Reviews

Miranda Corbie is a San Francisco private investigator circa 1940. She smokes. She drinks. She plays hardball. She is a female Sam Spade. City Of Dragons begins on Chinese New Year.

When slacker web designer Clay Jannon finds himself downsized into unemployment, he takes a job working the overnight shift in a small, quirky bookstore, run by the eccentric Mr. Penumbra. Restlessness and curiosity drive Clay to stumble onto a vast, old conspiracy.

The Baker’s Daughter is a little twisted, but in a historically accurate sort of way.

Family Affair is a delightful, fun and fast story about a second chance at love and a cat named Dog. Following her painful divorce, Lucy adopts a beautiful Abyssinian cat named Cleo, and moves to an apartment in San Francisco. Everything is fine.

Twelve year old Deza Malone in Christopher Paul Curtis’ The Mighty Miss Malone is exactly what the title of the book implies—she is mighty!

When Ron Currie’s love tells him she needs space and that he should leave, he does. He moves to the Caribbean where he is supposed to work on his next novel and wait patiently for her to request his return. That’s not what happens. He spends his days drinking heavily, cohabitating with a young college drop-out, and writing the completely wrong novel. Upon his failed suicide, Curry realizes that he can just disappear; and he does. But just for a while. And when he resurfaces he finds that his life, or rather, his death, has taken a decidedly unanticipated turn.

Everything on Earth changed on the Day. On 6/6 buildings crumbled, power stopped, and Doloria De la Cruz was the sole survivor, in the California area, of mass genocide carried out on the people of Earth by aliens known only as the Lords. The Lords brought down Icons onto every major city, and with the Icons electromagnetic pulses instantly killed every human within their radius.

“And now go, and make interesting amazing glorious fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here. Make good art.” How can you not feel a little inspired and empowered after hearing that? These are the compelling closing lines of Neil Gaiman’s May 2012 commencement speech delivered to the graduates of Philadelphia’s University of the Arts. In Make Good Art, his words are creatively set to page by graphic designer Chip Kidd.

The sun.  The coast.  You are luxuriating in the beautiful descriptions of Porto Vergogna, Italy.  But then  an American actress enters  Pasquali Tursi’s family pensione —the Hotel Adequate View.   She enters and leaves mysteriously and we spend the book searching for the beautiful Dee Moray.