January Round-up February 4, 2011

Gunpowder Plot by Carola Dunn. Daisy Dalrymple returns in another fun and fluffy mystery – this one set at a Guy Fawkes celebration.

Moving Pictures by Kathryn Immonen. A graphic novel imagining of the true tale of the moving and hiding of art work from the Louvre in advance of the German takeover of France in World War II. Enjoyable with nice black and white illustrations.

All Clear by Connie Willis. The sequel to Blackout, which a read and really enjoyed last year, All Clear resolves to stories of the time travelling historians trapped in World War II England. Lived up to my high expectations. If you’ve never read Connie Willis, I really recommend her.

Guinea Pig, Pet Shop Private Eye: Hamster and Cheese. Aimed at early readers, this the first book in a cute graphic novel series in which a guinea pig tries to solve the mystery of the disappearing sandwich.

Dracula Madness by Mary Labatt. A graphic novel detective series featuring an investigatory sheep dog. Nothing brilliant.

Room by Emma Donoghue. This book was on a lot of “best books” list at the end of 2010 and having read it now, I can say that the acclaim is well deserved. The story is told from the perspective of a 5-year boy who has only ever known the room is held captive in with his mother who was kidnapped when she was a teenager. Definitely worth reading.

Thrive: Finding Happiness the Blue Zones Way by Dan Buettner. Buettner wrote a book that I read last year about lessons learned from communities where people live a long time (routinely get into their 90s and 100s), and with this book he takes the same approach with communities who rate high for happiness. Nothing new or brilliant to the book, but I thought his description of Denmark sounded pretty great!

Children of the Sea, Volume 1 by Daisuke Igarashi. Beautifully illustrated manga that tells the story of the friendship between the daughter of an aquarium owner in Japan and two boys from the sea (children raised in the ocean by sea mammals).

Lunch Lady and the Summer Camp Shakedown by Jarrett J. Krosoczka. This is the latest is a cute and fun graphic novel series staring some elementary school aged kids and their lunch ladies who foil evil plots using things like fish-stick nunchuks. Good for the mid to late elementary school audiences.

Early Reviewer: Little Princes December 18, 2010

I think this may be my favorite Early Reviewer books of the year. Little Princes: One Man’s Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal by Conor Grennan is a book very much in the vein of Three Cups of Tea. Grennan first went to Nepal in 2004 for what was supposed to be a relatively brief (few month) stay at the start of a one year trip around the world. Volunteering at the orphanage outside Kathmandu was supposed to be his “good deed” before his big, fun, responsibility-free adventure. Grennan did leave Nepal after his stint was up, but couldn’t forget the children he had met and cared for there. He returned to Nepal again and again, eventually founding a non-profit, Next Generation Nepal, opening a second children’s home, and beginning a quest to find the families of the children within the two homes. (Most of the children were not truly orphans, having instead been trafficked by men who promised to take the children to safety in Kathmandu for large sums of money from the parents).

This was a captivating and engaging read. I finished it in two days and never wanted to put it down. It’s not being published until February, but I highly recommended it once it is available.

Early Reviewer: Fannie’s Last Supper December 17, 2010

Fannie’s Last Supper by Chris Kimball was a fun book. The premise is as follows: Kimball, founder and editor of the magazine, Cook’s Illustrated, and host of the PBS show America’s Test Kitchen decides to create and served 12-course, Victorian dinner from Fannie Farmer’s 1896 Cookbook. As you can imagine recreating recipes from 1896 is a challenge, and sometimes fairly gross (Mock-Turtle Soup, made with a calf’s head. Ugh.). It was interesting to see how much cooking had changed in just over 100 years, and while it was really fun to read about this different food and to get a little history into how this country ate, it made me glad that I live when I do now when cooking doesn’t take all day and I never have to make gelatin from calves’ feet.

While the planning and preparation for this dinner took two years, and the books covers this, there was also a documentary made of the dinner itself, which is supposed to be showing on PBS “during the holidays”. So far I haven’t seen it listed on my local PBS station, but I am hoping to catch it when it airs. It would be interesting to actually see the food described in the book.

October Round-up November 4, 2010

I read 16 books in October, 5 Non-fiction and 11 Fiction.

