- A Door in the Dark
“A door in the dark” Reintgen, Scott. New York : Margaret K. McElderry Books, [2023]. Content Warnings: Major Character Death, Murder, Torture, Fantasy Drug Use, Grief, Death of a Parent, Body Horror, and Gore Ren’s father was murdered. Now she competes against the sons and daughters of the rich and… Book Reviews - Silver Alert
“Silver Alert,” Lee Smith. Chapel Hill, North Carolina : Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2023. Content Warning: dementia, cancer, child trafficking and death. I love Lee Smith’s writing – it is very Southern, in that on the surface, it seems happy and lighthearted, but beneath the surface lies deep waters.… Book Reviews - Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries
“Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries,” by Heather Fawcett. Copyright 2023, Del Rey (317 pages, $28.00). Content Warning: Blood, Kidnapping. One of my new favorite genres when it comes to what I read is “cozy-fantasy”, a category that is not very large, but is certainly growing with new titles every day.… Book Reviews - Children of the State: survival and hope in the juvenile justice system
Children of the state : survival and hope in the juvenile justice system. Hobbs, Jeff; New York : Scribner, [2023]. Jeff Hobbs uses the stories of several children and adults involved with the juvenile justice system to illustrate the challenges the system faces, and the small, but significant, improvements that… Book Reviews - Silmarillion
The Silmarillion. Tolkien, J. R. R. ; edited by Christopher Tolkien. Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 1977. As a huge Lord of the Rings fan (I even have a Gandalf tattoo to prove it!), one of my resolutions for this year was to take on The Silmarillion, which J.R.R. Tolkien considered… Book Reviews - Miss Benson’s Beetle
Miss Benson’s beetle. Joyce, Rachel. New York : Dial Press, [2020]. Content Warnings: Miscarriage, Suicide, Stalking, Death of a Parent, Aftermath of War Set in 1950, Miss Benson’s Beetle is the story of a 46-year-old domestic arts teacher who realizes that she hates the person she has become and the… Book Reviews - Romantic Comedy
Romantic comedy : a novel. Sittenfeld, Curtis. New York : Random House, [2023] Romantic Comedy is the perfect, well, romantic comedy! Sally Milz is a writer for an infamous late night live comedy show called The Night Owls that airs every Saturday night. She was married once, and it ended… Book Reviews - Seen and Unseen
Seen and Unseen: What Dorothea Lange, Toyo Miyatake, and Ansel Adams’s photographs reveal about the Japanese American incarceration by Elizabeth Partridge, illustrated by Lauren Tamaki. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2022. 124 pages. The incarceration of Japanese Americans by the United States Government is one of the darkest events in American… Book Reviews - Blue Marlin
“Blue Marlin” by Lee Smith. Durham, NC: Blair-Carolina Wren Press, 2020, 123 pages, $15.95 This slight novella by North Carolina author Lee Smith is a little pocket gem that can probably be read in one-sitting by most readers. The year is 1958 and 13-year-old Jenny Dale is obsessed with growing… Book Reviews - Dead Wake
“Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania” by Erik Larson. New York: Crown Publishers, 2015. (430 pages) “Dead Wake” is the story of the massive Cunard ocean liner RMS Lusitania that was torpedoed off the coast of Ireland in May 1915 with a huge loss of civilian life. At… Book Reviews - Katie the Catsitter
Katie the Catsitter By Colleen AF Venable and Stephanie Yue. New York : Random House Children’s Books, 2021. First in a series “Some heroes have capes…Katie has cats!” 217 of them, to be exact! Have you ever wondered what that many cats in one apartment would be like? Twelve-year-old Katie gets… Book Reviews - Beyond the Wand
“Beyond the Wand: The Magic and Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard,” by Tom Felton. Copyright 2022, Grand Central Publishing (288 pages, $28.00). Content Warning: Alcoholism, Addiction, Mental Illness. In this memoir, Felton allows fans of Harry Potter to take a peak into his own pensieve (a rare and magical… Book Reviews - Miss Aldridge Regrets
Miss Aldridge Regrets by Louise Hare. New York : Berkley, [2022] I am a huge mystery fan, and my favorites are those that fall between cozy and hard boiled, and have a historical element. Miss Aldridge Regrets fills both of those criteria! Lena Aldridge is a singer in a nightclub… Book Reviews - What If?
“What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions” by Randall Munroe; Dey Street Books (320 pages, $24). Would humanity survive if the Earth suddenly stopped spinning on its axis? What would happen if the sun suddenly vanished from our sky? Is it possible to propel yourself into the air… Book Reviews - Five Silly Picture Books
Bring an extra dose of fun to reading with your kids with these picture books! Your child will think you are the most hilarious person ever. As a bonus, the silliness of these stories will have you chuckling along too! Alan’s Big, Scary Teeth by Jarvis Alan is an alligator… Book Reviews - Reader, I Murdered Him
Reader, I Murdered Him by Betsy Cornwell. New York : Clarion Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, [2022]. Reader, I Murdered Him continues the story of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. However, other reviewers have noted that they didn’t even realize this was a continuation of a famous novel, so having… Book Reviews - Liberation Day
Liberation Day by George Saunders. New York: Random House, 2022. 233 pages. A mother seeks revenge on the stranger who hurt her son. A grandfather writes a letter to his grandson explaining why he did not take more action to stop a dystopia from forming. Two office workers who are… Book Reviews - Ocean’s Echo
Ocean’s Echo by Everina Maxwell. New York : Tor, 2022. Romantic fantasy novels provided a gateway back into reading for many adults during the pandemic. Can romantic science fiction novels persuade reluctant readers to dip their toes into a genre that is often seen as obscure and complex? Give this approach… Book Reviews - Inheritance
“Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love” by Dani Shapiro. New York: Alfred A Knopf, 2019, 250 pages, $24.95, Kindle $12. Dani Shapiro is a middle-aged professional writer with a slight interest in genealogy when she submits a DNA test kit for laboratory testing in 2016. As an Orthodox… Book Reviews - Bloodmarked
Bloodmarked by Tracy Deonn. New York : Margaret K. McElderry Books, [2022]. The middle book(s) in a series always feel a bit like a letdown. You know you’re not going to get resolution and answers to all of your questions, and it is easy for the story to get swamped… Book Reviews
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