Thursday, May 2, 2024

The Night War by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

Title: The Night War
Author: Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
Maps: Juliet Percival
Publication: Dial Books, hardcover, 2024
Genre: Juvenile Historical Fiction
Setting: 1942 France
Description: Miri and her parents fled Germany for Paris after Kristallnacht (the Night of Broken Glass), when the Nazis accelerated their persecution of German and Austrian Jews in November 1938. They have settled in a Paris neighborhood that welcomed many Jews and have made friends.

Monday, April 29, 2024

The First Law by John Lescroart

Title: The First Law
Author: John Lescroart
Publication: Signet, paperback, 2003
Genre: Mystery/Suspense
Description: There is a neighborhood in San Francisco that uses a security firm called Patrol Specials to protect private businesses. When Sam Silverman, an elderly pawnshop owner, can no longer afford its rates, he turns down the protection and hopes for the best, then is murdered during an apparent robbery.

Saturday, April 27, 2024

The Road to Oz by L. Frank Baum - Ozathon24

Title: The Road to Oz
Author: L. Frank Baum
Illustrator: John R. Neill
Publication: Dover, paperback, originally published in 1909
Genre: Children’s fantasy/series
Description: When a shaggy man asks Dorothy Gale to show him the road to Butterfield, she should probably yell, “Stranger danger!” instead being beguiled by the twinkle in his eye.

Wednesday, April 24, 2024

WWW Wednesday – April 24

WWW Wednesday is hosted by Taking on a World of Words.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?


Currently Reading
Gilbert & Sullivan Set Me Free is an unusual and appealing young adult book set in a women’s prison outside Boston in the early 1900s, based on a real occurrence.

Tuesday, April 23, 2024

The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie #ReadChristie2024

Title: The Murder at the Vicarage
Author: Agatha Christie
Publication: Dodd, Mead & Co., hardcover, first published in 1930
Genre: Mystery/series
Description: When Colonel Protheroe, a domineering retiree in the village of St. Mary Mead, is murdered, there are many suspects. For weeks, the church ladies have been gossiping that Mrs. Protheroe is a little too friendly with a handsome young artist, Lawrence Redding.

Sunday, April 21, 2024

Deep Summer by Gwen Bristow, for the #1937Club

Title: Deep Summer
Author: Gwen Bristow
Publication: Thomas Y. Crowell Co., hardcover, 1937
Genre: Historical fiction, late 18th century
Description: Fifteen-year-old Judith Sheramy is traveling by flatboat with her family from Connecticut to Louisiana where they have a royal grant to establish a homestead. When handsome Philip Larne, an adventurer from South Carolina, pulls up alongside on the Mississippi, the inexperienced girl is captivated, although her father and brother Caleb distrust him on sight.

Friday, April 19, 2024

A Bullet in the Ballet by Caryl Brahms & S.J. Simon, for the #1937Club

Title: A Bullet in the Ballet
Author: Caryl Brahms & S.J. Simon
Publication: Library of Crime Classics, paperback, originally published in 1937
Genre: Mystery/series
Description: It is opening night of the London season for the Stroganoff Ballet, a less than first-rate company that is putting on Petroushka, when the male lead, Anton Palook, collapses with a bullet in his head, just as he should be taking his curtain calls.

Thursday, April 18, 2024

Baby Island by Carol Ryrie Brink, for the #1937Club

Title: Baby Island
Author: Carol Ryrie Brink
Illustrator: Helen Sewell
Publication: Macmillan, hardcover, 1937
Genre: Juvenile fiction
Description: Twelve-year-old Mary Wallace and her younger sister Jean are on their way to Australia from San Francisco to join their father, who has been managing a ranch there for the past two years. Mary and Jean have long been devoted to other people’s babies and entertain themselves by playing with those on the ship.