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Perhaps the best essay in Wild Comfort is the piece that launches the collection, The Solace of Snakes.  It’s possible that it’s my favorite essay because of her cunning implementation of snake tins (sheets of metal) to give snakes a proper home in a cleared field.  Kathleen Dean Moore further explains her recordings each day as she carefully lifts the snake tins and examines the life beneath: “A large vole. . . dropping blind babies from her teats like ripe plums,” garter snakes, rubber boas, an alligator lizard – treasures of the dark that are suddenly revealed in the light of Moore’s simple

In The Husband's Secret the lives of three Australian women are intertwined in ways they would never have thought possible. For years, the tragedy of a teenage daughter’s death has haunted one of the women and unknowingly affected another. The third woman, faced with a marital earthquake, takes her young son to her hometown of Sydney. There, the three women interact, bringing the past into the present and altering all their lives forever.

Moriarty brings humor and wit to the drama and trauma these middle-aged and elderly women are living through. Fans of Maeve Binchy will likely enjoy the

Victoria Jones has just aged out of the foster care system, and her case worker is transporting her to a transitional home. In alternating chapters, the reader watches Victoria make her way in the world while learning about her past. Whether looking forward or back, her past, present, and future are riveting.

Like those chapters, I alternately wanted to shake the adult Victoria by the shoulders, and hold little Victoria in my lap. Through her gift with flowers, Victoria meets an array of insightful, compassionate, and loving people. Through the ghosts of her past, she pushes them away.

Victo

In the 14th Century, Klaus lives the life of a simple woodcarver who begins to carve toys for all the children of his village after the Black Death strikes his village. In the years to come, his fame spreads through out the region. So much so, that it becomes impossible for him to deliver all the toys on one night. Here begins the magic and whimsy that will influence Klaus for the rest of his natural life...and beyond! Here starts the legend of Santa Claus!

With The Christmas Chronicles Tim Slover crafts the "real story" of Santa Claus. In this charming story, he takes bits and pieces of

In the mood for detailed, lovingly described, slightly creepy, and very political high fantasy?  Have I got a book for you!

(In the mood for a quick, light read?  Come back later.)

Fortress in the Eye of Time is the first book in C. J. Cherryh's Fortress series, and it takes some time establishing the setting.  The book opens with an old wizard, living alone in an old fortress, working a great, old magic designed to create a perfect being to fulfill an old promise.  Being very, very old, he falters at the last, and instead creates Tristen: a lovely, innocent young man with the charm, good

After years of living in the shadows, being glorified as sparkly lovers and dangerous enemies and on TV, vampires have revealed themselves to humans. After a nasty outbreak of vampirism, thanks to a misplaced act of mercy, the world cannot ignore the lore. Infected cities are walled off from the public, called Coldtowns, these places are exquisite prisons for vampires. Humans, enthralled with the beauty and horror of vampires flock to the Coldtowns to offer their sweet red blood for the chance of being turned.

An entire industry has sprung up around the Coldtowns. The elaborate masquerades of

If you’re in the mood for a long book and like family histories with a supernatural twist, try The Witching Hour by Anne Rice. While the story is set in the same world as her vampire series, there are no vampires in this book. Instead, the tale of the Mayfair witches is told from their beginning several hundred years ago to the present.

Those familiar with the vampire stories will recognize the Talamasca, whose motto is “we watch and we are always here,” and who play a significant role in the Mayfair witches’ story. The Talamasca are an order of scholars who study the supernatural. They are

When I picked up this book, I thought the title was reflective of a "good" house as opposed to a "bad" house, but actually the lead character and narrator of the novel is named Hildy Good. Hildy is a successful real estate agent in Wendover, Massachusetts, a town along Boston's north shore, where she "makes it her business to know everybody's business." She is the mother of two grown daughters and is an ex-wife to a husband who revealed to her he was gay after 20-plus years of marriage. This darkly comic story revolves around the fact that she is also a not-so recovering alcoholic, adept at

It doesn't take long to guess the storyline of this book, as page one takes you into a courtroom where T.J. Hill, a thirty-year old teacher, is on trial for having a sexual relationship with one of his female students. And it gets a little more interesting when the student, Morgan, enters the courtroom with her parents and proceeds to leave them behind and sit on her teacher's side. 

From there, the author takes you into each character's story, told from the perspectives of the three women-Morgan, Dinah & Rain. Morgan is a seventeen-year old honors music student, with thoughts of leaving her

I'm generally proud of myself when I successfully make it home after a Saturday stop at my local wholesale store, but that's a drop in the bucket compared to the fantastical adventures that ensue during this run to the corner store for milk.



