Reviews

Set in Karachi, Pakistan, fourteen-year-old Nazia is enjoying school with her friends. After her father loses his job and his interest in working, Nazia's dowry is stolen and the family is evicted from their home . Nazia and her mother go to work as maids (masias) in order to support themselves and 2 younger siblings.

1942 couldn’t have been better and couldn’t have been worse for Kate Goodfellow. As a war correspondent for World magazine, Kate takes on the world both personally and professionally, capturing once in a lifetime moments in pictures. Never mind that it’s a world ruled by the likes of Otis Bennett, owner of World magazine, who would have her sidelined where it’s “safer for women”.

Dog On It: A Chet and Bernie Mystery by Spencer Quinn is narrated by Chet the dog, sometimes known as Chet the Jet. Chet and Bernie are partners in the Little Detective Agency. Both have less than stellar law enforcement careers.

Need something light and fun to listen to that makes your heart go pitter patter? Try Suzanne Brockmann's The Kissing Game, narrated by Donna Rawlings. The setting is a small town in the Florida Keys where Frankie Paresky, private investigator, is hired to find the heir to an inheritance.

Ever since the release of the movie Precious, with its six Academy Award nominations, the book it’s based on, Push by the author Sapphire, has become popular. I love underdogs. Any chance I get to wallow in another’s sorrow is one I rarely pass up.

This collection of 24 short stories is written by different authors to benefit the owners of Once Upon A Crime, a mystery book store located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This book contains stories written by several award winning authors. I enjoyed the variety of mysteries which ranged from 5-25 pages in length. One of my favorite stories, Puck, is about a retired grifter couple living in the suburbs.

Spanning four generations and two continents, this is a captivating, atmospheric and very readable story that includes a foundling, an old book of dark fairy tales, a secret garden, a maze, an aristocratic family, a love denied and a mystery. Cassandra is 38 years old.

After reading this autobiography by former KU basketball coach, Roy Williams, I am very sorry I was so angry at him for leaving Kansas for North Carolina in 2003. It is evident that Coach Williams is a man who loves the young men he coaches and the influence he has on their lives weighs heavily on his mind.

So many authors get childhood wrong that when an exception comes along it seems like nothing less than a miracle. Among them: J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, John Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany, and Irish novelist Roddy Doyle's Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha.