by T.C. Weber This book felt like a mix of the old Mission: Impossible TV show and Ready Player One. It’s an odd mix and sometimes it works really well and other times it hits a speed bump. However, this author can write. His use of language and pacing are…
by Susan Wilson The Dog Who Danced Let me preface this by saying that I’m a fanatic about dogs in general, and blue merle Shelties in particular, so if you’re going to write about this breed, I’m going to notice when you’re full of it. Let’s start with the fact…
by Ellery Adams The Secret, Book and Scone Society Nora has a secret and so do her new friends. It’s too bad that it was death that brought them together, but now they are getting to know each other’s secrets even as they try to find the killer stalking their…
by April Daniels Dreadnought Danny Tozer is transgender. That’s cool, but I wouldn’t have read this book if that had been the focus. I was drawn in by the superhero plot and I appreciated that the gender issues were only part of the character development. As I told a coworker,…
by Robin McKinley The Hero and the Crown Aerin is mentioned over and over again in The Blue Sword as Harry learns to wield her predecessor’s weapon. This is Aerin’s tale, set many years before the happenings in The Blue Sword to which it is a prequel. Aerin is the…
by Robin McKinley The Blue Sword This was the second Robin McKinley book I read, including Beauty, and I had forgotten how good it was. It is set on a earth-like world with many parallels but with a bit of magic. Harry is from Homeland, a thinly-disguised Great Britain, and…
by Molly Harper Sweet Tea & Sympathy By all rights this should be called bittersweet tea because it’s coarser and less refined than I expected it to be. The main character, Molly, has a career-ending experience involving shrimp and flamingos and has to retreat to her father’s family compound to…
by Douglas Preston The Lost City of the Monkey God I don’t know why I always feel compelled to tell you why I read a book before I tell you what I think of it, but the trend continues. I went to the library a while back, trying to find…
by Charlie N. Holmberg The Master Magician I remember being disappointed in The Paper Magician. It had come with a strong recommendation and I had great expectations for it, expectations that I felt were largely left unfulfilled. I swore I wouldn’t read the next book in the series but then…
by Gerald Graff & Cathy Birkenstein They Say/I Say To continue a trend in my reading lately, here is a very helpful book turned into an only mildly helpful audio book. The advice is sound and practical and I can see it making a big difference in how I approach…