Mom is out of town for a few days, so dad is tasked with keeping the house in order.  Breakfast is delayed while he spends an inordinate amount of time venturing out to replenish that most important complement to breakfast cereal and British tea -- the milk.  Dad finally returns with a larger than life tale that features aliens, dinosaurs in hot air

The Flamethrowers is set in 1975 where Reno, a 25 year old woman interested in motorcycles and art falls in love with Sandro Valero, a much older artist from an uber wealthy Italian family. The story moves between the Bonneville Salt Flats, the 1970s New York City art scene and the Years of Lead, a period of socio-political turmoil in Italy that deeply affects the Valero dynasty. I was mesmerized by the setting, the characters, the situations and the conversations. One of my favorite books of 2013.

Fans of cozy mysteries will enjoy Murder at the Altar, by Veronica Heley. The story actually begins with the climactic moment when the murderer is advancing towards Ellie. Suddenly: “Too late… The murderer took a step forward.” (p. 1)

 Back in time we go. Newly widowed Ellie Quicke is finding life sad, confusing and almost more than she can bear. For years, she waited on her husband and his elderly aunt, meekly accepting their dictates and their opinion that she was unfit for any other role. With Frank’s death, Ellie is forced to find her own place in the world. Her grief-fogged existence is

The aliens have unleashed 4 waves of death upon humanity. The first, an electronic pulse to render all machines useless. The second, tsunamis to destroy coastal cities. The third, an avian plague called The Red Death. The fourth, Silencers, a race of humans implanted with alien intelligences as fetuses, an enemy we didn’t see coming. The 5th is upon us. Cassie, a 16 year old surviving on her own is one of the few left alive on earth. Armed with an M-16 and a teddy bear, she searches for her little brother with the hunky and mysterious Evan. Zombie, was an up and coming athlete when he was

Like in his most recent work, At Home, travel and history writer Bill Bryson uses a loose premise to explore all of the quirky nooks and crannies of history with his trademark humor and insight. Bryson covers the more eventful happenings in the summer of 1927, like Charles Lindbergh's flight, the advent of flappers, and Babe Ruth's spectacular, record-breaking season, but also finds the strange bits of trivia that connect them.  Did you know the Lindy Hop was originally called the Lindbergh Hop, coined after Lindbergh's fateful flight over the Atlantic?  Or that Babe Ruth gained and lost over

What makes life worth living?  Will Traynor is struggling with this very question since an accident left him paralyzed from the shoulders down and often in excruciating pain.  Confined to a wheelchair and dependent on others to assist with even the most basic tasks of daily life, Will isn't sure life is worth living.  Then his mother hires Louisa (Lou) Clark as his daytime assistant/caregiver.  Two very different personalities, Will and Lou get off to a rocky and stilted start.

As they spend more and more time together Will realizes that Lou has very little experience outside of her small

Parents: if you’re looking for a few hours of uninterrupted time to yourself, check out Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney--for your kid.  NoveList, an online database the Library subscribes to, is a great resource for books.  It lists the minimum reading level for this book at 2nd grade and the maximum reading level at 8th grade.  I’d agree that’s about right.  If you’ve got a 7-year-old Human Reading Vacuum, a 14-year-old reluctant reader, or anyone in between, it’s a good bet they’ll become engrossed in this book.  

I let our seven-year-old Human Reading Vacuum stay up way past her

Almost seven score and ten years ago on November 19th, the National Cemetery in Gettysburg, PA was dedicated to those Union soldiers who fought and died during the three day battle there. It was at this event that President Abraham Lincoln gave perhaps his most well-known speech of his political career: the Gettysburg Address. At less than 280 words long, it is a speech that many Americans have had to memorize at one time or another in the years since. 

Like many, I grew up knowing the Gettysburg Address was important, but I never really knew the history behind it, that there was more to the

David Rothenberg's Bug Music is a highly readable  and eccentric investigation into an aspect of nature too easily taken for granted. Bugs produce very mathematical sounds based on natural cycles. What human ears are able to delineate is really only the tip of a very large iceberg connected to other icebergs. Delving deeply into the sounds of cicadas, crickets and katydids, Rothenberg is not afraid to suddenly go big-picture on his readers. He aims for nothing less than a direct connection between  a cricket’s chirp and jazz band’s rhythm section. There is a philosophical nature to Rothenberg

Claire and Chris Canton are living the quintessential suburban life in Johnson County Kansas when the recession hits and Chris gets laid off from his job.  With a generous severance package Chris is sure that he will be able to find a job with no problem.  However, as the months go on with no job prospects in sight Chris retreats both physically and emotionally from Claire, their two kids and life in general.  Meanwhile, Claire is left to keep things going the way they always have to minimize the impact on their children, Josh and Jordan, while working part time from home.  As Chris continues

I need to confess that I gave up reading this book.  I thought it was because my science knowledge was so abysmal and this theory was bolstered by numerous reviewers praising Kean for his accessible writing.  But I kept having these niggling thoughts that it wasn't all my fault.  And in my defense I do like science writing.  Each year I devour The Best American Science Writing.  This series gets me excited about science which is what science books for the lay person should do.  Kean was just too disjointed for me. Maybe the periodic table of the elements is too much for me but I would have