Juliet by Anne Fortier. I heard about this book on NPR, and was interested in giving it a try. Juliet is a sort of Da Vinci Code-esque book, but focused on the story of Romeo and Juliet, not art. This isn’t a criticism, for all the criticism The Da Vinci code got, it was still a very engaging read. Juliet is probably a little better written, but equally engaging. If you like thrillers with a little history to them, this is a good one.

Salt Water Taffy: A Climb Up Mt. Barnabus by Matthew Loux. This is the second Salt Water Taffy graphic novel that I’ve read. They are the cute adventures of two brothers on vacation. I especially enjoy the fact that they are set in Maine.

The Unsinkable Walker Bean by Aaron Renier. A great, detailed, colorful graphic novels for middle grades.

Mercury by Hope Larson. This is a interesting graphic novel that tells the parallel stories of a modern Canadian in high schooler living with relatives after her house burned down and the ancestors who first lived in that house. Great black-and-white illustrations.

Binky to the Rescue by Ashley Spires. I love Binky! Binky is an officially certified space cat (think feline astronaut) living a secret life as a house cat. In this second adventure, Binky must brave outer space (the back yard) to rescue his copilot (stuffed mouse, Ted) from aliens (bigs). Cute and smart and funny.

Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality by Christopher Ryan. This book was mentioned a lot on Slog (The Stranger’s Blog), which made me curious. It is a really fascinating look at what clues evolution has left in our bodies and what they tell us about how our prehistoric ancestors lived and how we evolved.

The Gardner Heist: The True Story of the World’s Largest Unsolved Art Theft by Ulrich Boser. A real life whodunit. If you like Ocean’s 11 and the like, you will like this book.

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. I read this over a matter of months on DailyLit. Classics are free on DailyLit and this is a good way for me to fill in those gaps in my literary knowledge caused by not being an English major. To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t that crazy about Great Expectations, but I’m glad I read it.

Mennonite in a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Going Home by Rhoda Janzen. This book was really funny, which I wasn’t quite expecting. Janzen wrote the book while on sabbatical and living with her parents after an emotionally painful divorce (her husband left her for Bob from Gay.com) and a physically painful car accident. That doesn’t sound like a barrel of laughs, but trust me, it was upbeat and funny and interesting.

Spark: How Old Fashioned Values Drive a Twenty-First Century Corporation by Frank Koller. This is another book I heard about on NPR. I was intrigued because it is about a company (Lincoln Electric) that is one of our clients at the firm. I didn’t know anything about them, so it was neat to learn more about a company that we represent. Lincoln Electric offers profit sharing and a guaranteed employment program which is pretty unique in the corporate world. They have a promise to employees not to lay folks off during downturns due to lack of work. Instead they cut hours (down to 30 hours/week at the lowest) and shift folks to other jobs or even to painting the factory if need be. It was need to see how that worked.

Tall Tales by Jeff Smith. A prequel to the Bone series.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling. This was a reread for me. I have been slowly reading the Harry Potter series to Jami (she had never read the books!), and we just finished Book 5. I forgot how dark things get toward the end.

Country Driving: A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory by Peter Hessler. Peter Hessler is an American journalist who lived in China for a decade. This is his third book about his experiences there and offer and really wonderful look into what life is like in China. If you are at all interested in China, I recommend reading him.

Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood. This was our book club book this month. Prior to this the only  Atwood I had read was The Handmaid’s Tale, and this book was very different (a historical novel based on a true story instead of dystopian science fiction). It was really good though and lead to an interesting book club discussion. I think I will have to try more books by Atwood.

Ghostopolis by Doug TenNapel. Another graphic novel – this one about a boy who is inadvertently taken from the land of the living to the land of ghost and the efforts to rescue him. It’s another good one – well-drawn and exciting story.

The Ice Princess by Camilla Lackberg. This mystery reminded me of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo books – probably mostly because they are Swedish, but also because of the weather and focus on domestic violence and the darker side of humans. If you like the Stieg Larsson books, I think you will enjoy this one as well.

August Round-Up September 2, 2010

I read 18 books in August, 8 fiction and 10 non-fiction. I feel like that must be a personal record for non-fiction read in a month!

Swallow Me Whole by Nate Powell. A graphic novel that looks at a family affected by mental illness. The book is from Top Shelf, which is one of my favorite publishers of graphic novels.

