The Boy in the Suitcase

Nina Borg was doing a favor for a friend, just retrieving a suitcase from a Copenhagen train station.  “You’re always so keen on saving people, aren’t you? Well, here’s your chance.”    Inside the suitcase was a small, drugged, naked boy, and Nina panics.  Soon she’s on the run with the boy, being pursued by the thugs […]

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As Good As Gone

Larry Watson’s stunning novel of the Sidey family is set in the turbulent sixties in the prairie town of Gladstone, Montana. Crusty old Calvin lives off the grid outside of town, staying away from anyone who might remember his mix-up with the law. Calvin’s son Bill runs the family real estate business. Despite their precarious […]

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Read with pride during GLBT Book Month

June is the American Library Association‘s GLBT Book Month, which is described as “a nationwide celebration of the authors and writings that reflect the lives and experiences of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community.” To find a diverse range of young adult fiction with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer and/or questioning characters, check […]

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Haunting Cold War novel

It’s London, the sixties, Cold War paranoia is at its peak. Who is spying for the enemy? Who are the innocent bystanders? In Exposure by Helen Dunmore, no one is quite who they seem as Giles Holloway and Simon Callington, long-time friends and colleagues working for the Admiralty, tragically find out. A misstep in his […]

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The Do-Right

In The Do-Right, by Lisa Sandlin, it’s  1973 in Beaumont, Texas, and Delpha Wade is out of prison after 14 years.  She was in because she killed one of  the men who was raping her. She’d have killed the other one, too, but he got away.  She’s out now, and all she needs is a quiet […]

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Remembering Prince

The first 4 months of 2016 have not been very forgiving to music fans.  After losing legends David Bowie, Phife, Glenn Frey and Merle Haggard, we got news of Prince’s death last week. In addition to his many albums, and of course, the semi-autobiographical movie Purple Rain, below are some nonfiction picks if you’d like […]

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Happy birthday, Beverly Cleary!

Did you know that today is my favorite children’s author Beverly Cleary’s 100th birthday? Famous and beloved for her Beezus and Ramona (and Henry Huggins and Ribsy) books, Cleary wrote about real kids and their everyday lives and struggles with a comic touch.  Never preachy, always lively and engaging, she wanted to write about ordinary […]

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Everything She Forgot

In Everything She Forgot, Margaret Holloway’s life is literally cracked up when she is in a multi-car pileup one winter evening.  Trapped in her burning car, she is rescued by a disfigured man who breaks the window and pulls her out of the car right before it explodes.  Although she is not hurt seriously, the […]

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