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Enchanting language, lush scenery, a romping, completely factual story and a rascally, joyful raccoon are the fixings for this adorable and happy memoir by Sterling North. 

This was my favorite animal story as a child.  And it is still at the top of my list.  I started squealing the moment Rascal was swiped from the woods, and made no efforts to contain my delight for the duration of the book.  My adult squeals echoed the squeals of my 10 year-old self as Rascal snuggled his way into Sterling’s bed, made a sugar lump disappear and trilled all of his desires, questions, indignations and love. 

Second in The Walter Day series, The Black Country finds Scotland Yard’s Murder Squad called to a small mining town to investigate the disappearance of a child and his parents. Secrets, superstition, and massive amounts of snow are only a few of the challenges Day and his colleagues face once they arrive in The British Midlands. The town is in the grips of a plague, calling on Dr. Kingsley to not only treat the ill but also re-educate the town doctor as well. As the city slowly sinks into the elaborate network of mines beneath, The Murder Squad races for clues, never knowing who is friend and

Power, lust, fear, and destruction are all words that could describe the story of Serena by Ron Rash. The novel's namesake, Serena, is an eerily beautiful woman who is obsessed with money and the destruction of both nature and her enemies. She is married to George Pemberton, the owner of a timber company responsible for clearing a large portion of the North Carolina landscape in 1929. One side of the story describes Serena's push to rid the landscape of trees and beasts alike. She captures the minds of every man working for their company as well as her competitors who would like to stop her so

Private Detective, Cormoran Strike gets roped into taking a case by Leonora Quine to locate her missing husband, with a somewhat dubious promise of payment by Quine's editor. In pondering why he's taken on such a ridiculous case, Strike comes to realize that he did it out of sheer boredom. Coming off the fame of solving the headline grabbing murder of Lula Landry (see: Cuckoo's Calling), Strike has made a bit of a name for himself amongst the rich and want-to-be famous. Trouble is, the only investigative needs they have are following philandering spouses and girlfriends. When what appears to

In 1963 Jim Crow segregation laws were in effect in Mississippi. Nine year old Starla Claudelle last saw her mama when she was three and her daddy works on an oil rig in the Gulf, leaving Starla to be raised by her strict grandmother. Sassy Starla spends a good deal of time grounded and when her grandmother threatens to send her to reform school, Starla takes off for Nashville to find her mama. She accepts a ride from a black woman named Eula traveling with a white baby. While traveling with Eula, Starla is exposed to the hostility, mistreatment and racial inequality that Eula endures because

"Why are we here? What is love? Is there a Loch Ness monster? Does God send text messages?" These four lines, and "Jessie's Girl," were about all I had to go on before cracking open Rick Springfield's debut fiction novel. It follows an early thirties, recently divorced, recovering slacker as he ponders his existence. It leads him on a quest that ends up with a 1-800 hotline to God, a recently "freed" nun, and a date with the Loch Ness monster. While it does take a little time to pick up, and it can be somewhat shocking at points, it was a thoroughly enjoyable read, and once I got hooked, I

Life hasn’t been easy for Jim Stark, the protagonist of Richard Kadrey’s Sandman Slim. His old apartment isn’t his anymore, his lover Alice has been murdered, and, oh, yeah, he’s just spent the last 11 years in hell. Returning to Los Angeles to murder the cohorts who sent him to hell, Stark finds himself in the middle of something bigger, with the fate of the world at stake. In this showdown, the bad guys are terrifying and the good guys are only good by comparison. And Stark? He’s just looking out for his own.

Even for a work of urban fantasy, Sandman Slim is particularly dark and gritty

Second in the Walter Day series, The Black Country finds Scotland Yard’s Murder Squad called to a small mining town to investigate the disappearance of a child and his parents. Secrets, superstition, and massive amounts of snow are only a few of the challenges Day and his colleagues face once they arrive in The British Midlands. The town is in the grips of a plague, pulling Dr. Kingsley away from the case, not only to treat the ill, but re-educate the town doctor as well. As the city slowly sinks into the elaborate network of mines beneath, The Murder Squad races for clues, never knowing who

James Swain has written a series of novels featuring Tony Valentine as the main character. Mr. Lucky is the fifth in a series that has been one enjoyable read after another. Tony is a retired Atlantic City policeman who runs his own consulting firm that assists casinos in determining if they have been victims of fraud.  There is a lot in these novels about the culture of casinos and gambling which I find interesting.  In Mr. Lucky, a new and different scam unfolds for our entertainment.  Mr. Lucky is a guy (Ricky Smith) who wins at every casino game, and Tony Valentine must figure out how he

Caitlin Moran, The Times (London that is, not New York) columnist who is known primarily for her non-fiction writing (How to Be a Woman, Moranthology), excessive eyeliner, and very big hair, has published a novel for the first time since she was 16. How to Build a Girl is the semi-autographical story of teenage rock critic Johanna Morrigan, who lives in a cramped council house with her wannabe rock star father, post-partum-depression-suffering mother, and a gaggle of siblings. Johanna dreams of ways to drag herself, and ideally her entire family, out of poverty. While deciding to become a

