MADreads
A review of
Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography of Laura Ingalls Wilder
edited by
Pamela Smith
Hill
It is not every day that a beloved author, dead for sixty years, hits the bestseller list with an entirely new memoir. Yet that is the case with Laura Ingalls Wilder, whose long-unpublished work Pioneer Girl gets its full due in a brand new edition curated by Wilder scholar Pamela Smith Hill. Wilder’s Little House books, based on her family’s pioneering experiences in Wisconsin, Kansas, Minnesota and South Dakota, became central in children’s literature canon, inspired a hit
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Reviewed by Katie H. on
March 2, 2015
A review of
The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place
by
Julie
Berry
What are seven young ladies to do when the headmistress and her brother abruptly falls over dead during dinner? They don't want to go back to their homes and there may be a killer amongst them. The solution: bury the corpses in the garden and dress up one of the students as their headmistress. The mystery thickens as the young ladies, each with her own unique characteristic, tries to keep up this farce and deal with meddling neighbors, a lovestruck admiral, long-lost relatives, and
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Reviewed by Jody on
February 27, 2015
A review of
First Frost
by
Sarah Addison
Allen
The reader is transported to Bascom, North Carolina, nine years after we left the Waverley sisters and their magical gifts in Sarah Addison Allen's Garden Spells.
Claire Waverley has left her successful catering business behind to start Waverley's Candies and has married Tyler, the artist from next door. They are parents to nine-year-old Mariah and it's yet to be determined if Mariah has a "Waverley gift." Wild
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Reviewed by Molly - Central on
February 26, 2015
A review of
Open Mic: Riffs on Life Between Cultures in Ten Voices
by
Mitali
Perkins
Reviewed by Ali Khan of The Simpson Street Free Press
When confronting problems regarding race and ethnicity, many attempt to challenge stereotypes with protests, heated discussions, and even aggression. While these options may be effective, Open Mic: Riffs on Life Between Cultures in Ten Voices, edited by Mitali Perkins, uses a different tactic against racial prejudices—humor.Open Mic is not the average teen novel. Rather than share the perspective of just one author, it
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Reviewed by Jesse on
February 24, 2015
A review of
Revolution
by
Deborah
Wiles
The town of Greenwood, Mississippi, is being invaded. Young college students from the North are coming to help register voters. This story is told from two different viewpoints, Sunny, a twelve year-old white girl, and Raymond, a black boy from Baptist Town. Their paths intertwine as their families and communities take on the challenges of understanding and implementing civil rights.The audiobook version is superbly done with a full cast of actors, laden with commercials, reporter interviews,
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Reviewed by Jody on
February 20, 2015
A review of
Board Stiff
by
Annelise
Ryan
There’s no better way to spend a snowy afternoon than curled up with a good cozy mystery. I recently discovered a Wisconsin author, Annelise Ryan, who has a charming series featuring a character named Mattie Winston and the latest installment Board Stiff was delightful.
Mattie Winston is a coroner in fictional Sorenson, WI and has just settled back into her old job after taking a brief leave of absence. Her absence included frequent trips to the local casino and her pesky gambling
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Reviewed by Katharine - Central on
February 19, 2015
A review of
Rainey Royal
by
Dylan
Landis
This is a novel composed of 14 narratives about Rainey Royal, artist, ingénue and society girl of sorts circa 1970s Manhattan. I was nauseated, unnerved and unsettled while reading Rainey's stories. I'm still a bit shaken. But wow, job well done, Dylan Landis. Your words have profoundly affected me.
Rainey is the daughter of a jazz musician with a flock of young acolytes swarming around him. Teenage Rainey is expected to give up her room, her privacy, her sanctity, her father-daughter
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Reviewed by Molly - Central on
February 18, 2015
A review of
Yes Please
by
Amy
Poehler
If you enjoyed Tina Fey’s Bossypants or Mindy Kaling’s Is Everyone Hanging out Without Me? amongst other female comic memoirs in the past few years, Yes Please will be up your alley. While celebrity memoirs generally come with a prescribed amount of name-droppery, Amy Poehler does it with a unaffected style that makes you feel like you’re just hanging out, swapping stories with an old friend. She keeps it classy when discussing her personal and professional
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Reviewed by Carra on
February 17, 2015
A review of
A Murder of Magpies
by
Judith
Flanders
Flanders' debut mystery does everything just right. Her protagonist, Samantha Clair, is a forty-something editor for a publishing house in London. Sam is smart and funny and more then a little cynical, a combination that warms this cynic's heart. When Kit Lowell, one of her top authors, goes missing, she's concerned. But when she finds out his disappearance may be tied to the death of a bicycle messenger killed in a hit and run, Sam becomes frightened. Kit had just finished a manuscript about a
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Reviewed by Jane J - Central on
February 16, 2015
A review of
Swim, Duck, Swim
by
Susan
Lurie
Duck is afraid to learn to swim, but with a little bit of encouragement he takes the plunge. Join him in this delightful picture book that uses charming nature photographs of a duckling and his patient parents.
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Reviewed by Tina - Central on
February 13, 2015
