Down World

There is a portal under the school. A portal to the past, present, and future. Marina is still grieving for her brother, who was hit by a train several years ago, but there was no body found, he simply vanished. Marina goes through the portal and finds him there, setting off a chain reaction that could destroy the world she knows.

Marina falls head over heels for a boy a couple years older than her, only he has a girlfriend. Unfortunately, there is no change of pace from other YA novels, so he initially seems to return the feeling. It doesn’t last and she moves on in about a day. None of the relationships seem real, like they're together for the sake of being together. Marina comments several times that she wishes others would stop treating her like a child, but they're not. They're being sensible. Toward the end, the story really starts to pick up, only to lead to what I felt was a disappointing ending.


Of Women and Salt: A Novel

When people hear the terms immigration, asylum, or deportation, they often have a single story in mind to justify their feelings on the topic. But as Garcia’s novel Of Women and Salt achingly shows us, these stories are more complicated and tragic than we will ever understand in a two-minute sound bite.

Jeanette, a young woman battling addiction, briefly takes in a young girl, Ana, when her mother is deported. Jeanette’s mother, Carmen, herself an immigrant from Cuba, encourages Jeanette to turn the girl over to the police. What follows are alternating stories from each woman and some of their family members on the choices they had to make to survive and hope their children could thrive. Tracing journeys from Cuba and El Salvador to the United States, the reader learns of all their sacrifices––how much they loved their children, how they helped them so much and also helped them so little.

Garcia’s prose is descriptive but spare. She presents each character’s situation without judgement and allows the reader to grapple with the ramifications. In many ways, this approach is more powerful than using a lot of editorializing. This book has stayed with me for a long time and I think it will with any reader. It asks the questions that are the hardest to answer, but we must answer them.


Biographies & Memoirs Roundup

As the great novelist and short story writer Franz Kafka noted in The Trial, “It's sometimes quite astonishing that a single, average life is enough to encompass so much...” If the biographies and memoirs included in this list are anything to go by, it certainly seems that the average life is really very far from average.

Easy Crafts for the Insane: A Mostly Funny Memoir of Mental Illness and Making Things by Kelly Williams Brown

As its title suggests, Easy Crafts for the Insane: A Mostly Funny Memoir of Mental Illness and Making Things is a highly unusual book that combines basic crafting tutorials with moving and amusing biographical aspects in an effort to help readers tackle mental health issues. Kelly Williams Brown was riding high in life after writing a bestselling book, launching a lucrative speaking career, and having a fairy tale wedding, but she was brought crashing down to reality by a series of misfortunes, including physical injuries, family illness, and divorce. In fact, things became so bad that she had to spend time as an in-patient in a mental health facility. Her own experience of the positive impacts of crafting, which helped her get through her darkest days, inspired Williams Brown to write this highly autobiographical, undeniably practical, and very entertaining self-help book. She found that a range of crafts, none of them particularly complicated, helped to motivate her and provide a sense of accomplishment, such as embroidery, lettering, block printing, origami, and making tiny stars, thousands of tiny stars. Aside from relating events from her own life, both the good and the decidedly not good, in an effort to help and inspire those in similar situations, she also provides straightforward guidance on how to do a number of the crafts that helped her quieten her mind and cope with difficult times.

Little and Often: A Memoir by Trent Preszler

Trent Preszler had been estranged from his father for so long that he had given up any hope of reconciliation between them and reconciled himself to the lack of a relationship, which is why it came as a major shock when his father telephoned and invited him to spend Thanksgiving at the family home in South Dakota. Busy in his new role as CEO of a wine company based on Long Island, Preszler was doubtful about the wisdom of accepting the invitation, although he ultimately agreed to make the trip. That Thanksgiving turned out to be the last time he saw his father, who subsequently died of cancer, leaving Preszler a legacy in the form of an old wooden toolbox and a mass of unanswered questions. At first puzzled by the gift of the toolbox since he wasn’t renowned for his DIY or building skills, Preszler decided that he would learn how to use his father’s tools and build a wooden canoe, which he would launch to make the first anniversary of his father’s passing. Little and Often: A Memoir is a moving account of Preszler’s time spent working on the canoe and mulling over the events of the past in an attempt to better understand his father and their (lack of a) relationship. It’s a tale of self-discovery and of the complex relationships between fathers and sons, and by telling it, Preszler manages to achieve a sense of acceptance through channeling his creativity toward something that signifies hope.

I'm Gonna Say It Now: The Writings of Phil Ochs by Phil Ochs

While best known as a songwriter, Phil Ochs was also an immensely talented short story writer, poet, journalist, diarist, political commentator, critic, and travel writer. In fact, when it came to words, he was a something of a polymath.  I'm Gonna Say It Now: The Writings of Phil Ochs is a treasure trove of exquisite and insightful writing that collects Ochs’ non-musical works from his early days as a student at Staunton Military Academy and then Ohio State University, through to his heyday and political awakening as part of the folk scene of New York during the 1960s, and on to the more melancholic and polemic pieces that characterized his later years. Over the course of his lifetime, Ochs produced numerous stories, poems, essays, articles, and reviews that expertly addressed their topics while also revealing his thoughts, hope, and concerns for individuals and for society at large. A truly extensive collection, the book includes many rare pieces as well as previously unpublished works held in the Phil Ochs Papers at the Woody Guthrie Center, in addition to reproductions of journals and notebooks, which shed light on Ochs’ thought and writing processes. It also features a host of never-before-published photographs that serve to augment the impact of the text.

Nora: A Love Story of Nora and James Joyce by Nuala O'Connor

The delightfully named Nora Barnacle was just twenty years old when she first met famed Dubliner James Joyce, then a medical school dropout who had so far failed to launch a career as a writer, and embarked upon a complex and decidedly unconventional relationship that would see the pair of them travel among Europe’s greatest cities, enjoy the highs of celebrity, wealth, and literary success, and endure the lows of mistrust, poverty, infidelity, and mental illness. Their desire for each other was intense but while they both sought a life bigger than that on offer in their native Ireland, they were fundamentally quite different. While Joyce was happy to endure poverty so long as he had sufficient company, booze, and time to write, Nora was troubled by the instability and precarious nature of their lives, particularly the impact that those factors had on their children. Although success did come to the pair, so too did tragedy, and while they remained together until Joyce’s death, their intense relationship was not always a happy one. In  Nora: A Love Story of Nora and James Joyce, a truly impressive work of biographical fiction, Nuala O'Connor pens a powerful and incisive account of the life of Nora Joyce, who despite being remembered as “Irish literature’s greatest muse” was really a far more complex, commanding, and intriguing individual than her lasting reputation suggests.

Shooting Out the Lights: A Memoir by Kim Fairley

 Shooting Out the Lights: A Memoir recounts the early years of Kim Fairley’s marriage to Vern, a man more than thirty years her senior. Fairley considered that she lived a rather solitary life before her work at the Ohio State Historic Preservation Office caused her to meet Vern, the owner of a hardware store in her adopted hometown of Hillsboro, and she was quick to embrace married life after the two moved from being friends to being romantically involved. When Fairley finds that she is pregnant just a few months after their marriage, everything seems to be going well for the pair of them––although the specter of tragedy remains in the house following the death of Vern’s fourteen-year-old son Ben some years before he met Fairley. However, things get difficult very rapidly when Vern agrees that Stan, the young son of his recently deceased friend, can come and stay with them for a couple of weeks while his mother sorts out probate issues. As the length of Stan’s stay increases and his behavior becomes increasingly troubling, Fairley struggles to cope with the strain on her marriage, the taxing nature of pregnancy, and the secrets that lurk in her and Vern’s pasts. Kim Fairley excels at building up tension as she relates her recollections of the period in question, suggesting that events are building to a crescendo and that secrets are about to be revealed. It’s a compelling memoir peopled by real-life characters who are both very real and, often, very strange.


The Four Winds: A Novel

Kristin Hannah’s latest novel explores the tenacity and grit of a woman who fights for her family’s survival in the midst of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. Elsa Martinelli has spent her whole life in El Paso, working alongside her loving in-laws to keep their land thriving despite the heat and dust that engulfs them. After her husband abandons the family and her son contracts pneumonia, Elsa faces an impossible choice: leave their cherished land behind and start a new life in California, or stay and risk losing everything.

Not only does The Four Winds tell a gripping tale of one woman’s strength, it also highlights some lesser-known details about the Dust Bowl and the destruction it caused. People slept in gas masks to avoid getting dust in their lungs at night, but even still, thousands died from dust buildup that led to pneumonia. And even if folks made the harrowing journey to California to find work, they faced discrimination and classism that made life just as difficult. In The Four Winds, Kristin Hannah has woven a story that is as heartbreaking as it is important.


The Woman Outside My Door

The Woman Outside My Door is a tantalizing psychological thriller that will leave you with hairs standing up on the back of your neck. Georgina's son, Cody, starts turning up with sweet wrappers one day, telling his mom that his grandmother gave them to him. The only problem? Both of Cody's grandmothers are deceased. As Georgina tries to get to the bottom of it, she feels as if someone is watching her and her family. On top of it all, she and her husband, Bren, are having marital problems, and it seems as if Bren thinks she's going crazy. He keeps making excuses for the sweets that Cody has as well as a note that they find with the sweets.

I could not put this book down and read it all in one day. It is fantastic all the way through. Although the main character seems like she could be unreliable, I felt like she made some good decisions to get to the bottom of it all. This is a perfect read for fans of authors such as K.L. Slater.


While I Was Away

Waka is twelve and enjoys being a sixth-grader in her home state of Kansas. She has two best friends, a great teacher, and life is good, and her parents suddenly announce she will miss the last couple weeks of sixth grade and the first several weeks of seventh grade because she is going to live with her grandmother in Japan for over five months. Her parents want her to improve her knowledge of the Japanese language and of her cultural background. She already speaks and writes some Japanese, but going to a Japanese school is going to be very hard. And she will miss her family and friends. And she really doesn’t know her grandmother!