Hatter M: The Looking Glass Wars, Volume 1 by Frank Beddor. An interesting somewhat Steampunk reworking of Alice in Wonderland, in which Hatter M (part of an elite squad of millinery-ly inclined secret security agents) attempt to rescue Alyss, who has been kidnapped.

For Better: The Science of a Good Marriage by Tara Parker-Pope. Parker-Pope decided to take a look at the scientific research done on marriage after her own marriage failed. Her book offers an interesting overview of the research out there, as well as some concrete advice, in an easy, enjoyable read.

To Davy Jones Below by Carola Dunn. Daisy Dalrymple again. DCPL continues to leave me hanging (I had to buy this book), but I just discovered Montgomery County has more comprehensive coverage of this series. Expect more Daisy Dalrymple books next month!

Losing Our Cool: Uncomfortable Truths About Our Air-Conditioned World (and Finding New Ways to Get Through the Summer) by Stan Cox. This book was the “bonus book” for our September book club. It was interesting, if sometimes dry, and a fairly quick read (it’s only about 200 pages). It definitely opened my eyes to how unsustainable our current energy use is here in the U.S.

I Am Hutterite: The Fascinating True Story of a Young Woman’s Journey to Reclaim Her Heritage by Mary-Ann Kirkby. This book is accurately subtitled. I found it truly fascinating. The only thing I knew about Hutterites going in was what I learned on a brief news program years ago – Hutterites are like Amish, but they wear patterns and are sort of communist (communal property). I learned so much about a group I hardly knew anything about. If you are curious at all, I really recommend the book.

The Shadow Spies by Nykko. This is the second book in the Elsewhere Chronicles series, which is a really book graphic novel series for middle school aged kids. Recommended.

Here If You Need Me: A True Story by Kate Braestrup. I’m reading Braestrup backward, having started with her second book, Marriage and Other Acts of Charity, but I really enjoy her as a writer – which is saying something since she is a UU minister, and chaplain for the Maine Warden Service, and I am generally pretty uncomfortable reading about folks’ faith or religious beliefs.

Aya: The Secrets Come Out by Marguerite Abouet. This is the third book in the Aya series, set in the Ivory Coast in the last 1970s – a time and place I know very little about.

Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan by Greg Mortenson. I finished the book about a week before the Pakistan floods and it really made me realize what a huge tragedy those floods are – and also how awful the security situation is in Afghanistan, especially for women and girls. No one should be killed or bodily injured for going to school. Let’s just agree on that now.

To Dance: A Ballerina’s Graphic Novel by Siena Cherson Siegel. A memoir in graphic novel form about the author’s childhood and teenage years at the School of American Ballet in New York City. This would definitely be enjoyed by ballet crazed youngsters (and offers a positive view of a dancer who chooses not to pursue ballet as a career).

The United States of Arugula: How We Became a Gourmet Nation by David Kamp. It really is striking how much the food universe has changed in just the 3o years I’ve been alive. Kamp does a good job of tracking the progress.

Korgi, Vol. 1 by Christian Slade. Beautifully illustrated wordless graphic novel set in a magical land filled with Mollies (wood folk) and corgi dogs.

Smile by Raina Telgemeier. A graphic novel memoir of middle school, with it’s normal doses of crushes, teasing, peer pressure, and a heaping side of dental distress.

Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe by Bill Bryson. My least favorite of all the Bryson books I’ve read so far. Bryson wanders solo around Europe in the early 1990s. Mostly he seems mopey to me.

Dreaming in Chinese: Mandarin Lessons In Life, Love, And Language by Deborah Fallows. I got this book through LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers program. It thought it was a good, quick read (I read the whole book in one sitting on a bus to New York), but it’s definitely not my favorite of the expats in China genre. I found myself wishing that Fallows had either gone there more with the language (more research and nitty-gritty on the Chinese language, rather than just anecdotes), or had headed more firmly in the personal experiences direction. If you are interested in reading about the experiences of a Westerner living in China and learning Chinese, I recommend River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze by Peter Hessler.

Silverfin: The Graphic Novel by Charlie Higson. Imagine James Bond as a teenager, going to school at Eton. Now imagine a graphic novel was made of that account. Voila, Silverfin: The Graphic Novel.

