Author Meera Lee Sethi travels to Sweden one summer to volunteer at a bird observatory. Her time in the mists and mountains of Sweden led her to write a collection of contemplative essays that are collected here. What beautiful language! I was in deep like from the beginning and in love by the closing sentences […]
Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison: Book Review
Georgia Nicolson is fourteen and full of typical fourteen-year-old girl drama. Through her hilarious diary entries, we learn about her disastrous attempt at plucking her eyebrows, her fantasies about a guy she calls the Sex God (even though she doesn’t seem very clear about what sex actually involves), her fights with friends, and her triumphs […]
Trader by Charles de Lint: Book Review
Max Trader is a luthier who wakes up one morning in a body not his own. After the initial panic and a little further investigation, Trader finds out that charming, womanizing rake, Johnny Devlin, has wished for a different life and somehow they have traded bodies. Devlin has no intention of trying to switch back. […]
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett: Book Review
Synopsis from GoodReads: Award-winning “New York Times”-bestselling author Ann Patchett (Bel Canto, The Magician’s Assistant) returns with a provocative novel of morality and miracles, science and sacrifice set in the Amazon rainforest–a gripping adventure story and a profound look at the difficult choices we make in the name of discovery and love. In a narrative […]
Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline: Book Review
Molly Ayer has messed up one too many times. She’s caught up in the foster system and her latest mistake has left her with a choice of either fifty hours of community service or going to juvie. Her boyfriend searches around and finds out that his mom’s employer, 91-year-old widow Vivian Daly, needs help cleaning […]
Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay: Book Review
In WWII France, the French police rounded up over 13,000 Jews and held them in a huge stadium, the Vélodrome d’Hiver, for days before shipping the survivors off to concentration camps. This is the fictional story of one little girl who was taken and what her life might have been like. It’s also the story […]
The Big Beautiful by Pamela Duncan: Book Review
Cassandra Moon, firmly in her 40s, is finally getting married. She’s been taking care of others all her life and now she’s looking forward to having someone else take care of her for a change. All she has to do is walk down the aisle and say “I do.” So why does she find herself […]
Heartless by Gail Carriger: Book Review
**SPOILERS FOR SOULLESS, CHANGELESS, AND BLAMELESS** Alexia Maccon, nee Tarrabotti, is back in residence at Woolsey Castle. She’s gloriously pregnant, not very happy with the way the infant-inconvenience is trying to slow her down, and firmly resolved to keep on with her daily business as usual. When a ghost appears to her and manages to […]
A Dash of Magic by Kathryn Littlewood: Book Review
**SPOILERS FOR THE 1ST IN THE SERIES, BLISS** Rosemary Bliss feels incredibly guilty; she lost her family’s magical cookbook to her evil Aunt Lily and now everything in their hometown of Calamity Falls just feels drab. To make matters worse, Aunt Lily is everywhere Rose turns–on the TV, on the radio, and now on the […]
Apologies to My Censor by Mitch Moxley: Book Review
Mitch Moxley hits a personal low in his mid-twenties. His career is pretty much nonexistent and he’s tired of the cold, gray Toronto winters. He starts looking for jobs overseas and stumbles on a job working for a state newspaper in China, the China Daily. He applies and lands himself a one year contract. He […]
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs: Book Review
Jacob Portman grew up believing every word of his beloved grandfather’s fantastic stories–the levitating girl, the invisible boy, the strong children. Grandpa Portman claimed to have grown up with them all in a special orphanage in Wales. As Jake grows older though, he realizes that the stories can’t possibly be true. After Grandpa’s shocking death, […]