There are few memoirs in the middle-grade category. This should be a very welcome addition to the canon. Waka T. Brown’s story is very compelling, reads like a novel, and is extremely well written. Readers (kids and adults) will be fascinated to read the differences and similarities between American and Japanese schools, cultures, and families. The relationship is so telling between Waka and her grandmother, and watching how they change over time is brilliant. Don’t miss this wonderful book.


The Good Sister: A Novel

Sally Hepworth does it again in this oh-so-satisfying psychological thriller about twin sisters who couldn’t be more different from one another.

All her life, Rose has tried to protect Fern. Fern has always been a little bit different from the other kids in the way she thinks and does things. But there are secrets their family hides and, as the two girls grow up, those secrets are finally revealed, leading to something that is so unexpected you’ll never guess the ending. The chapters alternate points of view from the main characters, and partway through reading, it is clear that one of the characters is unreliable. But which one?

The Good Sister is a fantastic read featuring some very interesting characters, including Fern’s “boyfriend,” who turns out to not be what he seems. I had a hard time putting this book down. This is not the first book by Hepworth I have read and I have enjoyed each one of her books so far. I'm looking forward to the next one!


Too Good to Be True: A Novel

Too Good To Be True is a book that I found myself unable to put down. With its complex characters and twisted plot, this book held my interest from page to page.

Burke and Heather have been married since they were just kids. As childhood sweethearts, they always had each other. Burke, however, seems to be able to find himself in trouble wherever he goes, with Heather desperately trying to pick up the pieces while raising their three children. Then one day, Burke meets Skye. Skye is young, beautiful, and rich. Burke creates a plan to woo Skye and get just enough money to keep his family afloat after losing his job. What ensues is a story of madness, heartbreak, and revenge.

This book is deceptive in the best way possible. Written in alternating points-of-view between Burke, Heather, and Skye, it is unclear who is telling the truth and who is not quite reliable in their storytelling. The way the author crafted this story is pure genius. The twists in this book are realistic and unbelievable at the same time. I recommend this book to fans of Shari LaPena, Lisa Jewell, and Fiona Barton.


The Hunting Wives: A Novel

Check out these exhilarating fiction reads that will introduce you to a selection of wickedly funny, riveting, and suspenseful stories. The list includes stories with a mother and son duo as they commit a series of crimes, an ambitious young writer drawn into a sinister world, and a hard look at toxic masculinity after a social media darling hits rock bottom.

Burn It All Down – Nicholas DiDomizio

Joey Rossi is eighteen and has dreams of becoming a comic. All should be good in Joey's world, except that his boyfriend has been cheating on him for nearly a year. He shouldn't be surprised since he has his mother's toxic taste in men. His Italian-American mother is Gia Rossi who's lovable, wise-cracking, a mess, and a spitfire. She also happens to be Joey's best friend. In time with Joey's heartbreak, Gia's own non-relationship ends in doom and the duo can't fit their anger in their New Jersey apartment. Their plan for revenge takes a turn after they end up committing various crimes and have no choice but to go on the run. The only person they can trust is Gia's one good ex - Marco. In the seclusion of Marco's lake house, Gia and Joey are forced to face the bad choices that got them here and now must accept responsibility for their actions.

The Stars We Share: A Novel – Rafe Posey

Set against War World II, /The Stars We Share/ is a story about being ambitious, the commitment between two people, and the sacrifices they make for each other. Alec and June were children when they first met in a 1927 English village. Alec was an orphan who spent his nights using the sky as an anchor for his desire to one day embark on adventures while June used her time learning maps and timetables for the railway as a basis for a future where anything is possible. As the war approaches, Alec and June are separated with Alec joining war efforts as a Royal Air Force pilot while June becomes a codebreaker working at Bletchley Park. June must keep her activities with the war a secret from everyone, even Alec. The war keeps them apart for several years. Alec faces imprisonment in various POW camps after the war where he copes with the loss of his career and healing from injuries sustained after being shot down. June struggles with leaving behind a thriving career for a domestic life with Alec. The war has turned them into different people which pushes the couple to make hard decisions about what to share with each other and what dreams to let go of. The story spans forty years with a variety of locations including Indian ports, Edinburgh gardens, and a Kenya horse farm.

The Audacity of Sara Grayson: A Novel – Joani Elliott

Sara Grayson writes greeting cards and she's now receiving her biggest assignment following the death of her suspense novelist mother. Three weeks later, Sara discovers that her mother's final wish was for her daughter to finish her final book. Her husband left her with the Pro Double Waffle Maker in tow and successfully shattered her confidence, leaving her with just her dog Gatsby to keep her company. The only thing she's managed to accomplish since has been changing the clock on the microwave. How is she supposed to write a fulfilling final story for millions of fans? Sara is taken by surprise with her decision to fulfill her mother's last wish, but she has her work cut out for her when she goes up against an insane deadline and a sabotaging publisher. The further she gets in the writing process, the more secrets she uncovers that could put an end to the legacy her mother left behind and to the book she's trying to write.

Yes, Daddy – Jonathan Parks-Ramage

A young man with great ambition is charmed by an older playwright who draws him into a world of wealth and darkness. Jonah Keller had big dreams when he moved to New York City but his plans get derailed and he's currently living in a Bushwick sublet that he can barely afford even with his job at a restaurant. But Jonah has developed a plan after discovering a photo of a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright. If everything goes according to plan, he'll have all the fame he came to New York City seeking. He just needs to meet Richard Shriver. Their meeting quickly becomes a steamy affair. After Richard invites Jonah to spend the summer in the Hamptons, he's taken in by the idyllic lifestyle but the paradise quickly becomes a nightmare when he discovers that Richard and his artist friends use the lavish estate for more than entertaining and dinners. Jonah begins to notice bruises on the waitstaff which consists of gay men that are attractive and young. Jonah sees a darker side to Richard when he's cast out of the older man's graces which leads to various violent transgressions that spark Jonah's desire for revenge. /Yes, Daddy/ explores themes such as class, power dynamics, complicity, and victimhood centered around the idea that stories inspire healing.

The Hunting Wives: A Novel – May Cobb

A tale of seduction, murder, and obsession, /The Hunting Wives/ is unpredictable and riveting. Sophie O'Neill trades her city life in Chicago for a quiet life in a small Texas town with her husband and son. She gives up a career that everyone was envious of and the stress of Chicago for a seemingly idealistic existence in a rural community. But her new quiet life leaves her restless and bored. Everything changes when she's drawn into the life of Margot Banks, a socialite that is a member of a secret group called the Hunting Wives, which pulls her into target practices late at night and dangerous partying. Her curiosity quickly becomes an obsession when as she delves further into Margot's world and further away from the safety her family provides. Matters only worsen when a teenage girl's body is found where the Hunting Wives hold their meetings. Sophie is drawn into the center of a murder investigation which sparks her life to spiral.

The Atmospherians: A Novel – Alex McElroy

Wokeness, wellness, and toxic masculinity are a few themes explored in /The Atmospherians/ which finds Sasha Marcus striving to pick herself up from rock bottom in this wickedly funny story. She was once successful as an internet sensation and darling of social media thanks to her wellness brand for women. Then an abusive troll takes everything from her following a confrontation that ends her career. Now she's hiding away in her apartment while protesters gather together over men's rights. Her childhood friend with former body issues, Dyson is now a failed actor that has devised a plan to help regain her reputation by making her the face of his new business. The Atmosphere will be a rehabilitation center directed at men and located within an old summer camp. On the surface, it's a program for job training, but underneath its goal is to cleanse toxic masculinity out of men. Sasha's only option is to accept her friend's offer but this leads her to wonder what he really wants from her and how being the only female leader in an all-male environment will present.


Nobody Ever Asked Me About the Girls: Women, Music and Fame

Lisa Robinson is a music journalist who traveled within the rock ’n roll world and kept up with the boys therein. What stories she must tell. And clearly, in this book, she is fed up with bad boy stories and wishes to bring the focus on the talented and much-overlooked women in music. The book is entertaining without being too gossipy. The author has written about most musicians and is friend to incredible performers/writers like Patti Smith, Cyndi Lauper, and Bette Midler. The book manages to steer away from glorifying the life of a rock journalist while bringing us into the green room scenes and interview settings. While she praises the huge talents of her friends and interviewees like Patti LaBelle, Mavis Staples, and Whitney Houston, she is incredibly hard on Madonna, whom it is clear that she intensely dislikes. The chapters are arranged by the problems women in music must face: touring, hair and makeup, family life and children, and of course, sex, drugs, and rock ’n roll. It is an interesting and well-written book that gives talented female composers and musicians their due.


Bear Meets Bear

Bear is back, and this time he has a new friend. When Bear orders a new teapot, he doesn't expect that a charming mail lady, Panda, will deliver it. Stunned into silence, Bear does the only thing he can do: order another teapot so he can see Panda again. Once again, Bear finds himself speechless. So, Bear orders another teapot, and another, and another. Luckily Spider is there to help and invites Panda to tea. Will Bear be able to get over his fear of talking to Panda? And what will he do with all those teapots?

This is a delightful and charming story of meeting someone you like for the very first time. Bear Meets Bear celebrates all those strange and wonderful feelings of liking someone, while also exploring what to do with those emotions. The perfect next step in the Bear series, readers will love how Bear takes his readers from learning about friendship, facing fears, and now liking someone. A darling journey of friendship paired with the adorable, familiar illustrations makes this book an excellent addition to the Bear series and any library shelf.


Being a first-time homebuyer this year, I found First-Time Home Buyer: The Complete Playbook to Avoiding Rookie Mistakes extremely helpful. Having rented my whole life, I had no clue what the whole house-purchasing journey would entail. And it really is a journey. Thankfully, Trench and Jensen have laid every aspect out, meaning that readers will be better informed regarding anything to do with money or people. The advice and information are easy to read and understand, especially due to the addition of puns throughout.

