The Penderwicks at Point Mouette by Jeanne Birdsall: Book Review

4 Stars. I love this series. It’s just so innocently fun! The girls are funny but caring, as are their circle of friends. Girls in their “tween” years should love these books as well. This installment was just as much fun as all the others. I missed having Rosalind around but without her guidance, the three younger Penderwicks […]

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City of Thieves by David Benioff: Book Review

City of Thieves by David Benioff Book Cover

During the siege of Leningrad in World War II, Lev and Kolya find themselves in jail at the same time. After a sleepless night in which they expect to be executed the next morning, they instead find themselves facing a Colonel in the Red Army. He will let them go free if they agree to […]

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Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan: Book Review

After the recession hits, Clay Jannon finds himself out of a job. He spends hours walking the streets of San Francisco, trying to find something, anything. He wanders into Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore and finds himself working as a bookstore clerk. But there aren’t really very many customers. Well, there are a few impassioned, odd […]

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The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi: Book Review

Synopsis from GoodReads: Anderson Lake is a company man, AgriGen’s Calorie Man in Thailand. Undercover as a factory manager, Anderson combs Bangkok’s street markets in search of foodstuffs thought to be extinct, hoping to reap the bounty of history’s lost calories. There, he encounters Emiko… Emiko is the Windup Girl, a strange and beautiful creature. […]

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Naked in Death by J. D. Robb: Book Review

Lieutenant Eve Dallas is assigned to lead a high-profile murder investigation into the death of a Senator’s granddaughter. But the granddaughter was a “licensed companion,” i.e. prostitute, and she was murdered in a pretty graphic way. Working mostly alone, Dallas must find the murderer before he kills again. I had such a love/hate relationship with […]

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Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie: Book Review

Two young men, children of parents that the Communist government in China deems enemies of the state, are basically exiled to a remote mountain for “re-education.” Their parents’ “crimes” don’t even warrant the word; they’re basically just too educated for the government’s comfort. The teens find a harsh life waiting for them on the mountain. […]

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Scarlet by Marissa Meyer: Book Review

4 Stars. I didn’t like this quite as much as Cinder but I definitely still enjoyed it. By introducing Scarlet, Marissa Meyer managed to avoid my common complaint that the second book in a series is just filler. Had she stayed exclusively with Cinder’s story, I’d probably be complaining. By shifting the focus, she fills in a lot […]

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The Fallen by T. Jefferson Parker: Book Review

Homicide Detective Robbie Brownlaw was promoted a few years ago after a crazed arsonist threw him out of a sixth-floor window. He obviously survived to tell the tale, but he was left with a form of synesthesia–he sees people’s words as colored shapes. He’s learned to use this ability as a primitive lie detector. He’s […]

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The Oracle of Stamboul by Michael David Lukas: Book Review

Eleanora Cohen’s birth is full of omens. The town where she was born was under siege, her mother died in childbirth, and a flock of exotic hoopoes come to roost at the house and just stay. Otherwise, her very early years were fairly normal. Her father married his dead wife’s sister, who did her duty […]

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Die, Snow White! Die, Damn You! by Yuri Rasovsky: Book Review

Synopsis from GoodReads: With the premiere of two new film versions of the Snow White tale, Blackstone enters the fray with its own adult, edgy, and not altogether serious full-cast exposé of fairy-taledom. At last it can be told! Was Snow White really as pure as the driven snow? Did her allegedly wicked stepmother get […]

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