A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick. A Reliable Wife is a dark book, set in Wisconsin in the early 1900s. Ralph Truitt has advertised for a wife, and Catherine Land replies, finding herself in relatively short order on a train into the long, dark Wisconsin winter. Little is what it seems, and the back story unravels over the course of the book. It was a good read.

Solomon’s Thieves by Jordan Mechner. Another graphic novel. I know Mechner from his adaptation of Prince of Persia (yes, the video game) to graphic novel format, so it was interesting to see what Mechner creates when starting from scratch. Solomon’s Thieves is set in the Middle Ages and deals with the return of the Knights Templar from the Crusades and their subsequent persecution by the French monarchy. But humorously.

June Round-Up July 8, 2010

I read 11 books in June: 8 Fiction and 3 Non-fiction.

The Blue Zones: Lessons on Living Longer from the People Who Live the Longest by Dan Buettner. Blue Zones are geographic areas where people have a longer than average live expectancy – commonly living active lives past the age of 100. Being interest in living a long, healthy, active life, I was interested in what Buettner would have found in his studies of these areas. Some common themes were a having a sense of purpose, diets with little meat, and frequent low to moderate level exercise (ie, walking).

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. This was our book club book at the Ethical Society this month, and it was a good, if hard, read. The authors definitely weren’t neutral and expressed some strong opinions, some of which I questioned, but it was good to be reminded of the challenges that women around the world face.

Little Bee by Chris Cleave. This was an amazing book, and very interesting to read after Half the Sky – it addresses some of the same issues, but in a beautiful, heart-wrenching fictional form. Highly recommended.

Passage by Connie Willis.

Something to Declare by Julia Alvarez. This was a book of essays about writing, home, and other topics. I was excited to read it, loving as I do In the Time of Butterflies, but I found it to be just okay. Interesting to see how a writer thinks, but nothing to enthralling.

Dead in the Water by Carola Dunn. Book 6 of the Daisy Dalrymple series – this one set at some boat races on the Thames. This series continues to be a fun, light read. Perfect beach read, even when not at the beach!

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. We read this for our other book club (which has the best discussions).  I realized about 50 pages in to it that I had read it before, in high school I think.  It was sadder than I remembered, but also hopeful. It’s an easy read.

Calamity Jack by Shannon Hale. Back to the graphic novels, watch my book counts soar! Calamity Jack is the sequel to Rapunzel’s Revenge, both fractured fairy tales. I don’t like Jack quite as much as I enjoyed Rapunzel, but still a good read that I really looked forward too.

Resistance: Book One by Carla Jablonski. This graphic novel covers the Resistance movement in France during World War II from the perspective of a few village children. It was good – well illustrated and intriguing. I am looking forward to future installments.

Alison Dare, Little Miss Adventures by J. Torres. This book, was really three separate comic adventures: Alison Dare & the Arabian Nights, Alison Dare & the Secret of the Blue Scarab, and Alison Dare & the Mummy Child. Miss Dare is the 12-year-old daughter of (separated) archeologists and she doesn’t want for action. I really enjoyed that Alison being a girl was simply a fact of the story with no further comment. It’s nice to see a female protagonist taking full part in traditional comic book adventures.

The Outlander by Gil Adamson. My second “highly recommended” book of the month. The Outlander is Adamson’s first book and it follows a young widow who we learn early on has killed her husband as she escapes West, trying to avoid capture by the dead husband’s brothers. The story of what happened to the widow evolves over the course of the story of her escape and it is a truly engaging read.

May Round-Up June 6, 2010

I read 13 books in May, my best month so far in 2010! 10 of the books were fiction, 3 were non-fiction.

The World According to Bertie by Alexander McCall Smith. Another book in the 44 Scotland Street series. Bertie is probably my favorite of all the characters the series covers, so I was happy to have a Bertie-heavy book.

Eat, Memory: Great Writers at the Table edited by Amanda Hesser. I read these first three book on our honeymoon, and I remember enjoying this book, and speeding through it, but one month later, I don’t remember a single of the essays it contained. I think that puts it in the “just okay” category.

Requiem for a Mezzo by Carola Dunn. This was the third book in the Daisy Dalrymple series, and it’s my least favorite so far – still is was a good beach read.

The Great Good Place by Ray Oldenburg.