The authors talk about every detail related to buying a home. The first section of the book advises on what to do before buying a house, such as knowing your financial numbers. The second section advises on what to do during the process of buying a house, such as information about mortgages, lenders, and agents. The third section advises on the process of purchasing the house and what happens after you close, which includes how to start your search, make an offer, the home inspection, while under contract, and after you close. There is so much information in this book that it is well worth a first-time home buyer's time to read.


Easy Beans: Simple, Satisfying Recipes That Are Good for You, Your Wallet, and the Planet

Beans, beans, the magical fruit, the more you eat, the more you can’t believe all these delicious recipes are made with them! Jackie Freeman has pulled together a compact, masterful collection of forty recipes that go beyond simple directions – they’re vibrant ideas, methods of preparation that can be modified and delighted in for a lifetime. Freeman challenges the notion that beans are just for soup! Starting with indulgent breakfast dishes, she easily convinces us to prepare a big batch of Lentil and Oat Granola. What could be more obvious? We wonder why we never had lentils for breakfast before. She reveals that beans as a snack topic have been widely underrated – don’t look for seven-layer bean dip in here, nobody has time for yesterday’s news like that when they are scooping up rabid mouthfuls of Lentil and Mushroom Caviar, shoveling Marinated Black-Eyed Peas and Olives onto rustic slices of bread, and filling jars with Spicy Black Bean Snack Mix to take in the car. Hearty soups, herbaceous sides, and fulfilling main dishes complete the tableaux. Finally, a well-organized appendix gives straightforward directions on how to cook a variety of nutritious legumes. Come home to old traditions with a kettle of soaking beans, and serve up something new that satisfies the senses and the soul.


Truly Like Lightning: A Novel

Bronson Powers grew up in a world of fantasy, living in Los Angeles. His Father regaled him with tall tales, masking his own failures and resentments. Bronson’s paternal Grandmother disinherited Bronson’s Father from a large estate. Bronson never let his Father’s resentments become his own, making his mark as a stuntman in a slew of films. His hard work had left him battered and substance addicted. Things changed when he inherited his Grandmother’s estate. The only caveat being that he must become a Mormon. At first, Bronson was skeptical, however as time passed, he embraced doctrine and the faith. The life of Joseph Smith reached him.

In the present day, Bronson presides over an extensive tract of land in San Bernardino, which includes a large portion of Joshua Tree National Park. He is the patriarch of a large family with two wives and ten children. The family lives off the land, hunting, and farming, the children taught by Wives Mary and Yalulah. Their bucolic existence is soon to be threatened by an enterprising businesswoman named Maya. The Powers’ family will never be the same.

Truly Like Lightning is an emotionally captivating tour de force from start to finish. David Duchovny fires on all cylinders in penning a modern-day fish out of water tale. The culture clash played out in the book provides humor, heart as well as deep philosophical questions. A true must-read for 2021.


The Greatest Hoax on Earth: Catching Truth, While We Can

According to court documents and personal interviews, Frank W. Abagnale Jr. has made his living, and a good one, from petty theft, fraud, and lying for over fifty years.

In The Greatest Hoax On Earth, Catching Truth, While We Can, author Alan C. Logan, has meticulously researched the claims and the life of this imposter and in a well-written and entertaining story presented the facts, verified by documentation, records, and personal interviews.

It’s all lies, despite being endorsed by appearances on The Tonight Show, The Today Show, To Tell the Truth, portrayed in book form as well as in the major motion picture Catch Me If You Can that spawned a Broadway musical by the same name and most recently legitimized with Talks at Google. There is no evidence Abagnale ever perpetrated the grand hoaxes he claims, indeed, in some cases, it was impossible because at the time he claims to have carried out these shenanigans records show he was in jail.

Almost as shocking as these revelations is how inept media allowed and indeed, advanced this career of chicanery.

Though Abagnale and his many media enablers portray his crimes and lies as victimless, interviews Logan conducted indicate they have been anything but. Ordinary, honest people have been hurt both financially and emotionally by Abagnale’s crimes and duplicity.

As an example of a thorough and exhaustive investigation, The Greatest Hoax On Earth, Catching Truth While We Can, is exemplary, but one should not mistake Logan’s reporting as journalism.

By failing to conceal his contempt for his subject and his admiration for his two main sources, Paula Parks Campbell and Mark Zinder, the author compromises his objectivity and diminishes the veracity of his findings.

Paula was a flight attendant during the era of Abagnale’s phony airline pilot hoax and though she saw through him, strangely her parents didn’t.  They let the con man move in with them even when their daughter told them that “she loved them dearly, but so long as Mr. Abagnale was in the house, she wouldn’t be returning to Baton Rouge. She couldn’t even bear the idea of a visit.” The author never questions the parent’s choice of a virtual stranger over their daughter.

Mark Zinder was Abagnale’s booking agent during the 1980s and responsible for much of con man’s success at that time. Frank lured him away from a similar job with a large company with the promise of a better cut and a grand lifestyle. He boasted he had a fleet of vehicles, dozens of employees, and corporate offices, but what Zinder discovered was Abagnale was operating from his kitchen table; no cars, no other employees.

Despite the litany of lies told to him, Zinder maintains he believed Frank’s story. It wasn’t the money, or “Adoring crowds. Limousines. Clubs. Only the best hotels. All the jumbo shrimp you could eat.”, he was naive and trusting. Trusting until investigations threatened to derail the gravy train which precipitated in a hasty parting of ways.

Logan’s inability or reluctance to take a hard look at his sources is only one of his departures from objectivity. He is all too ready to assume the worst of his subject. He spends a disproportionate amount of words on Frank’s flagrant infidelity never drawing the apt comparison to the sexual misconduct of other entertainers including rock stars or, for that matter, politicians including numerous American presidents.

His attempts to expose a dark, violent side to Abagnale amount to supposition including a claim by Jan Jackson that “He physically threatened us. He had something in his hand (?) and I thought he was going to lash out with it,” she added. (Apparently, he didn’t). “You don’t know who you are messing with,” Abagnale growled at them.”

When investigations into Abagnale began to result in canceled bookings, Zinder confronted Abagnale who said, “It will only cost me about ten thousand dollars to make this problem go away.”  which,
according to Logan, “It went far beyond the obvious threat.”

What obvious threat? The author knows that kind of generic statement does not constitute a legal threat and when Zinder contacted the police they respond accordingly.

Logan falls short in two other areas with The Greatest Hoax. The first is his premise that Abagnale’s ascension as a populist figure at the time had to do with the lack of American heroes partly because of the demise of Evil Knieval. Really? I guess that depends on whom you consider a hero.

The other is using Abagnale’s tawdry tale of lies upon lies as a contemporary cautionary tale to underscore “the importance of separating fiction from fact”.

“Understanding the ways and means by which grandiose narcissists and authoritarians disrupt well-being at the community, institutional, national and planetary levels—how they spread lies and hoaxes—is an urgent mission.”

Though I applaud Logan's unmasking of men like Abagnale one might have thought a more urgent mission would be helping people discern fact from fake on mediums like social media. Today, computer bots post millions of messages containing false information across the worldwide web at warp speed. And I dare say, they do far more to "disrupt well-being at the community, institutional, national and planetary levels", than speeches delivered by a con man.

Alan C. Logan w/ Glass Spider Publishing


Catch Me If You Can, the 2002 film directed by Steven Spielberg, is a semi-autobiographical thriller based on the life of Frank Abagnale Jr., a self-confessed conman. The film depicts the extraordinary exploits of Abagnale from the launch of his criminal career through to his impersonations of various professionals and onto his eventual imprisonment. According to the film, he was so good at check fraud he was recruited by the FBI. But what if Abagnale’s confession is the real con?

In The Greatest Hoax on Earth, Alan C. Logan exposes Abagnale’s greatest deception and proves that while he was certainly a conman, he was not the master criminal he pretends to have been. What’s more, rather than being a loveable rogue who limited himself to victimless crimes, Logan asserts that Abagnale was always out for what he could get, never caring who got hurt along the way.

In addition to mining court records, newspaper accounts, and other documentary evidence, Logan’s key informants when writing the book were Paula Parks and Mark Zinder, both of whom were well placed to know the “real” Abagnale. Parks is a former Delta Airlines flight attendant who knew Abagnale before he started publicizing his life, while Zinder served as Abagnale’s booking agent during the late 1970s/early 1980s. The motivation for Parks and Zinder to expose Abagnale is clear, and the reasoning behind Logan’s interest in Abagnale and the post-truth world is equally interesting.

In terms of Abagnale’s alleged cons, Logan explains how journalists have been exposing the exaggerations and outright lies since he first started telling his tall tales. Yet the truth failed to stick. Part of Abagnale’s success is likely due to the fact his self-publicizing heyday occurred prior to the advent of the Internet, which meant information was shared much less widely. Still, after numerous exposés, it’s strange that Abagnale was able to keep peddling his stories. Perhaps people just didn’t want to know the truth?

The information presented in The Greatest Hoax on Earth is mindboggling. In many ways, Frank Abagnale was a terrible conman, and Logan certainly provides evidence that Abagnale’s grifts were grubby rather than glamorous. Abagnale did pass dodgy checks, did have some limited experience masquerading as a pilot, and did once escape from a jailhouse, but the rest is pure flimflam. Abagnale exploited the trust of good people, and his actions definitely had consequences. Given the similarities between Abagnale’s supposed escapades and the life of Ferdinand Demara, he also seems to have stolen much of his biography. It’s not even clear how much of that con was Abagnale’s own work since it seems more in keeping with the style of Stan Redding, the coauthor of the original Catch Me If You Can.

