Reviews

After a half decade of werewolves, vampires, ghosts, fallen angels and faeries, I assumed there was nothing new under the paranormal sun—at least, nothing new that would capture my interest.  But Maggie Steifvater, author of the Shiver trilogy, proved me wrong with her latest young adult stand-alone,

During the summer of 1979 Letty and her three children returned to their island home in the Hebrides following the mysterious death of her husband, Nicky, a diplomat with the British Embassy in Bonn.  All four struggle to come to grips with the loss of a beloved husband and father.  Letty has become dysfunctional by torment over accusations that Nicky comm

For those readers who enjoyed P.C. Cast’s House of Night series here’s another young adult paranormal series by C. C.

The Devil’s Double starring Dominic Cooper (bridegroom from Mamma Mia!) is about Latif Yahia, an Iraqi officer forced to become the double for Uday Hussein, Sadam’s oldest son.  Cooper plays both Latif and Uday, and he did a very good job of making me believe he was two different people.

A biography of Agatha Christie has been on my list to read for many years. I was also interested in learning what were the sources of inspirations for her stories, settings and characters in her writings.  I was also intrigued by Christie’s mysterious disappearance that turned her into one of the characters of her own books.

 If you remember how Watergate unfolded, this fictionalized character study will read much easier than if you know it only as a political chronology. 

Perhaps the title should be Beautiful and Brainy. Beautiful is a readable account of the life of “the most beautiful woman of the first half of the Twentieth Century”, a film star of 1930s and 1940s, and the namesake of Austria’s annual invention award.

This very enjoyable and engaging non-fiction book is a detailed biography of one of the great female rulers, Catherine the Great of Russia.  She was born Sophia, a minor German princess, and was just 14 years old when she was summoned by the Russian court.

“Thus it was that the dawn of sensibility was mistaken for the onset of senility.”

Mighty Macs is an inspiring true story about the love of basketball, with nuns, and tiny Immaculata College of girls.  Can the new girl’s basketball team save their school?  Great story and movie.  The actors are Carla Gugino and David Boreanaz.