Death of a Valentine by M.C. Beaton. This is the latest book in a series I have been reading for a while – the Hamish MacBeth series, set in the Highlands of Scotland. Clearly May was heavy on the mysteries and the “fluff” reading!

Free for All: Fixing School Food in America by Janet Poppendieck. This was a fascinating book about the history of and problems with the National School Lunch Program, and the ways in which school food can be improved. Poppendieck also wrote a book about food entitlement programs called Sweet Charity, that I read years ago and that is also quite good.

Murder on the Flying Scotsman by Carola Dunn. This was my favorite of the Daisy Dalrymple books thus far. A man is murdered on a train in motion and Daisy finds herself on the case. Probably a total rip-off of Agatha Christie, but quite entertaining nonetheless.

The Trial by Franz Kafka. We read this book for our book club, and I was not a fan. It was an unfinished book published after Kafka’s desk and it just seemed meandering, without much substance. It still led to a good book club discussion though!

Blackout by Connie Willis. I’m not a huge science fiction fan, but for some reason, I like the time travel books. Maybe because they include some of my beloved history. In this book, the characters are traveling between 2060 and the World War II era. I loved this book and was upset at first to discover at the end of the book that I wasn’t going to get resolution, it was “to be continued”. Now I’m excited to get to read the second book in the Fall!

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling. This was a reread. Jami and I are working our way through the Harry Potter books and we finally finished book 4.

Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok.

Damsel in Distress by Carola Dunn. This is the fifth book in the Daisy Dalrymple series. I got interested in the series because DCPL had the latest one on the new mysteries shelf. I ended up having to buy the first 3 books in the series though, because DCPL didn’t have them. And now, having read books 5 & 6, they don’t have 7 either (but they do have 8). Public libraries? This is a total pet peeve. If you are going to buy a series at all, be sure to get all the books in it (and then don’t weed out all the old copies. Folks generally like to start series at the beginning). /rant.

The Unbearable Lightness of Scones by Alexander McCall Smith. With this book, I have reached the end of the 44 Scotland Street series (at least until McCall Smith writes more). It wasn’t anything amazing, but still a good, light read, perfect for Memorial Day at Virginia Beach.

TBR: The Great Good Place May 14, 2010

The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Community Centers, Beauty Parlors, General Stores, Bars, Hangouts and How They Get You Through the Day by Ray Oldenburg has been on my to read list since grad school. Sadly it didn’t live up to that long hype  – I hated it so much, that I actually had to force myself onto a chapter-a-day schedule to get it read. Mostly I think the book is super dated. It was written in 1989 and so much about society, and planning, and day-to-day life has changed since then that it seemed pretty irrelevant. (The book is now on its Third Edition, published in 1999, which might have annoyed me less – at the very least it would be aware of this thing call “The Internet”, but DCPL of course only had the oldest edition, so that’s what I read). Oldenburg’s main point is that “third places” (places that are not home or work/school, where you can met informally, without prior planning with folks around you) are important, which is true, but I think this is a thing that planners all recognize now – “third-place” and “mixed use development” are all buzz words nowadays. So perhaps Oldenburg is really a victim of his own success – I don’t like him because all of his ideas have been adopted. It’s a positive way to view the book, I suppose. Me, I’m mostly glad it’s over.

April Round-up May 8, 2010

April’s round-up was somewhat delayed by getting married (Yay!), but here are the books I read in April (4 Non-fiction and 3 Fiction):

Talking Hands: What Sign Language Reveals about the Mind by Margalit Fox. This book was absolutely, completely fascinating and I highly recommend it (in fact, Jami is reading it now!). Fox follows a group of sign language linguists to a village in Israel with a high incidence of deafness (about 30% of the population), where an indigenous sign language has developed over the past few generations. Interspersed with that story are chapters explaining language, linguists, and the relatively new field of sign language linguistics. It was so neat to read about how our minds work and the ways in which we develop language. Really, really good book.

Espresso Tales by Alexander McCall Smith. This is the second book in the 44 Scotland Street Series, which I wrote about last month. Still engaging and amusing – my favorite new “light” read.