The Greatest Hoax on Earth is a compelling and shocking read. Abagnale is still making a lucrative living based on claims that can and have been easily disproved. His success doesn’t seem to be down to any particular skill, but rather to the media’s appetite for a good story and the public’s desire for an (anti)hero, which is probably the saddest aspect of the whole story.


If you've ever seen the movie Catch Me If You Can, the name Frank Abagnale should ring a bell. In The Greatest Hoax on Earth, author Alan C. Logan describes to his readers just how fake the movie and all of what Abagnale says is. In fact, the line between fact and fiction still seems to be unclear in many cases. Frank Abagnale, admittedly conned many people, but the extent to which his antics went and the number of people they affected may never truly be known. Even with his extensive research, Logan has a hard time finding out the truth.

The foreword of the book is written by two people who were directly affected by Abagnale. Paula Parks and her mother and father were all taken advantage of by him. However, Paula was uneasy around Abagnale from the get-go and let her parents know so. Why they let him into their home is really beyond me. Mark Zinder was Abagnale's public relations guy who booked his speaking gigs. Zinder knew Abagnale was a con man and although he had told everyone that he had stopped conning people, clearly his behavior showed that he was still up to no good. Zinder was manipulated by Abagnale for many years and was even fired and then rehired. Why Zinder kept coming back to Frank was also strange.

The story told in The Greatest Hoax on Earth albeit interesting, didn't seem to prove too much of what Logan was trying to. All of the bits and pieces of information he gathered just added to the already told story instead of disproving the movie. Of course, most people realize that Hollywood glorifies its characters and in this case, it's no different. In fact, Abagnale was so good at telling his story and making everything sound so believable that no one thought about fact-checking any of it. We also have to remember that during the times covered, there was no Internet and so it would be easy for Abagnale to travel from state to state reinventing himself without anyone knowing that he was on parole or in any sort of trouble. Only the people involved knew the truth. He was able to trick his closest acquaintances and gave up only the information he wanted.

Overall, this book told an interesting viewpoint of the story of Frank Abagnale but it was repetitive at times and new information was added instead of the Catch Me If You Can story being disproved with fact. The timeline that was given showing the difference between what was portrayed in the movie versus what Logan found out was interesting, yet the fact-checking behind it was still uncertain.


Fortune and Glory: A Novel (27) (A Stephanie Plum Novel)

The search for treasure didn’t end in Twisted Twenty-Six. Evidently the La-Z-Boys still think they can find their treasure, even if the group is dwindling due to ill-timed deaths. After a fight with Morelli about the legitimacy of the treasure, Stephanie looks to Ranger to help safeguard Grandma Mazur and possibly do some not-so-legal breaking and entering and safe cracking. Helping George Potts, a bail skip, earns Plum a half-hearted guard and some unexpected comic relief. When Gabriela Rose enters, an unknown entity in the treasure hunting business who has been seen talking with Morelli, Stephanie must pull out all her best moves to find the treasure so she can help Grandma Mazur get what is rightfully hers.

Though predictable and ridiculous, book twenty-seven is just as quick and fun as the previous twenty-six installments. Readers can expect the usual tension between Morelli and Ranger, crazy laugh-out-loud antics from Grandma Mazur and Lula (see the first chapter!), and multiple bombs and car explosions. This is not the last we’ll see of Stephanie Plum, as book twenty-eight is slated for November, nor Gabriela Rose, who will have her own spin-off in June with The Recovery Agent, which are sure to appeal to those who haven’t tired of the series yet.


My Hero Academia: Vigilantes, Vol. 8 (8)

Not everyone is cut out to be a hero. Some are cut out to be villains. And others don’t want to follow the rules laid out for the heroes, preferring to use their powers to serve the people without legal sanction. They’re not quite heroes, but they’re not quite villains either, rather they’re vigilantes.

You don't need to be familiar with the My Hero Academia world to read the Vigilantes spin-off series, but I don't recommend jumping in the middle of the series as I did. The exception to this if you just want to read the Aizawa back-story that starts at the end of vol. 8 and will continue into vol. 9. The characters are easy to tell apart, each has unique characteristics that make them different. They also have their own voices, though a few felt like they were copied from the main series.


First Principles: What America's Founders Learned from the Greeks and Romans and How That Shaped Our Country

When many people think about the Founding Fathers, they think of the Enlightenment ideas and ideals that influenced their thinking and writing and formed the foundations for republican forms of government. This book looks at four of the Founding Fathers and focuses more on how Ancient Greece and Rome influenced their thinking and the many different ways that they used their classical education and learning to shape a new nation.

This book looks at the major players, never really delving into more critical areas with any real depth. It is mostly a surface inspection of the thoughts of four of the major players in early American history. If you are looking for a critical examination, then this is probably not the book for you. However, if you are looking for a surface explanation and something that is not too convoluted, detailed, or complicated, then this book will likely suit you. Thomas Ricks does not break new ground, look at things differently, or even examine the thinking of other Founding Fathers; he seems fixated on the major ones.


Saving Freedom: Truman, the Cold War, and the Fight for Western Civilization

The United States, its people returning to normal life after WWII, must be convinced that military and economic support for Greece and Turkey is warranted. Truman, Marshall, and Acheson create a new foreign policy to keep Soviet influence at bay. America as a world power replaces Great Britain, with Truman, an unlikely president, at its helm.

This is the basis for Joe Scarborough’s Saving Freedom: Truman, The Cold War, and the Fight for Western Civilization. The book presents these events in an easy to follow, easy to read format, with humor and care. Readers learn how the foreign policy that aligned with American economic, security, and even moral goals, came to be. He describes the first few moments of Truman’s presidency after the death of FDR, the limitations of Truman’s personality and his strengths in leading a bipartisan effort to secure the Truman Doctrine.

Scarborough has a knack for giving context and specifics yet not bombarding the reader with details. There is some  background regarding WWII and American isolationism, FDR’s choice of Truman as Vice President, and brief mentions of events like Truman’s support for Israel, but mostly the book is narrowly focused on the events leading up to the Marshall Plan and Truman Doctrine. For me, this made it a better read, to be so clearly focused.  Overall, fans of American international policy and the Cold War history will get a lot out of Saving Freedom.


Shakespeare aptly wrote “All the world’s a stage…….And one man in his time plays many parts.” Frank W. Abagnale Jr. personifies this quote. He began his grifts at 16, forging checks from PanAm while passing himself off as a pilot and cheating airlines on fares as he hitched rides on planes. He would bilk PanAm out of $2.5 million and continue various cons around the United States, posing as a Doctor, Attorney, and various other personas until he was arrested in Europe in 1970. This is what Abagnale says happened. There are individuals who view Abagnale’s claims as outright flights of fancy, even more fraudulent than the crimes Abagnale has served time for. The Greatest Hoax on Earth gives a voice to the unheard victims.

Paula Parks worked as a Flight Attendant for Delta Airlines when she met Frank Abagnale in January 1969. He was deadheading on a flight Parks worked. She sensed something off about the young man. She brushed off his attempts at courtship, but soon he inserted himself into her family after dropping Paula off at her house in Baton Rouge. Soon, he was charming her parents into letting him stay at their house. His career as a pilot seemingly stalled, he told the Parks Family that he wanted to find a job working with kids. The concerns about Abagnale never seemed glaring until his scheming got him arrested. He had been cashing checks under the Parks Family’s account along with a local business. Paula’s parents were devastated at the betrayal. Abagnale promised reform and professed remorse, he received a slap on the wrist and soon left the state.

Mark Zinder was an impressionable college student when he heard Frank Abagnale’s story. He was awestruck with Abagnale’s exploits and taken in by his charm and generosity. Soon Zinder was representing Abagnale and booking him at various colleges to relate an incredible true story about crime and redemption. As the years passed, Zinder noticed certain oddities about Abagnale, but never truly questioned his client’s veracity until a College Professor did exactly that. Allegations were made that put Abagnale’s past in a whole new light, showing his crimes involving suffering victims, not victimless as claimed.

Despite the experiences of Parks and Zinder and the exposes of intrepid journalists, the lovable rogue portrayed in Catch Me If You Can is what the public embraces.The Greatest Hoax on Earth entrances from the opening and doesn’t let go of its hold until the very end. Author Alan Logan has assumed a Sisyphean task in attempting to untangle a web of deception that has endured for over four decades. After finishing this fine true-crime work, the conclusion is that Logan with the help of Parks and Zinder has done an admirable job in debunking a legend.


Fast and Low: An Engineer's Approach to Health and Wellness

"Goal-driven and action-oriented folks who are serious about improving their well-being will appreciate Nasir Khan’s scientific approach to adopting healthy habits. From his perspective as an engineer, Khan dispenses evidence-based insights on diet, fasting, and exercise. No two bodies are alike, and Khan’s metrics-focused approach emphasizes measurable goals and self-experimentation techniques to effectively achieve individualized results." ---Maileen Hamto, San Francisco Book Review


This is a Prison

This Is a Prison captures the ins and outs of the criminal justice system in words young children can comprehend. They’ll find the simplicity through which it’s written appealing, and as they thumb through the pages, they’ll be taken through the process, from beginning to end, of exactly what happens when someone commits a crime.  Perhaps most importantly, what they’ll discover - the loss of freedom and happiness a convict often faces - will deter them from ever entering the system in the first place. ---J. Padgett, San Francisco Book Review


The Cornerstones of Happiness

I don't think I've read a book quite like The Cornerstones of Happiness. The story of guidance and self-destruction revolves around twenty-six-year-old Lindsey, a former stripper and current seeker of happiness. Lindsey has some baggage from birth and her past that she carries throughout her life, unsure of how to let it go. The theme of abandonment is strong throughout the story.

