forward to Ali Hazelwood’s future novels!


Bastille vs. the Evil Librarians (Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians, 6)

This is the final book in the Evil Librarian Series. We begin with Alcatraz and Bastille trying to get out of the Librarian headquarters without getting burned up by lava. Alcatraz has just witnessed a gruesome death that he considers his fault. This caused major problems for him and Bastille as they are trying to save the world from being vaporized.

Bastille is hilarious. I laughed at the times she spoke to the readers directly. It took me a little bit to get used to it because it’s so different, but I liked it. I also appreciated that this is her writing about it as an adult after it happened. It was a cool point of view I don’t see in many books.

Alcatraz was fantastic. I loved that when something horrible happened to him, he acted as a normal human would react even though he’s a hero in a fantasy book. I appreciate noting that heroes have feelings and sometimes stop and can’t go on.

This was an epic conclusion! I feel like this book is perfect for eight- to twelve-year-olds. I can’t wait to introduce my son to the series! Well done to both the authors.