Reviews

Amy Gallup has spent the last 20 or so years remembering her past with its joys and triumphs, teaching online writing classes, and writing in her notebook and her online blog.  But things are about to change: Amy falls in her backyard, hits her head, and is taken to the emergency room.   She comes home thinking that everything is normal, including a gigantic hea

Hilarious and honest, Dad Is Fat chronicles the difficult but joy-filled experience of raising five children in a two-bedroom walk-up in New York City.  Comedian Jim Gaffigan ranges from topics like disastrous

Wesley the Owl is a fascinating story about the 19 years Stacie O’Brien shares with Wesley, a barn owl.  Stacie, an employee at Caltech, is offered the opportunity to raise a barn owl.  She immediately accepts the offer and throws herself into the arduous but overwhelmingly poignant task of creating a happy and long life for her new feath

Having recently convinced my husband that we should downsize our house in two years when our youngest child graduates, it was natural for me to grab author Tammy Strobel’s, You Can Buy Happiness (and It’s Cheap), when I saw it on the shelf.  Stro

In a world where words are literally the most powerful magic around, Nicodemus Weal is at a big disadvantage.  You see, he is a cacographer—a dyslexic mage who cannot write magical words or touch the words of others without drastically changing the desired outcome, often dangerously.

One of my favorite things about working in a library is discovering new authors, or at least new to me authors.  J. T. Ellison is the author of the Taylor Jackson series which focuses on the cases of Nashville Homicide Detective Taylor Jackson.

I like to read stories set in the art world.  And what more enticing art mystery is there than the Gardner art museum theft of March 18, 1990 in Boston? None, you say. It is only the biggest art heist in history! 13 artworks valued at over $500 million in today’s market.

About six years ago, I was home for the holidays. I had visions of my family opening presents and huddling around the TV to watch Christmas movies and generally be twenty-first century Rockwellians. Alas, my parents (and the MU Tigers who went to the Cotton Bowl in Arkansas that year) had other plans.

I thought that We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves was going to be silly. A girl who misses her chimpanzee sister? Sheesh. Ridiculous. To my surprise, I loved this book. I mean I really loved it.

In contrast to the beach scene on the front cover, J.