Books

Wolf Hollow, Lauren Wolk’s debut novel, takes place in rural Pennsylvania in late 1943. The story is told by Annabelle as she looks back in time to the year she turned 12 and “learned to lie”.  This ominous start lets the reader know that there is going to be big … Read More

Raymie Nightingale by Kate DiCamillo is a bighearted tale told by 10-year-old Raymie Clarke whose world has just been turned upside down by her father who left her and her mother in the middle of the night for another woman.  Like many kids in similar situations, Raymie thinks it is … Read More

The Fifth Season is a compelling and multifaceted story set on a geologically unstable and volatile “Earth”.  Earthquakes and volcanoes are a constant threat and if severe enough can cause a fifth season, or extended winter, due to the amount of dust and ash sent up into the atmosphere.  Tsunamis … Read More

I just finished listening to The Dark Days Club by Alison Goodman.  The narrator, Fiona Hardingham, an accomplished actress and reader, picked me up, transported me to Regency London and set me down among the aristocracy. It is 1812 and Lady Helen Wrexhall is 18 and ready to go out … Read More

I was immediately hooked by The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge.  As an anthropologist, I had read a number of works by “armchair anthropologists” that tracked the history of science through the Victorian era, the publication of Darwin’s The Origin of Species, the gradual unearthing of fossils that called into question … Read More

Cindy spoke highly of Truthwitch, by Susan Dennard, so I decided to read it also.  Her review of Truthwitch really does a good job of summing up the book, so I won’t cover the same ground.  Rather, I’ll report that the book was fun to read and that its fast pace … Read More

Writing teachers tell their students to keep a journal, that by writing you learn about yourself.  This book gives a twist to that age-old wisdom.  First the title, every twelve years everyone in the community forgets everything.  To combat the periodic forgetting, everyone carries around a book where they write about their … Read More

Children of the New World is a collection of 13 short stories, each taking place in a different, though future, place and time.  I’ll start off by admitting that I’m not usually a fan of short stories.  If I’m really enjoying a book, I like to stay with it for … Read More