Author Spotlight: Emma Virján

 Author Spotlight: Emma Virján   Emma Virján is a wonderful author who writes wonderful books and has a wonderful personality to match (not to mention a wonderfully red, big wig). Around the middle of March, 2016 she took some time to talk to me about her character named Pig as well as herself. Here’s what I […]

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Runaway

Traditionally known for his Scottish mystery series, award-winning Peter May’s latest, Runaway, is a standalone, a superbly executed story of five friends who have to relive the past in order to resolve their regrets and guilt. In 1965, Jack Mackay is a headstrong 17-year-old, ready to leave his unhappy life in Glasgow, Scotland, with his […]

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Book Review: Gold Fame Citrus

Luz is a dystopian mess. While her boyfriend Ray spends his days gathering water and working around the former starlet’s mansion where they squat, Luz stays in the bedroom, trying on the starlet’s many glamorous dresses, or laying listlessly in bed. They are Mojavs, living in a Los Angeles depopulated by years of drought. Ray, […]

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Still creepy after all these years

Published in 1963,  The Collector,  by John Fowles, gives readers one of the first, and still one of the best, psychological thrillers.  Frederick Clegg is a dull and colorless nobody whose only passion is for the butterflies he captures and mounts. That is, until he sees a beautiful girl. Miranda Grey, an art student, dazzling and full […]

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Atlas of Columbus

In my next life I want to be a cartographer.  More specifically, a cartographer in the time of Columbus, Magellan and de Gama.  In 1992, to coincide with the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ voyage to what turned out to be the West Indies, Rand McNally published Atlas of Columbus.  This beautiful book is a collection […]

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Wrapping up Banned Books Week

Libraries are a place with something to offend everyone. They are also places of discovery, wonder, enrichment, and understanding. Throughout this week dedicated to bringing Banned (and Challenged) Books to people’s attention, we have had some heart-warming moments: Listening to a mother tell her child the reasons given for banning Green Eggs and Ham, an […]

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Banned Book Review: Maus

I first read Maus when I was in 7th grade and I can recall the experience almost like it was yesterday. The book was created by Art Spiegelman and has been nominated for over 10 national and international book awards. In the graphic novel, Spiegelman retells the account of his father, Vladek Spiegelman, a Polish Jew who […]

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