Morgan measures her likeability by how many Twitter followers she has. Her goal is to reach 5000 and she is getting very close. If she has 5000 followers, she has to be likeable, right? Even if she doesn't have any real life friends, even if the father she's never known didn't like her enough to stick around and help raise her. She is currently tweeting about things she thought were true. For example, that working in an amusement park would be amusing (it's not), that heart disease happens to other people (how could HER mother be in the hospital with heart problems???), that rocking out to

Mysti Murphy is not having a good 7th grade year. Her only friend, Anibal Gomez, has developed a crush on a Cheer Squad girl and has decided to change his image in an effort to be noticed. Part of Anibal's "social experiment" is to develop a hipster persona that he thinks his new crush will admire. To see if his experiment works, he needs to ditch Mysti. Anibal decides that he and Mysti can talk and text in the evenings and on weekends, but they must have NO contact during school. Mysti has no other friends, so she now sits alone at the Loser Island in the cafeteria at lunchtime. At home

Edie and Richard Middlestein have been married for over 30 years, enjoying their family life in Chicago. But as their relationship stops growing and Richard decides to leave, all Edie can seem to do is grow.  She is obsessed with food and eating.  Will the family save her from herself?  Will Richard come back and continue loving every ounce of her?  One particular scene in The Middlesteins made me realize just how much this woman is eating:  Edie's daughter-in-law follows her from the house to McDonald's, then to Burger King, and on to the Chinese restaurant, watching Edie order, eat and throw

Step into a world where princesses fight witches and knights battle dragons and prepare to become enchanted with the wonderful Pennyroyal Academy. 

M.A. Larson creates a truly imaginative world of cadets in training to become princesses and knights who will ultimately rid the world of evil. If you think princesses are just beautiful girls living in castles, then think again. The cadets have to battle each other in obstacle courses and training exercises, jump from towers onto the horsebacks of their heroes, and learn to find confidence and compassion within themselves when faced with evil

Things have been complicated for Hannah Wagnor since her best friend Lillian died six months ago, because her best friends ghost still haunts her, and because someone in their sleepy town is killing girls and leaving their bodies in the woods behind Hannah’s house. Lillian has become obsessed with the murders and to appease her friend’s spirit, Hannah begins to investigate the crime scene photos developed at the photo store where she works. The girls notice similarities between the murders that the police haven’t released to the public, a eerie paper valentine left with each body, the sign of

I thought this was a lovely book.  Clean and thoughtful.

Full disclosure: I've spent time as an existentialist (Camus said he was not existentialist, but others claim he was) and a nihilist and an absurdist. That's part of the reason I found this book neither shocking nor depressing. The whole middle of the book involves prison and a "why bother" attitude.  Instead, the modernist prose was a fresh breath after the musty classics and period fiction I've been reading recently, and the solitude was a relaxing diversion from my busy and loud life.

The Stranger reminded me of Saul Bellow and

Just as powerful as Kevin Powers’ The Yellow Birds, The Farther Shore is the story of what happens to our military men and women when we send them to hostile countries for reasons no one really understands.

Joshua Stantz is monitoring the bombing of a city in Somalia when things go horribly wrong. And they continue to go wrong, for how could they go anything but wrong? As Stantz and his company make their way across the warring city, searching for the army that has abandoned them, the reader is given a clear view into the hearts and minds of men thrown into a multitude of conflicts with no

With the recent release of Gone Girl in theaters and Halloween just around the corner, now is the perfect time to read Dark Places by Gillian Flynn.

The novel features Libby Day, a bitter and psychologically damaged young woman whose family was seemingly randomly murdered when she was 7 years old, with the blame falling to her older, devil-worshiping brother. Now 24 years later, Libby happens upon a group who call themselves the Kill Club, who obsess over famous massacres and crimes. The group convinces Libby that her brother may not have been the murderer after all, which leads Libby to

After receiving a scholarship to attend a school of architecture in Paris, Andras, a 22-year-old Hungarian Jew, leaves his home country to pursue his dream of becoming an architect. He meets and falls in love with the beautiful Claire Morgenstern, who is also Hungarian but reluctant to share information about why she is dwelling in Paris. It’s 1939 and Hitler is shaking things up as the threat of war looms in Europe. The Hungarian Consulate refuses to renew Andras’ visa because he is Jewish, and he is forced to return to Budapest without finishing his degree. Claire returns to Hungary with him

Redshirts is a thoroughly engaging read, with interesting characters, snappy dialogue, and a plot that transports from comedic to thought-provoking at will. The story follows the adventures of a group of "Redshirts" as they fight for survival and try to unravel the mystery of a curse that plagues their ship. Will they figure it all out, or will they suffer the same grim fate so many "Redshirts" have before?  If you are a fan of Star Trek, or science-fiction in general, do yourself a favor and check this one out! The three codas at the end of the novel take a little bit to warm up to, but add

Mystery Mile is the second book in Margery Allingham’s Albert Campion series.  The Crime at Black Dudley is the first, but it features the detective Campion only incidentally.  In Mystery Mile, Campion’s playful insouciance and faux-insipid charm is in full effect.

