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Edgars announced
Year's Best Mysteries by

The Edgar Award winners were announced on May 2nd and I'll admit to being surprised especially by the Best Novel winner. Not that Dennis Lehane isn't very deserving. He's a great writer. But he beat out the literary phenom known as Gone Girl (which ...read more

Reviewed by Jane J - Central on May 7, 2013 | 1 comment

A List of New Classics
Classic Novels for the 20th Century and Beyond

According to GQ there is a list of new classic novels that every man should read (and probably women too). The article The New Canon: The 21 Books from the 21st Century Every Man Should Read lists the following: The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen The Human Stain by Phillip Roth The Road by Cormac McCarthy White Teeth by Zadie Smith True History of the Kelly Gang by ...read more

Reviewed by Kathy K. - Central on May 6, 2013 | 0 comments

Coming Soon: Teen’s Choice Award Review Books
A review of Bomb: The Race to Build and Steal the World's Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin

 It’s that time of year again, and I’m reading as many books as I can to find the lucky ten titles that will serve as the summer’s Teen’s Choice review books. This year’s list will include the cross-over kid’s/teen’s non-fiction title that has swept up so many awards that it is fairly dripping with medals. Yes, Bomb: The Race to Build – and Steal – the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon, by Steve Sheinkin. National Book Award Finalist, Sibert Award for best children’s non-fiction, Best Non- ...read more

Reviewed by Karen on May 3, 2013 | 0 comments

Are you excited?
Inferno by Dan Brown

 The hold list is already growing and the buzz is building. So tell me, are you excited about the return of Professor Robert Langdon in Dan Brown's Inferno? The book is due in a couple weeks and I'll admit I'm curious. It's been a few years since The Lost Symbol and it will be interesting to see what Brown and Langdon are up to. If you want a sample, Knopf is offering a sneak peak of the prologue and ...read more

Reviewed by Jane J - Central on May 1, 2013 | 0 comments

Lean way in, just a little bit further, and just a little bit further still
A review of Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg

 I think most of us know who the Facebook guy, Mark Zuckerberg, is and have heard of the movie The Social Network. But do we know about Facebook's second in command? Sheryl Sandberg is the C.O.O. of Facebook and currently number eight on "Fortune" magazine's 50 Most Powerful Women in Business list. She has an amazing resume that includes both an A.B ...read more

Reviewed by Molly - Central on April 30, 2013 | 0 comments

One choice, two paths
A review of Pivot Point by Kasie West

 At a school where the football team uses telekinesis to keep balls aloft and other students can manipulate mass to walk through walls, Addie Coleman doesn't think her ability to search the possible outcomes of her choices is terribly glamorous, since she can only see her own future, and only when she faces a specific choice. Still, it's a pretty handy power, and it's one that is particularly useful as she faces the biggest decision of her life so far: which parent she wants to live with after ...read more

Reviewed by Kylee on April 29, 2013 | 0 comments

Not so new anymore, but still so good.
A review of The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly

 If you missed this book when it first came out in 2009, now's your chance to check it out. This is a book to be savored. The pace is slow, similar to the steamy hot Texas summer of 1899 when the story takes place. Calpurnia (Callie) is the only girl in a houseful of brothers. When her elusive, naturalist grandfather notices her writing observations of the world around her, she becomes his assistant, working alongside him in his laboratory behind the family home. It is in this lab where she ...read more

Reviewed by Lesley K on April 26, 2013 | 0 comments

In a mystery mood
Two New Mysteries

Like a lot of readers I find that my reading moods can wax and wane. For a while I'd been in a waning phase with mysteries, but have lately had a resurgence of interest and have just read a couple of great titles. Both are set in Britain, but tell tales of very different parts of the country. One is a first novel and the other is the fifth in an ongoing series that I love.  The first is Crossbones Yard ...read more

Reviewed by Jane J - Central on April 25, 2013 | 0 comments

And the Pulitzer goes to ....
2013 Pulitzer Prize Winners

After (shockingly) having no fiction prize awarded last year, Pulitzer watchers were following this year's announcement pretty closely. They didn't need to worry. There is a fiction winner this year.  FICTION - The Orphan Master's Son by Adam JohnsonHISTORY - ...read more

Reviewed by Kathy K. - Central on April 24, 2013 | 0 comments

Tale of a fifth grade blogger
A review of Genie Wishes by Elisabeth Dahl

 Genie Kunkle is about to start the fifth grade and is thrilled to know that her best friend Sarah is in the same homeroom as her. Genie and Sarah have always operated as a team and fifth grade should be more of the same. Right? Problem is, Sarah met Blair at camp over the summer and the ultra-cool, trendy Blair is going to be in their home room too. As Blair and Sarah cement their friendship, Genie begins to feel left out. While she struggles with the changing dynamics around her, Genie takes ...read more

Reviewed by Jane J - Central on April 23, 2013 | 0 comments
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Katharine on Edgars announced
Totally agree with The Last
Kylee on Not your grandma's gray-haired ex-FBI agent
Thanks! I also loved Carlo -
CarolK on Not your grandma's gray-haired ex-FBI agent
You caught the essence of
Molly - Central on Wow. Just wow.
That is sad.  RIP, Ivan. 

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