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Reviews by Therese X. (Calera, AL)

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The Travelling Cat Chronicles
by Hiro Arikawa, Philip Gabriel
Have Cat Will Travel and Find Much Wisdom (6/18/2018)
A smart, street-wise cat with no name learns that his best "home" is on the hood of a silver van near an apartment complex, warmed by the sun and owned by a human named Saturo Myawaki. The young man calls him "Mr. Cat", bringing him treats and chatting, unaware that thismore
The Weight of Ink
by Rachel Kadish
Pen and Paper Speaking Volumes (3/7/2017)
This novel begins as a modern story but its roots are deep in the seventeenth century. While the Eastons are renovating their newly-inherited four hundred year old house in London, an electrician uncovers handwritten documents under an old carved staircase. He assumes themore
The Midnight Watch: A Novel of the Titanic and the Californian
by David Dyer
A Riveting Retelling (3/10/2016)
The terrible disaster of the the sinking of the ship HMS Titanic over one hundred years ago, still intrigues modern day readers. The loss of more than 1,500 people on a luxury ship deemed "unsinkable" by its British designers and builders rapidly became worldwide front pagemore
Home by Nightfall: A Charles Lenox Mystery
by Charles Finch
An Engaging Victorian Mystery (10/1/2015)
Having enjoyed the first novel by Charles Finch, A BEAUTIFUL BLUE DEATH, an engrossing Victorian mystery featuring "gentleman sleuth", Charles Lenox and his charming friend, Lady Jane Grey who gives Charles his first mystery, I was interested in continuing the series. Hemore
A Fireproof Home for the Bride
by Amy Scheibe
A powerful, engrossing novel of Fifties America (1/11/2015)
In late 1950's Minnesota, young Emmy Nelson, a child of a strict Christian family, soon begins to see life differently than her family who have chosen her future husband, Ambrose, from the established Brann family to maintain the status quo of land, family and patrioticmore
Juliet's Nurse
by Lois Leveen
The Birth of a Great Italian Love Story (8/9/2014)
Verona, Italy, during the Great Plague years was filled with poverty, death and wealthy, grand families who were able to hire the poor to fill roles such as a "wet nurse" to a newborn princess. (Unfortunately, the "wet nurse" must have given birth recently to a child whomore
The House We Grew Up In
by Lisa Jewell
An Emotional Family Saga (4/5/2014)
Hippie Mom, Lorelei, loves her four children to the point of obsession and sometimes unreality. She throws an Easter egg hunt with dozens of eggs and the children must find them--all of them. Then "save the foils" for future crafts, thus sowing the seeds for her finalmore
Buying In
by Laura Hemphill
Amazing insight into a powerful world (11/14/2013)
Sophie Landgraf, a brilliant Yale finance graduate from a small Midwestern town is hired into a high-powered New York Wall Street firm as an Analyst, a "spreadsheet intern" collating documents and trends of large companies who show promise for Sterling Company to enrichmore
Three Things You Need to Know About Rockets: A Memoir
by Jessica A. Fox
So much more than Rockets! (7/14/2013)
One would expect a memoir by a 26 year old would be more of a glancing prologue than a richly told and deeply felt biography encompassing a promising career making movies for NASA to following a sudden urge to flee across the
Atlantic to sell used books. From page one wheremore
A Murder at Rosamund's Gate: A Lucy Campion Mystery
by Susanna Calkins
Daring New Mystery Sleuth of the 17th Century (4/5/2013)
Lucy Campion, a young servant in the benevolent Hargrave household, home to a London magistrate, learns that a constable's early morning visit brings news of a brutal murder. A young woman's unclothed body was found in the north fields with a note nearby requesting amore
Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard von Bingen
by Mary Sharratt
ILLUMINATIONS-- Had to keep turning the pages! (9/23/2012)
Hildegard von Bingen, known for her music and writing in medieval Germany was the youngest of ten children in a devout Christian family. Although her sisters were primed to marry, her future would be strongly different and vastly strange. A lively, playful child, shemore
The Queen's Lover: A Novel
by Francine du Plessix Gray
Queen's Lover revealed as lackluster swain (5/28/2012)
The Palace of Versailles in 1774 is the first meeting place of the tall, elegant Swede, Count Axel von Fersen and the saucy yet childlike Marie Antoinette, wife of King Louis XV of France. Mutual attraction soon blossomed into a lifelong love affair, according to von Fersen'more
Cloudland: A Crime Novel
by Joseph Olshan
Cloudland becomes a dangerous place (3/29/2012)
Narrator Catherine Winslow, former journalist and adjunct professor, now writes a Household Hints column, after testing suggestions from her readers. She lives alone with her two dogs and a 250 pound potbellied pig named Henrietta, in Cloudland, New England, where onlymore
No Mark Upon Her: A Novel
by Deborah Crombie
High marks for NO MARK UPON HER (1/20/2012)
Deborah Crombie’s fourteenth police procedural featuring Detective Inspector Gemma James and Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid is another triumph. Originally, Gemma and Duncan were partners in their early days in the London police force. Now risen in the ranks and andmore
The Dressmaker: A Novel
by Kate Alcott
100 Year Old Disaster Viewed with Fresh Eyes (10/23/2011)
Young, talented Tess Collins learned the skill of the needle from her mother, but her father sends her out to work as a mere maid in a cold, uncaring English household. Defiantly determined to better her life as a professional dressmaker, she runs away after hearing thatmore
Prophecy: An Historical Thriller
by S.J. Parris
Prophecy--Rumors, charms and truths (4/18/2011)
Prophecy by S.J. Parris---Sixteenth century defrocked monk, Giordano Bruno has escaped the Inquisition and is in exile in England. Working for Sir Francis Walsingham, the spymaster of Queen Elizabeth. Many Catholics feel they have authority to remove her from the thronemore
The Philosophical Breakfast Club: Four Remarkable Friends Who Transformed Science and Changed the World
by Laura J. Snyder
A Great Visit with the Philosophical Breakfast Club (2/13/2011)
In June, 1833, the British Association for the Advancement of Science met at Cambridge University in England with members from all over the world. William Whewell of Lancashire addressed the gathering and spoke out especially for astronomy as the”Queen of the Sciences”more
The Lost and Forgotten Languages of Shanghai: A Novel
by Ruiyan Xu
The Lost and Forgotten Languages of Shanghai (11/8/2010)
Communication is taken for granted in modern life, but what if a person suddenly loses the ability to respond in their own language, despite understanding the conversation? In the grand Swan Hotel in Shanghai, workaholic businessman, Li Jing and his father, Professor Li aremore
The Blind Contessa's New Machine: A Novel
by Carey Wallace
The Blind Contessa's New Machine (6/26/2010)
Young 19th century Contessa, Carolina Fantoni, realizes she is losing her eyesight and tells her fiancé, who laughs as though it's a joke. When she tells her mother she's losing her sight, Mama only nods and sighs , "Yes. I have been in love, too.". Finally, she blurts outmore
The Scent of Rain and Lightning: A Novel
by Nancy Pickard
The Scent of Rain and Lightning (2/26/2010)
The quiet town of Rose, Kansas doesn't sound like it would be a hotbed of high drama. And for twenty years it wasn't. Jody Linder, 23, of the reknown and beloved Linder Ranch clan teaches English and exercises her independent nature despite three protective uncles. Theymore
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