Laurent Jammett is a French trapper living in a little Canadian community in 1867. He mostly keeps to himself, so everyone is surprised when his neighbor, Mrs. Ross, finds him murdered. Since he worked for them occasionally, the Hudson Bay Company is called in to investigate. When the Hudson Bay officials find out that Mrs. Continue Reading…
A very dark, very brilliant girl, probably about twelve- or thirteen-years-old, comes to on a park bench one day. She doesn’t know who she is, where she is, or how she got there. Being resourceful, she sets out to find the answers to these questions and stumbles onto a huge mystery. Strange isn’t the word. Continue Reading…
If you haven’t read The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, you shouldn’t read this review. I have avoided Mockingjay spoilers. Katniss is living in District 13. The Capitol has sought revenge for the rebels’ assault on the Hunger Games in a brutal, unbelievable way. The rebellion is gaining momentum, and the leaders are begging Katniss Continue Reading…
In 1996, Jon Krakauer attempted to climb Mt. Everest as part of a guided group for a writing assignment for Outside magazine. An experienced climber in the hands of a reputable group of guides, he didn’t really foresee any problems. Go, climb the mountain, hope conditions allowed them to reach the summit, go home, write Continue Reading…
The Christmas Box is about a young couple and their young daughter who move in with an elderly widow to help her out with light chores in exchange for rooms. Mary, the widow, becomes an adopted grandmother to them all and feels compelled to pass on wisdom she has gained with her years. This was Continue Reading…
Have you ever wondered exactly where some of our more common phrases come from? Judy Parkinson sets out to give a brief definition and history of some colorful, common English sayings. I found this book interesting and I learned a lot. For example, “Put a sock in it!” comes from the days of the old Continue Reading…
William Bromley is a World War II veteran living in 1950’s London. In the war, he led a mountaineering expedition that ended disastrously. He has never moved past this and started living again. He’s just existing–teaching school, admiring the secretary from a distance, spending Friday evenings with his one friend, and visiting his father on Continue Reading…
I read this for A Christmas Carol but decided to read the rest and see what else Dickens had to say about Christmas. There were a few other little gems, although none were as good as A Christmas Carol, but there were some that I didn’t like at all. A Christmas Carol was a 4 Continue Reading…
Do you ever find yourself reading along, and when you come to a reference to ancient Greece or Rome, you start scratching your head? With sort of a, “I think I heard something about that somewhere, but I don’t remember much about it” kind of thought? The Classics: All You Need to Know, from Zeus’s Continue Reading…
The Somnambulist features Edward Moon, a conjurer most easily compared to Sherlock Holmes, but with a freakish twist. His Watson is an 8-foot-tall mute man named–can you guess?–The Somnambulist. The pair are asked to investigate a bizarre murder in the seamier part of London at the beginning of the novel. Within pages, they have solved Continue Reading…
In the interest of avoiding spoilers for the second book, I’ll just say that this picks up immediately after that awful cliffhanger of an ending in The Girl Who Played With Fire. So much has been said that I don’t feel like I have a whole lot more to contribute. I (mostly) raced through the Continue Reading…