all your Reads in Here

Sandie Herron passed on one article, and an author friend mentioned the other situation. I seldom mention controversial topics on my blog. The reviews are my opinion only. I'll bring up controversial topics on my Facebook page, but not here. But, I'm a librarian. And, we believe in facts, not "fake news". So, I'm sharing two links today. If you're interested check out the stories. One link is about Target. Claire Kirch recently wrote an article for Publishers Weekly , "Publishers Call out Target for 'Censoring' Book Descriptions."  http://bit.ly/2Ost9Sz Publishers, many of them university presses, have complained that Target has redacted words in the descriptions of books, words such as "transgender", "queer", and "Nazi". It's not only books with LGBTQ themes that have been changed, but also books about Nazi Germany. Check out the article. The second article is from the Dallas News . Lauren McGaughey, in cove...

I won't say bestselling romance author Jude Deveraux has written herself into her first mystery, but the wonderful Sara Medlar character sounds familiar. If you read Deveraux' website, she's living in Florida, loves boxing and weightlifting, and drives a Mini Cooper. Sara Medlar is a retired romance writer, lives in Florida, boxes, lifts weights, and drives a yellow Mini Cooper. I hope Deveraux has as much fun writing the character as I did reading about her in  A Willing Murder. Sara Medlar bought a big mansion in Lachlan, her hometown, and hired Jack Wyatt, grandson of her childhood sweetheart, to remodel it. But, she's rattling around in that house. When Jack breaks his leg in a tragic accident, she invites him to move in. Then her niece Kate Medlar accepts a job as a realtor in Lachlan, and Sara is excited to offer her a suite in the house. But, Kate's just a little suspicious of Jack's motives. However, Kate's not there long when the trio finds somethin...

Khaled Hosseini, author of T he Kite Runner , brings us a picture book, that, at least in our library, is for adults. The illustrator of  Sea Prayer , Dan Williams, matches Hosseini's story with a sharp contrast in colors as the story unfolds. The biographical statement on the book's back flap says that Williams' illustrations accompanied an excerpt of A Thousand Splendid Suns when it appeared in The Guardian . Sea Praye r opens as a father tells his son, Marwen, stories of the past. Those stories are first from the father's own past as a child in Homs, Syria, but then they are stories of Marwen's childhood and his mother, of taking the young child to Homs, and experiences the boy doesn't remember. The early illustrations of that time, family stories, are in shades of greens and desert browns, living colors. But, the account becomes a story of protests, of bombs, of war. Those are shades of blacks, gray, dark brown, the colors and memories of the child Marwen. ...

Yoi is an important book, for it is the first published biography about Edith Cornelia Crosse, who was a most remarkable woman. Widely known as Yoi, Edith was born in Hungary to a British father and a Hungarian/Polish mother. Eventually Yoi moved to England where she lived with her grandmother. She settled down to life as a married woman and a mother. But her life was to be changed

Field of Dust is a novel by Angela Jean Young, but it is based on a true story. On September 3rd 1878 the paddle steamer SS Princess Alice hundreds of passengers are enjoying a moonlit cruise on the Thames Estuary. Unfortunately the SS Princess Alice was in a collision with a collier the Bywell Castle. Within minutes the SS Princess Alice was destroyed, cut in two, sending it to the bottom of

Congratulations to the winners of the last giveaway. Glen D. of Yuba City, CA won Toucan Keep a Secret . The Man Who Couldn't Miss will go to Karen R. from Katy, TX. The books are going out today. How about some cat cozy mysteries this week? A Tale of Two Kitties is the latest Magical Cats Mystery by Sofie Kelly. Minnesota librarian Kathleen Paulson didn't know about a family feud, but everyone else in town of a certain age remembers the situation between Victor and Leo James, when Victor had an affair with his brother's wife, and then she died in car accident. The brothers are trying to reconcile, but then Kathleen finds Leo dead, and Leo's son tops the suspect list. Kathleen teams up with her cats, Hercules and Owen to prove her friend didn't kill his father. P urrder She Wrote by Cate Conte is a Cat Cafe Mystery. Maddie James is excited over the grand opening of Daybreak Island's cat cafe, her new business venture. Then one of her volunteers gets into an a...

Although I downloaded Bob Woodward's Fear , I haven't started it yet. I'm on deadline again (am I always saying that to you?), but I'm also still reading Juliet Blackwell's The Lost Carousel of Provence. My actual excuse is Bouchercon, and talking to Mom about Hurricane Florence. I hope all of you are safe or moving to higher ground. If you're away from the hurricane or other weather threats, what are you reading this week?