Marriage and Other Acts of Charity: A Memoir by Kate Braestrup. This is Braestrup’s second memoir (I haven’t read the first, Here if You Need Me) and it focuses on marriage – both her own and the marriages she performs as a minister. I didn’t read the first one, in part because it dealt with grief (not my favorite subject, I am definitely an escapist reader), and partly because overt religious discussion makes me uncomfortable, but I’m glad I read this one. When I read the title, I thought “acts of charity” referred to someone who married someone else out of some sense of pity, but the book was more about how we should be more charitable towards the people we marry – that as those closest to us, those that we spend the most time with, we can get frustrated or annoyed with our spouses in ways that don’t with those from whom we have more distance, but that we should be sure to apply that kindness that we often find easier to give to strangers to our spouses. I thought that was a great message to read on the eve of my wedding.  It’s a quick read too. Recommended.

Jamie’s Food Revolution: Rediscover How to Cook Simple, Delicious, Affordable Meals by Jamie Oliver. This was a cookbook, so it’s doesn’t totally seem like it should count, but I did read it in April. I’m interested in food and in a shift back to “real” food and healthier food, so I like what Oliver is trying to do, getting folks to cook again. Nothing too earth-shattering in the book or recipes – but it was a reminder that the British do love their curries (I’ve never read a “general” cookbook with a full chapter of curry recipes before).

Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon. This was a book club pick, and a good one. It took me probably half the book to get into it (I was really worried for much of the book that something AWFUL was about to happen. This is part of the reason why I have a hard time reading “contemporary” fiction.) Once I got into though, I was hooked. Michael Chabon is one of those author’s that I have always meant to read, and I was glad to actually get the chance to do so.

Knives at Dawn: America’s Quest for Culinary Glory at the Legendary Bocuse d’Or Competition by Andrew Friedman. An interesting, but not brilliant read about the 2009 Bocuse d’Or cooking competition and the American teams preparation for it. One of those books that I grabbed from the “New Books” display at the library.

Love Over Scotland by Alexander McCall Smith. Another entry into the 44 Scotland Street series. How McCall Smith manages to publish so many book in such short order (He has 3 series going at the moment!) I will never know. It’s impressive.

March Round-up April 2, 2010

Updated: Because I totally forgot to include one of the books I read last month!

I read 8 9 books in March: 3 Non-fiction and 5 6 Fiction (heavy on the mystery).

Death at Wentwater Court by Carola Dunn

This was a new mystery series for me, focusing on Daisy Dalrymple, an upper-class British young lady, trying to make it on her own as a magazine reporter. When a guest at the Estate she has come to profile turns up dead, Daisy helps the Scotland Yard detective with his investigation. This was light and entertaining and fun – definitely a cozy mystery.

The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life and Legacy of Frances Perkins, FDR’s Secretary of Labor and His Moral Conscience by Kirstin Downey

Let me just say that Frances Perkins was awesome – and if you don’t know any thing more about her than Baby in Dirty Dancing was named after her, you should read this book. It’s especially relevant in light of the recent passage of health care reform, which was one of the social programs Perkins pushed for (and the only major one she didn’t get).

The Winter Garden Mystery by Carola Dunn

The next in the Daisy Dalrymple series – this follows the same premise. Daisy heads off to profile a Country House for her magazine and finds a dead body. I think I liked this one even better than the first.

When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present by Gail Collins

In the Shadow of Gotham by Stefanie Pintoff

My aunt recommended this mystery, and I’m glad she did, I really thought this book was great. Set in the early 1900s in New York (the city and surrounding area) it focuses on the violent murder of a brilliant female Mathematics scholar. This is Pintoff’s first book and it makes me excited for what she might right next.

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

Diet for a Hot Planet: The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork and What You Can Do It by Anna Lappe

44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith

This novel follows the goings-on of the inhabitants of an Edinburgh apartment building (at 44 Scotland Street). McCall Smith got the idea for the story after a conversation with Armistead Maupin about stories serialized in the newspaper. (Maupin’s Tales of the City was serialized in the San Francisco Chronicle). The conversation inspired McCall Smith to approach The Scotsman with the idea of a serialized story and that’s where this book was originally published. The two books do remind me of each (probably because with serialized stories it’s important to have really good character development) and if you liked Tales of the City, I think you’ll enjoy 44 Scotland Street.

Death of a Cozy Writer by G.M. Malliet

This book was one my neighbor and I settled on for our book club of two (our theme: mysteries and junk food), but it was just meh for me. Luckily we read Shadow of Gotham as well.

And that was my March! What did you read?