Albert Campion is a golden age of detective fiction staple. He’s featured in 21 books, spanning the years from 1929 to 1970.  That was reason enough for me to begin reading, but in case you need more reasons, here are several:  Campion is a totally charming and unexpected young man; he’s apparently non-threatening and depends on

Belinda Carlisle seems to have lived the quintessential rocker’s life—starting off poor and dreaming of a magical life, being in love with music at a young age, starting a band almost on a whim, seeing her band rise to fame, drowning in drugs. Belinda’s story, Lips  Unsealed, is one of brutal honesty about how her own shortcomings and insecurities kept her in the grip of addiction even while her life seemed perfect and almost fairy-tale like to those on the outside. Her life reads as an inspiring and cautionary tale. It also made me want to dig up The Go-Go’s albums and listen with a greater

Marco, a 15-year-old boy, just wants to be a regular citizen and go to school. But his uncle, who is head of their clan, only sees these dreams as trouble. Forced to steal and beg for money on the streets, Marco secretly does all he can to better himself and learn as much as he can. When he overhears plans to cripple him, forcing him to abandon his dreams and tow the line, he knows he must escape. In his hours hiding from his Uncle and the rest of the clan, Marco makes a terrible discovery. Wanting to do the right thing brings his path  across Carl's more than once.

The Marco Effect is the

What a heart wrenching, yet inspiring, read this was! I listened to the audio book and couldn't tear myself away. It's been a long time since I found myself so immersed in a story, or since I have read a story so incredibly tragic and yet, at the same time so hopeful.

The main character is Carey, who believes she is 15 years old. She suffers abuse and neglect at the hands of her meth addicted, mentally ill mother who kidnapped her away from her father when she was five.  She has been hidden away in the Obed Wild and Scenic National Park in Tennessee, along with a six year old half sister. 

Arturo and Alma Rivera lived a happy life in Mexico until their beautiful teenage daughter, Maribel, sustains a serious injury in an accident. Unsure if she'll ever be the same again, they migrate to Delaware, where Maribel will be able to attend a special school and hopefully begin her road to recovery. But America is not what the family thought it would be—Arturo’s job is brutal, Maribel doesn't seem to be making much progress in school, and Alma struggles with her new life and learning a new language.

The one bright spot is that the Riveras meet the Toro family, who came to the U.S. years

The Daylight Gate was a whim I picked up that fit neatly into my October/Halloween/Witch reading theme, and that delighted me more than I expected.  I read Winterson years ago for a post-structuralist college class and only remembered her fondly to feel smarter about myself.  This time, I picked her up for the shiny cover and, yes, the promise of witches. 

The Daylight Gate is a semi-historical novel about one of the earliest seventeenth century English witch-hunts.  It's suitably foreboding, and you watch doom circle and dive at every one of the characters.  There’s magic and politics and

Confession: post-apocalyptic stories are not my favorite genre and can be really hit or miss with me. Despite the overall rave reviews, I've never read Cormac McCarthy's The Road because it sounds too grim and bleak for me. I watched the first season of The Walking Dead and gave up when I found it too depressing. (And I'm a fan of the Cure and Joy Division, so it's not like I only like things bright and cheerful.) Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, however, is very definitely not a miss.

Beautiful, heartfelt writing and strong, complex, sympathetic characters keep this story from

In Star Wars Crucible, Marvid and Craitheus Qreph, lifelong enemies of Han Solo, stage a hostile takeover of Lando Calrissian’s asteroid refinery operation. Han steps in to help his good buddy Lando and prevent a galaxy-wide domination.

In order to save Han, who is outgunned and fighting for his life, Luke and Leia race to find an artifact capable of altering space and time, and with the force to rescue everyone.

Longtime fans of the Star Wars series will be excited that Crucible brings together the dynamic trio of Han, Luke, and Leia.  The action-packed story brims with light saber battles

The Merriam Webster dictionary defines vagabond as

1:  moving from place to place without a fixed home :  wandering

2a :  of, relating to, or characteristic of a wanderer

  b :  leading an unsettled, irresponsible, or disreputable life

But to Rolf Potts vagabonding is 1: the act of leaving behind the orderly world to travel independently for an extended period of time; 2: a privately meaningful manner of travel that emphasizes creativity, adventure, awareness, simplicity, discovery, independence, realism, self-reliance, and the growth of the spirit; 3: a deliberate way of living that makes

With 408 skill tips broken into 5 categories (camping, fishing, hunting, survival, and challenge) this complete outdoor manual covers all the basics and then some.  Most of the tips are less than 4 paragraphs long, so the book works very well as a reference manual (though full page and even double page spreads are given to subjects that require it, such as track identification and fire starting techniques)for those who enjoy the great outdoors.  There are some basic tips like seasoning a dutch oven, or identifying drake mallards, that will be redundant to people who have been camping/hunting