Lindsey is now an adult living on her own in New York with three roommates. Through a plethora of self-help books, she has discovered the common factor between them all—the four cornerstones of happiness. Because of her past decisions, she is needing to feel "right" again, and not become absorbed in the aftereffects of her past trauma. She thinks she has it figured out: she quits her live-in nanny job and rediscovers an assumed lost co-worker while shopping for a new bed. They rekindle an old connection, Lindsey obtains a new job, and she is on the verge of living out the cornerstones of happiness. This is the seemingly sweet first half of the book.

The second half is when things get a little crazy. Drugs, sex, control, punishment, and the desire for forgiveness are themes seen throughout this half. Lindsey's life choices become questionable, and it won't be uncommon for the reader to experience bewilderment over what is happening. Questions like, “will Lindsey make it out of this?!” and “why?! were going through this reader's mind. The character's true colors show with a surprise ending that evokes mixed feelings.

I appreciated the educational aspect of this book. When Lindsey is aware of her problems; she conducts research and presents her findings to her audience. Facts about mental health are prevalent throughout the book, which makes this story applicable to a diverse audience. The correlation between mental health and drug use is eye-opening. The way that the author described Lindsey's highs and lows are descriptive. Everything in the story, including her various relationships, is descriptive and has a way of pulling the reader into the text. While reading about Lindsey's life, I felt all of the feels. I even noticed myself feeling disappointed and proud of her, much like a parent reading about their child. This is very much a coming-of-age story for a girl with no proper upbringing, who ends up, after a long, hard road, discovering herself. In the process, her audience learns the key goals to strive for happy lives for themselves.


The Essence of Nathan Biddle

"A mesmerizing book that follows the life and evolution of Kit Biddle. Lewis's poetic and philosophical interjections are provocative and ingenious. His writing is captivating and will draw readers into the complex mind of our protagonist." — Jessica Tingling, San Francisco Book Review


Bone Canyon (Eve Ronin Book 2)

Bone Canyon takes place shortly after the climax of Lost Hills in the thrilling Eve Ronin series. Eve has found herself back in the spotlight after solving a triple homicide and becoming a hero once again, living up to her "Deathfist" name. Her fame is not highly viewed by all people who claim political deception at play. After the fires of Lost Hills die down, Eve is called on the scene to investigate some human bones that may or may not have been caused by murder. During Ronin's investigation, she'll uncover dark secrets within the police department that will send you chills and come within an inch of death on several occasions.

 Once again, Lee Goldberg did not disappoint; he brought his readers action, romance, and an appreciation for those of us with non-psychotic mothers. The writing is fast-paced and dives deep into the topic of rape and whether certain women are "asking" for it. As a woman reader, I could sympathize with Eve and her emotional reactions to the responses given by her male colleagues. The theme of the book is relevant to our current drive for women's equality while ensuring justice is served no matter the outcome.


No One Asked for This: Essays

Cazzie David has written some interesting essays albeit they are filled with angst. If she weren’t such a good writer, the pain she has suffered in becoming an adult would be difficult to get through.  I selected this book based on reading some of her writing, not knowing that she had inherited writing talent from her famous father, Larry David. I was also ignorant of her tabloid-worthy break up from an also famous boyfriend.  I really need to read more pop culture.

While relating painful and self-deprecating details of her life, the author readily admits that she is living a life of rare privilege.  Her writing is so very interesting and yes, entertaining, that one forgets that she has everything in her life of material nature. That would suppose that the privileged never suffer, feel embarrassed, or feel less than. From knowing some women of famous fathers, I see that the road can be difficult in determining a separate and worthy identity. One would hope that this book is just the beginning of many more. She is readable and talented in her own right.


How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America: Essays

Kiese Laymon’s collection of essays reaches the pinnacle of truth-telling that only essayists with this author’s candor and depth can achieve. Laymon shares his contemplations on the impacts of the pandemic on Black Americans, the insistence of white nationalist symbols in Mississippi, and ponderings on racialized realities and identities in the South. He is writing about himself, his family, and his friends. What binds the narratives together is Laymon’s immense care and concern for his Grandmama, for hiphop, for the people.

It would be an oversimplification to state that trauma is a primary theme of the essays. Yes, Laymon lays bare generational pain that manifests in betrayals of self and others; thoughts and actions that slowly kill self, dreams, and relationships. At the same time, the author summons the reader to feel and inhale the breadth and intensity of his love and pride for the culture.

Most of us don’t deserve the honesty that Laymon serves on the page, but it’s what the reader receives: plain truth, often painful, thoroughly unvarnished. Harsh truths explore angst and frustration that cannot be fully grasped without walking in the shoes of a Black male Mississippian. Laymon engages the reader intellectually about collective pain emanating from various streams of violence against Black life: systemic, structural, and interpersonal. More importantly, his prose evokes a visceral reaction: one that inspires empathy, underscoring great love for humanity.


Please Don't Tell Cooper He's a Dog

The dog has been called man’s best friend, and archaeological evidence suggests that dogs were domesticated and used as pets at least 15,000 years ago, and possibly as long as 22,000 years ago. They often go beyond just being pets and become a loved and respected member of the family. As we continue to live through this pandemic, many people and families across the world are acquiring dogs from shelters to add more companionship and love in their lives. There is a way a dog can look at you as its owner that no other animal can. //Please Don’t Tell Cooper He’s a Dog// is a children’s book about the world’s most popular pet and how he is more than just an animal.

Cooper is the family dog. He’s big and brown and fluffy. He has five siblings and two parents. “Always treated like family,” yes, Cooper is basically “his parents’ sixth child,” except he doesn’t act like your usual dog. “Please don’t whistle or ask him to do a few tricks as he thinks it’s beneath him to chase balls or sticks.”  Cooper doesn’t bother with dog bowls but sits at the table and eats from a plate like everyone else. “At the dog park, he watches those silly pups play. He’d rather be skiing or at a ballet.” He doesn’t bother with dog beds but shares the couch with the family, and unless his food has steak sauce he won’t take a bite. Cooper uses the toilet like everyone else, and even decided to go on a trip and travel Europe, “but as head of the family, of course, he came home.”

Don’t Tell Cooper He’s a Dog is short and quick, ideal for nighttime reading or when you have a ten-minute break with the kids to read something. Each page shows a different facet to the world of Cooper, always with a fun rhyme which makes it great to read out loud and the kids will love it. The illustrations are done by an Italian illustrator, Anna Mosca, and while they are a little simple and amateurish, they are nevertheless entertaining, especially for scenes like Cooper sitting on the toilet reading a newspaper, sitting with the family watching the ballet, or traveling Europe visiting the Eiffel Tower, art galleries, and eating Swiss cheese.

Don’t Tell Cooper He’s a Dog is a fun picture book for both parents and kids to read, together or apart, and tells a valuable lesson in the importance of adopting pets from shelters and rescue groups.


Pretending: A Novel

April is fed up with the world of dating. Every time she thinks she has found a man who might be long-term relationship material, something happens and the relationship fizzles and dies. April hates men, she really does, and she hates even more that she seems to need one so badly. In a moment of frustration, she initiates a twisted experiment: she creates for herself the persona of what she believes is the ideal date. Gretel, as she calls herself, is beautiful, low-maintenance, breezy, not clingy at all, and free of drama and problems. April finds it fun and strangely liberating, but then she starts to actually fall for Joshua, who knows only Gretel and very little about the real woman hiding inside.

Holly Bourne’s novel Pretending initially seems like it’ll be a fun, flirty read about a woman catching a man by pretending to be something she’s not. And it is, but really this book is so much more. It should probably come with a trigger warning somewhere in the description, as April works for a nonprofit that regularly assists victims (and perpetrators) of sexual assault, and as a survivor herself, April really struggles at times with flashbacks and an intense amount of (unwarranted) guilt and shame. Darker subject matters aside, Gretel really is a fun character, and it’s delightful to see April getting to live outside herself a bit. This is a great story and is highly recommended.


His Holiness the Dalai Lama, said to be the happiest man in the world, faces Earth’s most hopeless devastation in Our Only Home: A Climate Appeal to the World. The apocalyptic fate of humanity is a certainty, that much is known. Journalist and friend of the Dalai Lama, Franz Alt speaks dutifully alongside the great religious leader.

Spoken with clarity and lacking totally in hypocrisy, this manifesto lauds renewable energy as a source of the reversal of humanity’s ethical plight. It is crystal clear that the hopelessness emanates from the opposing faction, as the many tributes to young political leader Greta Thunberg (in many ways, this book is an ode to her actions) prove: there is worthiness in this calamitous fight.

Testament to the prophecy of this book is the increasing rapidity of inaction regarding climate change. Mere months after its publication, the British Public Accounts Committee (PAC) regarding global warming release a statement saying that leaders have “no plan” to meet the targets they set to reduce and remove carbon emissions. Having read this book, I now know that this comes as no surprise, except of course to the leaders themselves.


Before the Coffee Gets Cold

Before the Coffee Gets Cold will leave the reader with feelings of hope, happiness, and sadness all in one swoop. There is a little cafe in Japan associated with an urban legend that one can go back in time if one sits in a particular seat. There are rules, however, including the fact that you must not get up from the seat and you must not let your coffee get cold. Going back in time cannot change the present. You also cannot travel more than once.

This book had me mesmerized from the very beginning. All the characters in the book are closely intertwined, and each one has a special story as to why they want to sit in the chair and whom they would want to visit. The characters are all very endearing and sweet. Even after finishing the book, it left me with thoughts about what I would do if I could go back in time. This is a must-read for lovers of time travel and life lessons. It is a beautifully written book with prose that will speak deeply to the heart of the reader.


Spirit of the King

After thirteen grueling years under the tutelage of an evil spirit named Kerrigor, main character Aria finally works up the courage to run—she throws off her weapons and darts through the open gates of Kerrigor’s compound. Although she’s immediately overwhelmed by an outside world she hasn’t laid eyes on since she was six, she eventually acclimates and embarks on a fantastical journey of self-discovery and redemption.

