Reviews

Staff Review

Night of the Living Deed

By E. J. Copperman

Rated by Library Staff (not verified)
Oct 19, 2015

Night of the Living Deed, is the first in a new cozy mystery series by E. J. Copperman. Alison Kirby wanted a new start. After breaking with her daughter’s father, “…hereafter known as The Swine,” Alison pins all of her hopes (and savings) on renovating an old Victorian beach house on the Jersey Shore. Things are proceeding moderately well but why do unexplainable mishaps always seem to occur just after she leaves a room?

Staff Review

All There Is

By David Isay
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Hannah Jane W.
Oct 18, 2015

Reading All There Is is like being engulfed in a giant bouquet of love in all its vast intricacies.  While there are plenty of heartwarming, kissy-face snippets in this StoryCorps gem, many stories are edged with bittersweet moments of heartache, regret and loss. 

Staff Review

My Real Children

By Jo Walton
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Diane H.
Oct 17, 2015

The science fiction aspect to this book is both obvious and subtle. The major plot point of the book is pure science fiction - parallel universes. The main character, Patricia Cowen, experiences two separate lives, stemming from a decision she makes shortly after college.

Once we reach the divergent paths, the chapters alternate between the two realities. From there, the story is pretty straightforward domestic fiction – the daily trials, tribulations, and joys of the main character.

Staff Review

A Hundred Summers

By Beatriz Williams
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Heather B.
Oct 15, 2015

In 1931, Lily Dane is dragged along to a college football game by her best friend Budgie Byrne, where Lily instantly becomes smitten with Nick Greenwald. Despite the fact that Budgie is generally the popular one, Nick quickly falls for Lily as well. There is one major stumbling block to their happily-ever-after, however--Nick is Jewish, and while Budgie warns Lily that this will be unacceptable to their high society friends and family, Lily refuses to believe it. She concedes that her mother might be a problem, but Lily is convinced that even she can eventually be brought around.

Teen Review

33 Snowfish

By Adam Rapp
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Becky C.
Oct 15, 2015

What a sad, sick, powerful story. Three runaways desperately attempt to flee from the ugliness they've always known. These kids are both awful and sympathetic. Custis, a homeless boy, narrates most of the story. When strangers ask how old he is, his reply is always just, "old enough". Custis never mentions his parents or any permanent caregivers. He has recently fled a pedophile who, in exchange for “owning” Custis, had been letting him sleep on the floor in a room that smells like dog.

Staff Review

The Shepherd's Crown

By Terry Pratchett

Rated by Library Staff (not verified)
Oct 13, 2015

As he does for everyone in the end, Death has come for Granny Weatherwax.  The finest leader the witches never had, indisputably first amongst equals, Granny bequeaths her legacy to young Tiffany Aching.  Tiffany struggles to do the job in front of her when she has to manage her own steading, Granny's steading, train a new apprentice (and never before has a boy wanted to be a witch!), and stop the elven incursion into her world.  Not to mention reining in the Nac Mac Feegle clan.  Crivens!

Staff Review

Murphy's Law

By Rhys Bowen
Star Rating
★★★

Rated by Heather B.
Oct 12, 2015

Molly Murphy flees 1901's rural Ireland to avoid police scrutiny after she kills a man in self-defense. With all the bad luck the title Murphy's Law implies, she finds herself at the other end of her transatlantic journey in New York suspected of a second man's death. To clear her own name and that of a friend she made on the voyage over, who is another suspect, Molly decides to investigate the murder herself.

Teen Review

A Thousand Nights

By E.K. Johnston
Star Rating
★★★★★

Rated by Jennifer R.
Oct 9, 2015

There are monsters in the desert. They came from the sea and fought with man, but now they wait, picking off their victims one at a time until they see fit to rage against the world of man once more. 

As Lo-Melkhiin rides the storm into Her (there are no names in the book except for Lo-Melkhiin) village, She knows that he is coming to claim a new bride and her beautiful sister will most likely be his pick. Lo-Melkhiin has had three hundred brides already, and each one has met a swift death.

Staff Review

Night of the Jaguar

By Joe Gannon

Rated by Library Staff (not verified)
Oct 9, 2015

Set in 1986 in Nicaragua, Night of the Jaguar drops the reader into the turmoil of Nicaragua after the Sandinistas have won and are struggling to govern. Ajax Montoya, a former guerrilla, now a police captain, is literally haunted by the ghosts of his victims. He is assigned a case where a man is murdered in the same way that the Contras kill people. Nicaraguan State Security has also involved itself in the case, as has an American reporter, the American Ambassador, and an American senator.