In Elizabeth Gilbert’s latest work of fiction, Alma Whittaker is born in 1800 to her parents, Henry and Beatrix, who are themselves interesting characters. Henry grew up poor and very resentful of this fact, although his father did teach him the one thing that changed his life, which was botany. Henry is a self-made man and is now one of the wealthiest men in America. Both he and Beatrix are very unconventional parents.  Scientific in nature, they encourage their daughter to explore their large estate—as long as she is doing something to further her intellect. Like her father, Alma becomes

The Girl You Left Behind is broken into two time periods: the first in 1916 with Sophie Lefevre struggling to keep herself and her family alive in a German-occupied town in France. Her beloved husband Edouard, a French artist who studied under Matisse, is fighting at the Front. When the local Kommandant takes an interest in a painting that Edouard did of his wife, Sophie is forced to make life-altering decisions regarding how much she will do to survive the war and save her husband.

Almost a century later, Liv Halston is a young widow in London, still recovering from the sudden death of her

Altered picks up immediately where Crewel left off. Adelice, Jost and Erik are on Earth and searching for a way to get back to Arras to save the ones they left behind and overthrow the Guild. They find themselves in the middle of a rebellion they never knew existed nor truly wanted to join. All three characters have their own motivations and secrets that they are hiding from each other, and very quickly the reader realizes that this will not be a smooth or safe journey. Adelice grows immensely in this novel, and Albin really excels in giving this character a voice and personality that shifts

Love this author – love this illustrator – love this author and illustrator combo – love this book. That’s a lot of love, but if you read this book I think you’ll agree with me. I don’t remember how I came across the illustrator Mark Hearld, but my guess (and hope) is that we will be seeing and hearing a lot more from this talented British artist. His mixed media work reminds me of Eric Carle, but colorful and vibrant in a fresh new way.

Award-winning children’s author and biologist Nicola Davies provides the perfect poetry to go along with the artwork, to vividly present the abundance of our

Aimee Leduc, private investigator, starts the novel with her longtime partner Rene Friant absent and out of the country.  Already concerned about running Leduc Detective on her own, matters grow exponentially worse when her friend Saj hits and possibly kills a Serb with Rene's car.  Soon, the accident is tangled up in the mysterious death of a Russian bookbinder, a missing painting that could be nearly invaluable, and even Aimee's own mother, who's been missing for many years.  Without Rene and Saj--who is under suspicion for the Serb's death--to help, Aimee has to draw on all of her cunning

Soren Bearskin has grown up in a United States colonized by the Vikings rather than the Puritans, a country where trolls hide in the mountains and Norse gods walk the land, where children learn how to sword-fight in school and every year the land is renewed by the god of light, Baldur, as he is resurrected from his winter death.  Except this year, Baldur fails to appear.  A search is begun, a boon is offered by Odin to whomever can return his missing sun, and Astrid Glyn, the daughter of the most famous seer in New Asgard, convinces Soren that it is their fate to find Baldur.  Together, they

In the vein of Laura Moriarity’s The Rest of Her Life or Chris Bojhalian’s The Buffalo Soldier, Hilderbrand puts normal, everyday people under a microscope after throwing a terrible tragedy at them.

In Summerland, twins Hobby and Penny Alistair are shining stars at Nantucket High School. But on graduation night of their junior year they are involved in a car accident that leaves Penny dead and Hobby in a coma for seven days. Character portrayals are authentic with each family of the four students in the car getting their share of scrutiny. The town also has a voice and a collective reaction.

Duck! Rabbit! is a funny Easy Fiction story that challenges you to see images in a different way, similar to an optical illusion, it is a great way to involve everyone in the story.  A wonderful childrens' librarian once used American Sign Language signs for "duck" & "rabbit" which allows everyone to participate in the story and extends their experience.  This is one of my favorite books because it is fun, silly and a nice ongoing discussion about whether it is a duck or a rabbit.  While I have colleagues at the library that don't quite see it this way...from my perspective it is a duck :)

This was a very engaging, interesting read. I especially appreciated the unusual point of view; this story was narrated by the disease itself. At first, the narrator was mildly suggestive: eat this, not that; run just a little further. As the anorexia began taking over, it became more and more demanding and controlling until it directed every aspect of 15 year old Mike's life. When he tried to make a decision that did not further the purposes of the disease, the anorexia talked to him, tricked him into believing that another choice was better. Mike actually heard the voice in his head and as

Dave, Molly and Clete have gone to Montana for a peaceful summer vacation.  But where they go murder seems to follow and Swan Peak is no exception.  Two college students are brutally murdered close to the ranch where the friends are trying to relax.  Another couple is murdered at a rest stop nearby and the two incidents appear to be connected.  Burke is known for the interesting characters he creates with his stories.  This tale includes some down-and-out folks trying to better their lives and/or get even with the world for the wrongs done to them.  Troyce, Candace, Jamie Sue, Ridley and