Spirit of the King delights in the simple pleasures of life—of nature, soft fabrics, the smells of savory foods, the sounds of music. Freed at last from the shackles of the murderous Kerrigor, Aria eagerly soaks up these experiences like an alien come to Earth, and it's hard not to get swept up in her joy. You'll wish you were there with her in the Corrinian marketplace, shopping for outfits and learning about maps. She’s adaptable, quick to make friends, eager to learn, and always willing to listen.

Refreshingly, the book eschews the typical “chosen one” cliché so common in books of this genre, and instead, Aria is targeted by forces good and evil simply because she’s a kind person with a good heart.

Readers who enjoy novels like Safe Haven or Rose Madder will notice some familiar story beats: a woman who escapes from an abusive situation finds comfort and safety elsewhere, but must prepare for a showdown with her past. The formula works well in Aria’s tale, but the faith-based plot proved to be something of a stumbling block for me.

Spiritual entities such as Kerrigor and Eli (the eponymous King) inhabit Aria's world but are so loosely defined that it's never clear what they are or what they're capable of. Even murkier are the motivations of these entities; what stake they have in this world and their desires for its inhabitants are lost in vague assertions and half-formed allegories.

There are many nods to the Bible, which help to fill in some gaps. The framework for the whole story, in fact, reads like an homage to the book of Job. Kerrigor and Eli, stand-ins for Satan and God respectively, discuss whether Aria will take to Kerrigor’s teachings before he abducts her. But the context is missing. And without that, Eli and Kerrigor feel like typical magicians—not creators or gods worthy of reverence. Eli comes off as aloof and oddly flirtatious, even sensual, when he speaks to Aria.

Despite these gripes, I mostly had a good time with Spirit of the King. The book is generally well written, with a snappy pace that really moves things along. The large and varied cast of characters never stay in one place for more than a few pages, and each location is larger and more elaborate than the last. Readers who enjoy stories of redemption and don’t mind filling in a few gaps themselves are sure to find something to like here.


Three Ordinary Girls: The Remarkable Story of Three Dutch Teenagers Who Became Spies, Saboteurs, Nazi Assassins and WWII Heroes

Three Ordinary Girls takes place in the Netherlands just before and during WWII. Truss and Freddie, sisters; and Hannie are all actively engaged in leftist causes before war comes to their land. Pre-war they hand out flyers, pamphlets, and learn the very basic skills of organizing underground cells although before the war the punishments are not nearly as dire as they later face.

After the Nazi takeover of The Netherlands, they learn how to sabotage, disrupt and kill both Nazi soldiers and countrymen collaborators. The book is filled with true accounts of hair-breath escapes, daring escapades, luck-filled and ill-fated missions. The three young women start with trepidation, fear, and trembling, though they are bolstered by their pre-war political passion. The author details their development into deadly assassins and saboteurs as he recounts their many missions. Young and pretty, they are able to get close to many persons that no one else could, and kill them; escaping because no one would suspect a pretty girl of shooting someone. Their natural intelligence and unwavering dedication to the Netherlands results in their being sent on increasingly dangerous missions. The author skillfully does not make them monsters, he does not editorially pass judgment on the girls or the Dutch people that are killed. The book is exciting to read and moves very rapidly. There is a growing sense as you read that the girl’s time is going to run out. In all, a very good inside look at the Dutch Resistance in the Second World War.


Listen Mama

In Listen Mama, M.S.P. Williams shares his fears, joys, and the most poignant moments of his childhood through his early adult years via a collection of letters to his mother. He describes his youth as plagued by poverty and riddled with sadness, loneliness, and an overabundance of responsibility. His father is a man he’s never seen and for whom he longs to know. By the time Manny enters high school, he has four younger siblings who have a different dad than his own. Manny’s devastated when he passes away his sophomore year. With the exception of his maternal grandmother, Mama Dear, he had been the only constant in his life for the duration of his youth.

His mother Selita’s mental condition declines significantly over the years, affecting him and his siblings immeasurably. He recalls the times she insists they sleep in a closet because her paranoid delusions cloud her sensibilities and the times she refuses to drink the milk he purchased with his own money because she’s certain it’s laced with poison. He continues to care and provide for her despite the frustrations that mark his days.

Over the next several years, Manny completes college, falls in love, and moves to California. The weight of the burdens he’s carried for much too long lightens, though the thought of returning home never dissipates completely. One day, he heads that way and makes it halfway. He pulls into a parking lot and completes his final letter to Selita. In it, he expresses his need to finally let go, to allow her to live her life, and he his. He refers to her by a name he’s never used - “Mama.” He gains the closure he needs and voyages back to California, ready to start the next chapter of his life.

Listen Mama reads much like a diary written as a form of therapy. The letters contain both the intimate as well as the mundane happenings in the author’s life. Through them, he uncovers his insecurities and delineates what it feels like to discover his father went to the same church as him when he was too little to remember and never once acknowledged his presence. He highlights his struggles financially and writes of the times he loses hope and tries to end it all. He elucidates all the times Selita fails to express gratitude for his help. His discontent is palpable and omnipresent. He writes, “When I was around fifteen, I told Mama Dear that I wished I was ‘normal.’ This was one of the few times I was not referring to my face...I wished that I was not a semi-intelligent person and that I did not ‘know better.’ That I did not feel moved by other people’s pain.”

The aforementioned things hold meaning and significance. However, a notable proportion of the book contains musings about the author’s favorite movies, shows, song artists, and sports figures. He includes details about who won the recent ballgame or what happened on an episode of Buffy the Vampire. For example, on September 23, 2008 part of the entry reads, “Just saw the premiere episode of The Mentalist. One of the best shows ever. Main guy is a great actor, and the lead actress and the rest of the team play well-off each other. Great premise, great dialogue, great everything.” This type of commentary spans pages at times and is often inserted in the middle of unrelated content. It frays readers’ attention and detracts from the heart of the narrative. Unfortunately, the quality of the text is compromised considerably by these shortfalls.


Murder On The Metro

While Lia Ganz, a retired and highly decorated member of the Israeli army, stands holding her three-year-old granddaughter tightly against her, drones spray the beach in Caesarea, Israel, taking countless lives. Thankfully, the water shields them from imminent danger, and they survive.

A woman at the Washington Metro exhibits emblematic behavior of someone about to pull the cord of a suicide vest. Robert Brixton follows her closely as the memories of his late daughter whose life was taken by a suicide bomber, haunt him. He vows this time will end differently, and his courageous actions ensure that.

Kendra Rendine, Vice President Stephanie Davenport’s Secret Service Security lead, witnesses the sudden death of the Vice President. Devastated, she begins to methodically retrace her steps and the events that led up to this day. What she discovers leads her to believe the death was no accident, but instead, the result of a premeditated act of murder.

What becomes evident is these seemingly unrelated incidents are intricately linked. Ganz, Brixton, and Rendine uncover horrifying truths, the worst of which is yet to come. An event of unconscionable proportion is about to take place. Without their intervention a significant percentage of the population will be eliminated. Together, they mastermind a plan to stop the President’s wife from setting off a chemical attack that will rip apart the nation.

Murder on the Metro has a cast of complex and well-developed characters. The stories run parallel, beginning on desperate planes and eventually meeting at an intersection of undeniable interconnectedness. The mystery of how the drone attack in Israel is related to the Vice President of the United States’ death is confounding, but what the reader learns is that in order to ensure her husband never loses his position of authority, the President’s wife will do anything, including using the Israeli’s like a scapegoat for her own atrocities. She plans the minute details of the medical intervention that results in the Vice President’s demise. She is ruthless, and her deceitful, evil ways are intercepted in the end, leaving the reader with the satisfaction of knowing that justice prevailed.

Jon Land writes with precision. It’s evident he dedicated due diligence to the research needed to accurately depict the characters, scenes, and events in the text. His use of foreshadowing and figurative language are impressive. They aid in bringing his narrative to life.

At times, the pace seems slow, and the reader awaits the next thrill, hoping it will quickly come. However, the speed picks up as does the suspense, especially towards the latter part of the book. Piecing together the clues of whose responsible for the savagery is challenging and adds to the quality and enjoyment of the read. Overall, it’s a worthy endeavor.


The Last Lumenian

Lilla is a princess whose father has shifted his rule to the one of a tyrant and it only gets worse when he marries, giving Lilla a new stepmother who has her own wicked agenda. The first action her stepmother takes is to convince Lilla's father to sign a marriage contract that will send her far away. But Lilla has a plan of her own. She's not a princess that waits for events to unfold. She's a rebel who's fighting with her people for their freedom. The handsome general Callum arrives with secrets of his own and charms Lilla in a way she never expected. It doesn't help when her life is thrown into the drama between the gods and a war explodes between two archgods that pulls Lilla into the middle, which pushes her into discovering her own magical potential that will have her pushing her abilities to their fullest. To fulfill her destiny she must prepare to come face to face with the Archgod of Chaos and Destruction.

Heralded as a princess with strength and valor, Lilla was given a strong-willed voice and attitude that is woven from SG Blaise delivering a wonderfully dynamic heroine weighed down by her duties as a princess and a rebel. Both sides of her are taken with the same level of detail and with the side given equal precedent as the story progresses. Blaise uncovers various layers of Lilla weaving her between her role as a hero (taking on the Archgod of Chaos)—one as a princess, and one as a rebel. She's fierce and clever with qualities that serve her throughout her journey and guide her into uncovering the different facets of herself. From the first page, you're introduced to Lilla, an established rebel and the crown princess, with the immediate struggle of these two sides driving her. She's torn between the duty she has to her father and her duty to her people, which pulls her to turning against her own crown to become a rebel. Four sides are explored throughout as Lilla is being pulled in these four directions, and each side is an important element for her progression into the hero she's destined to become.

The magic Lilla has within her slowly is revealed with her powers pushing her to a path she never predicted and challenging her to become more than the rebel and the princess. This side of herself is the tug to become a hero that is centered on her destiny to fight against a powerful god. Just as Lilla has various elements to her character, Blaise also weaves in several threads of the genre to breathe life into the world and sets this story apart from others with elements of science fiction, fairytale, and fantasy. Blaise blends these various elements together for a unique and original setting with a vibe of fairytales seen through the actions of a wicked stepmother, with her planet crafted around a science fiction mold, and the magic and mythology akin to a fantasy adventure. Each thread that creates this breathtaking world reflects various aspects of Lilla's own personality.

The story has grand mythology that's rooted within the actions of meddling gods and the war they pull Lilla into, with her destiny fitted to that of a hero of legend. The story weaves in touches of romance though being part of Lilla's story; her romantic options are not the center of her world. Though, the chemistry with Arrov, as two rebels relying on each other, and friction with Callum creates a delightful undertone to the action-packed moments. The Last Lumenian is an exciting read with a complex heroine with a layered and complex story that takes her from princess to rebel to hero through a journey that consists of magic, gods, war, rebellion, betrayal, and romance.


Women in Chemistry

Women in Chemistry is a book about women around the world and from different times in history who have worked in chemistry and have made a difference. Chemistry is a part of science where you learn about things around you. The ladies in the book have taught us all a lot about things around us. The ladies are teaching a girl in the book about different things about our world, like DNA and our cells. When you read the book, you will find out if you are a scientist, too.

I found the book very interesting. The material in the book was a little hard for me to understand, but I had my mom explain it to me. The part about electrons, neutrons, and protons was neat to learn about. The pictures were drawn well and I thought that the book was made well, too. I think that this book is a good one for kids of any age to listen to, but it might be better to understand with kids older than me.


Black Canary: Breaking Silence (DC Icons Series)

Black Canary: Breaking Silence is a young adult novel which takes place in an DC alternate universe and is filled with action, superheroes, romance, and mystery.

In a DC universe where Bruce Wayne is dead along with his parents, Batman is just a legend, and the court of Owls rules Gotham, the women have lost their ability to sing. Except for one high school student, Dinah Lance, the daughter of a police officer and the late, former Black Canary, Dinah Drake.

Dinah Lance's life could be called average for Gotham, but she wants a change, she wants to be able to sing, to make her voice be heard. She stumbles upon her mother’s old sheet music and records, and she listens and sings, all while keeping one eye open for the talons that lurk on every corner.

Then a new student catches her eye, Oliver Queen, who had just moved to Gotham. His parents, who died in a tragic accident, were supportive of the Talons, so Dinah had been prepared to hate him, but turns out, he is on her side.

Oliver and Dinah join the resistance and the two teens have to go on a daring rescue mission. After one of Dinah's friends gets taken, Barbara Gordon, who is one of the main leaders of the resistance, is there to help them.

With some familiar faces and some new, this book was a great addition to my bookshelves. Though the book itself had no illustrations, the writing had no problem painting detailed pictures into my head. It had a great story, and I would recommend it to long-time DC lovers, people new to DC, feminists, and mature eleven year olds and up.

I give this book 5 stars, as it was an extremely captivating story.


Acts of Desperation: A Novel

When Nolan’s protagonist meets Ciaran for the first time, she thinks he’s the most beautiful man she had ever seen. Besides his looks, she’s stricken by his wholeness, so unlike her inadequacy – something that becomes an ever-present motive of the book. Ciaran is always composed and unaffected by his surroundings while our narrator is drinking too much, sleeping around, and having huge issues with figuring out what she wants to do with her life. She perceives him as superior to her in every instance, inhumanly perfect, and she makes it her life purpose to please him and make him fall in love with her. What ensues is a distressing and intense account of an on-and-off toxic relationship that leaves the reader wondering at times how much a person can endure in the name of love.

The unnamed narrator is unapologetically messy and needy and most of it springs from her insecurity, the ambivalence she feels towards her body and her people-pleasing tendencies. The monologues about female desire and the patriarchal pressures, the analysis of how learning from a young age that her looks and her weight were measures for her worth impacted her body image and made her love and hate food at the same time were incredibly insightful and moving. Acts of Desperation is a powerful story about abuse, desire, toxic relationships, and growing into yourself.


Spirit of the King

Kerrigor roams in the dark shadows searching for vulnerable prey. He selects people in and around his kingdom to serve him while he harvests their souls. His orders are carried out by a group known as the shadowers. Kerrigor sees something special in Aria, and he quickly abducts the young girl and enslaves her. For thirteen years, Aria is held captive, her life force slowly being siphoned from her. Any desire to run is deterred by the mark Kerrigor placed on her. Kerrigor also possesses a charisma that lulls the unsuspecting to his side. All of this changes when Aria lets King Eli permeate her thoughts. King Eli is the antithesis to Kerrigor, the bane of Kerrigor’s existence. Eli places his mark on Aria’s forehead and the rejuvenation of her mind and body begins. She has escaped the clutches of total enslavement, fleeing with a chameleonic King Eli.

Uncertainty beckons as Aria wanders foreign territory. She is soon met by a group of soldiers from a rival kingdom. They are led by a brave man named Daven. The mark left by Eli distinguishes Aria as a possible ally, but the soldiers don’t trust her initially. Aria is taken to their kingdom of Corrinia. Aria is restless as she is living under restrictions in her new surroundings, forbidding her from carrying weapons or moving about freely. She is still vulnerable to Kerrigor’s charms, but now he must compete with Eli for her soul. Aria bridles at authority, she yearns to show her skills on the battlefield. She is a warrior in her heart. Kerrigor seeks to expand his empire, but Corrinia stands in his way. Kerrigor’s only desire is for control, gaining what he wants at the expense of anyone. No one will thwart his plans. At least, that’s what he tells himself. Yet, he underestimates Aria and her will at his own peril.

Spirit of the King aims to thrill with its opening salvos and succeeds on impact. The story skillfully weaves its narrative from start to finish with flights of fantasy interspersed with drama, humor, and romance. Aria distinguishes herself as a heroine in her deep resolve and strength. The battle for supremacy between King Eli and Kerrigor serves as a transfixing backdrop, from both an individual and larger spectrum. Fantasy fiction has a new worthy addition with Amy Hay’s wonderfully pleasing book. A literary escape worth taking in this year or the next.


Robobaby

Robobaby is a funny and short picture book about a family of robots - mother, father, and big sister Cathode. The names are all machine and electrical parts, like Diode and Flange. A box with a new baby robot is delivered, and the robot parents are having trouble following the directions and assembling the baby. Cathode’s mother isn’t letting her help build the baby. After Cathy’s uncle came along to help build it, he and her parents still don’t listen to Cathy about the program updates. They turn on the baby and it goes wild! Then Cathey makes Sprockit the robo-dog fetch the baby and take it to her room. For a while everyone is looking for Sprockit and Cathy. when they find her she has already built the whole baby. Then she looks into the box and sees something else - a bonus robo-baby - twins! And then the book ends. The end is pretty funny and surprising when they find out that they got twins. Kids will like this picture book, especially if they like robots and drawings of machines.


Lana's War: A Novel

Paris, 1943. After losing her husband to Nazi cruelty and her unborn child to the shock of witnessing his murder, Lana Antanova may as well be lost to herself. For a few months, she works in a convent until a man approaches her, offering her something she can do with her life: fight back against the men who killed her husband. She will infiltrate a group of Russians sympathetic to or actively supporting the Nazi regime, and from there she will do whatever she can to save Jews from certain death.

The description of the plot thrilled me -- women at war! espionage! Russians! -- but the execution didn’t impress me as much as I had hoped it would. The contrast between the glitz and glamor of the Riviera and the horrors of the French occupation often errs too much on the side of the former, leaving the author to remind the readers at least once per chapter that Lana is desperately worried about the plight of the French Jews.

Lana’s War was an enjoyable book, but all the same, I couldn’t help hoping for more from it. It never quite reached the heights I hoped for it.


How to Fail at Flirting: A Novel

Naya’s had a dry spell for a few years now. After getting out of an abusive relationship, she’s quietly putting the pieces of herself back together and clinging to her career as a college professor. Trouble starts when her college is undergoing an audit and Naya knows her entire department is in danger of being cut. Her best friends recommend that she get out there and live a little to help her get some perspective.
The first night Naya loosens up and goes out, she meets Jake. Cute, charming, and full of cheesy jokes, he might be just what Naya needs.

First, the chemistry between Naya and Jake is just adorable. Once these two meet, the story just zipped along. The biggest surprise for this book, however, is that it’s not the feel-good rom-com the cover and blurb imply. A very large component of this book is Naya confronting her abusive ex and trying to recover from the scars of physical and emotional abuse. Those themes were much darker than expected, but they worked with the overall story. Naya isn’t the only character with a past, although Jake’s isn’t really delved into that much. He has a huge bombshell but the two of them don’t really discuss it.

Overall, Denise Williams has put forth an engaging and well-written debut. As long as readers are aware of the abuse subplot, it’s worth a read.


Women in White Coats: How the First Women Doctors Changed the World of Medicine

Women doctors, while not overrunning the profession, can hardly be termed rare or unusual today. Yet in the middle decades of nineteenth-century America and Europe, they were just coming on stage. Olivia Campbell’s Women in White Coats chronicles the story of three ambitious, motivated women.

Elizabeth Blackwell, one of two physician sisters, became the first credentialled woman doctor in the United States. Her path was fraught with challenges as she traveled from the US to Europe to seek training, then open a dispensary and become a practitioner. Elizabeth Garrett Anderson was an English dynamo, ready to confront whatever objections she met on her chosen path. The third, assertive and brash young Jex-Blake, unflinchingly contested lengthy legal opposition in Edinburgh.

As doctors, their status and sensitivity were a boon to women unwilling or embarrassed to detail their symptoms to male doctors. They were indeed pioneers.

While the book’s main thrust is medical, and acknowledges the sorry state of pre-modern treatment, the pages reveal the doctors’ dramatic, gossipy personal lives, humanizing their unswerving professional efforts.  Campbell handles the saga clearly, readably, vividly. Readers assuming inevitably decorous Victorian behavior will be pleasantly startled.


Slough House: A Novel

A young woman is on the run from a menacing figure shadowing her every step, her apparent shelter from harm turns into her demise. A dormant Cold War has been roused from its slumber. Slough House is the last refuge for the disreputable, a safe house for the soon to be permanently disavowed. The inhabitants have all come to congregate and cohabitate there for various reasons, but their commonality is the dangling of redemption. Jackson Lamb is the cynical curmudgeon overseeing the personnel and operations of Slough House. He displays a passive hostility towards his wards, but he’d protect them at any cost. He reports to Diana Taverner, who is an Intelligence Chief at Regent’s Park. Diana has recently overseen an off-the-books operation that was based on revenge but now has deeper ramifications. A list has been leaked, the agents at Slough have been greenlit for assassination, the hunt has just begun.

Slough House elicits the bang needed for a new year in Fiction. Espionage has proven a tried and true genre for well over a hundred years, but Author Mick Herron reinvigorates it with his gripping plot, crisp dialogue, and engaging characters. The gray area inhabited by his characters doesn’t give way a bit, but the reader will find themselves choosing sides by the close of this fascinating and entertaining novel.


Eagle Down: The Last Special Forces Fighting the Forever War

Jessica Donati deserves a Pulitzer Prize for this extraordinary book about America's continued behind the scenes fighting in Afghanistan's "Forever War." After spending four years in Afghanistan, much of it as "The Wall Street Journal" Bureau Chief, Jessica Donati offers us insights into the quagmire of the longest war in our country's history. Exactly like her gutsy journalistic style to stay close to the action, Jessica writes with such courage about the havoc political indecision and corruption have wreaked.

The centerpiece of this documentary focuses on the 2015 attack that held the city of Kunduz in the balance, scales tipped by the fearless action of an outnumbered band of U.S. Special Forces. Unfortunately, the devastating aerial attack by an AC-130 gunship on an international hospital operated by Doctors Without Borders, claimed the lives of forty-two patients and staff. The attack on the hospital revealed to the world that America was still very much engaged in a war despite all previous claims of the President and his Administration to the contrary.

Aside from the official reports, Jessica Donati's interviews with key members of the U.S. Special Forces Groups actually engaged in combat reveal that politicians have still not learned the lessons from previous failed military campaigns where the government sent America's sons into battle without a plan or proper support. The hard truth born out by extensive research for this book is that our government still has no long-term plan for Afghanistan that might offer American's even a modicum of assurance that the breeding ground for terrorists will not sprout a fresh crop of attacks on us at home. Even worse, it unveils the ugly reality that we are sacrificing America's finest in secret without any clear goal for ultimate victory, a madness all too reminiscent for Vietnam veterans and their families.

The take-away from this book kick-starts the discussion of the "Forgotten War" by assigning responsibility to the politicians who have been politely changing the subject far too long.


After Happily Ever After: A Novel

Forty-five year old, Maggie, has more than enough to worry about. Her only child will be heading off to college in six months, leaving her with her husband as empty nesters. That might not be so bad except she really misses the career she left to be a full-time mom. There’s also the nagging problem that her husband is pulling away from her and becoming distant. And yet, that still isn’t all Maggie has to deal with. Her beloved father has recently moved into assisted living because of his decline with Parkinson’s disease, leaving her anxious mother alone in the home they’d shared for their entire married lives. Throw in a flirtatious younger man at the gym and Maggie’s entire life is in a perfect storm.

This book takes a very real look at the complex lives of forty-something women who are torn between their duties to all family members while still trying to fulfill their own desires. The characters ring true, and although there are heavy themes, the book manages to be very funny at times and also a fast, easy, read. Many women will see a lot of themselves in Maggie and will enjoy seeing how her circumstances and decisions will play out.


Golden Gate: City Spies #2

City Spies: Golden Gate is an amazing book about a team of young spies. At the start of the book, Sydney and Brooklyn are undercover onboard a marine research vessel. They successfully foil a kidnapping and prevent the ship from being destroyed. However, Sydney is jealous that Brooklyn did most of the work. Then, when they meet up with the rest of the team, they investigate the death of a former spy, who may have been close to uncovering the identity of the mole known as Magpie. Their search leads them to San Francisco, where they attempt to find a notebook that could help with their mission.

This was a very good book. It was well written, and it kept me interested throughout the whole story. I really liked that they visited a few different national parks and national monuments during the story. I also liked that the team worked well together, despite coming from different backgrounds. I would recommend this book to kids from sixth grade to eighth grade, especially if they enjoy adventure stories and/or spy novels.


This Golden Flame

For centuries the automatons have stood still, dormant waiting for someone to awaken them. But the secret to waking them disappeared when their heart was destroyed. All Karis wants is to escape from the Scriptorium and find her brother. Her chance comes when she finds Alix, an automaton unlike any other. This one is very much alive and very much human. Together they cross the sea, meet pirates and join a rebellion, all while finding out what family really is.

The cast of characters isn’t large, but there are more than a few to remember, each different in their own ways. The villain is a bit two dimensional, and he doesn't appear till the last quarter of the book. The magic system is different, they write runes in a ledger that, depending on what it means and how it's written, can do many things.


Zanna's Gift: A Life in Christmases

Zanna’s Gift: A Life in Christmases by Orson Scott Card is a sweet story that mostly takes place in the 1940s and 1950s. It is a short book of about one hundred pages long and a quick, easy read. It is about family, loss, grief, and continuity. Zanna’s gift is a drawing, meant to be given to her brother, who dies. The drawing and its meaning to the family stay in the family for generations. The character of Zanna is full of innocence and love, even as she ages in the book. The other family members, especially her niece, Betty, are good-natured, well-meaning people. My favorite character is Betty, an energetic child and then young woman, struggling with polio and post-polio symptoms. There isn’t a lot of plot or action but is a quiet tale. It seems to me that the story would have worked really well as a short story instead of a novel. And although it’s a sweet story, it fell a little flat for me. It felt two dimensional. There is an afterward, running several pages long, that offers interesting Card family history and some background on the novel’s ideas.


Goodbye, Lark Lovejoy: A Novel

Gimme a Kiss… Roundup

As the saying goes, the course of true love never did run smooth, and these three contemporary romance novels certainly indicate that to be a truism. From rediscovering love after a bereavement to rediscovering themselves after a relationship breakdown, the heroines of all three books finally seem to find that love may, after all, be worth the effort.

The Enlightenment of Bees by Rachel Linden

At twenty-six years old, apprentice baker Mia West rather smugly thought that she had everything important in life––career, home, and relationship––nicely sorted and neatly arranged. In fact, she had just secured a promotion at the artisan bakery where she was training, was convinced that her long-term boyfriend Ethan was about to propose, and had a detailed picture of their quaint future home in mind. However, when Ethan’s attempt at proposing goes awry and he admits that he needs some space, Mia’s perfect world quickly crumbles. In need of a distraction, she agrees to participate in an around-the-world aid project with her friend Rosie. Of course, working with an eclectic bunch of folks in far-flung and troubled locations has a profound affect on Mia and causes her to question if what she thought she always wanted is actually what she really needs in life. The Enlightenment of Bees, Rachel Linden’s latest novel, is a charming romance novel in which the lead character’s love life frequently takes a backseat to her journey of self-discovery. Mia finds herself transforming as she works to transform the lives of those involved in the aid project, and she ends up better off for all the troubles she experiences.

Goodbye, Lark Lovejoy by Kris Clink

Goodbye, Lark Lovejoy, the first book in Kris Clink’s Enchanted Rock series, follows the eponymous Lark as she finally deals with the aftermath of losing her husband and acknowledges that her family life is far from the idyll she has been pretending it to be for so long. Finally realizing that enough is enough, Lark moves her children back to her Texas hometown and decides to pursue her long-paused dream of running a vineyard. Once settled, aside from learning a new trade, Lark also finds herself learning to fall in love again, this time with Wyatt Gifford, an injured army vet who has his own problems to overcome. Lark’s inspirational story is one of rejuvenation and the importance of recognizing and seizing second chances. The decision to leave everything she and her husband had built behind was not an easy one, but finally choosing to pursue her dream of becoming a winemaker proves to be the making of the Lark and, it seems, her family. The Texas wine country setting is delightful, the characters warm and inspiring, and the story itself is romantic, humorous, and uplifting.

A Lot Like Adiós by Alexis Daria

Former best friends are brought back together after years apart in A Lot Like Adiós and the sparks soon start flying. Michelle Amato has focused on building a successful career as a graphic designer at the expense of her love life, much to the chagrin of her marriage-obsessed family. She’s happy with her choice, however, as there has only ever been one man she considered to be marriage material: her childhood best friend Gabriel Aguilar. As for Gabriel, he left New York as soon as he turned eighteen so that he could escape the weight of his family’s expectations. Now the co-owner of a hugely successful celebrity gym in Los Angles, fate is about to intervene in his happy exile and force him to return to New York. Once back in the same city, Michelle and Gabriel find that they have to work together and work out where they stand with each other. This second book in Alexis Daria’s Primas of Power series is a steamy romance in which the lead characters have to navigate their own messy feelings, as well as the overly burdensome feelings of their respective families, in order to decide whether the pursuit of love is really worth all the heartache and confusion.


Jack Sterling and the Spear of Destiny

Catch this modern-day Indiana Jones in his exciting debut. Marine archeologist Jack Sterling may be a “magnet for trouble” but he won’t stop at anything in this underwater adventure. Join Jack as he searches for Nazi treasure and explains the Spear of Destiny’s legacy. Action and danger await you in this suspenseful escapade. —Kristi Elizabeth, Seattle Book Review