MADreads

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
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
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
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
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
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
A review of Between Man and Beast: An Unlikely Explorer, The Evolution Debates, and the African Adventure that took the Victorian World by Storm by Monte Reed

Paul Du Chaillu ought to have been lost to history. Even in life, much of his background in colonial Gabon was obscure by his own design, and even late in life he still appeared as something of a chimera, restlessly floating between Great Britain and America, always in pursuit of the next adventure. But for a brief time in Victorian England, Du Chaillu was one of the most famous, or infamous, explorers in an era rich with memorable pathfinders. The reason? Du Chaillu was singularly driven to ...read more

Reviewed by Katie H. on
April 22, 2013 | 0 comments
A review of Forget-me-nots by Mary Ann Hoberman

Ready for some rollicking and roaring word play? Check out Forget-Me-Nots: Poems to Learn by Heart by Mary Ann Hoberman for some unforgettable poems. This is a wonderful treasury for elementary school kids. The poems are joyful and include bright and colorful illustrations by Michael Emberley. The book has 123 poems by 57 authors (ranging from A.A. Milne to Shel Silverstein to Valerie Worth, and many more phenomenal poets). It is also a great book for reading aloud! Explore other ...read more

Reviewed by Tracy on
April 19, 2013 | 0 comments
A review of Rage Against the Dying by Becky Masterman

Brigid Quinn thought she left the past behind when she retired from the FBI. No longer young and blonde, her undercover days of posing as bait for human traffickers and sexual predators are over, and as her 60th birthday nears, she's enjoying adding to her rock garden and learning to cook for her new philosophy professor husband. However, when an open case that has haunted her for years looks like it may finally close with a full confession from a serial killer, she can't help but return to her ...read more

Reviewed by Kylee on
April 17, 2013 | 2 comments
A review of Sins of a Ruthless Rogue by Anna Randol

I just finished reading a bunch of galleys on my Nook. I didn't realize until I was finished with Anna Randol's new novel that it was one of the ones that I was looking forward to reading this spring. (See my Looking Forward to Love post.) In fact, I didn't remember that I read the first one in her Sinners Trio series, ...read more

Reviewed by Kathy K. - Central on
April 16, 2013 | 0 comments
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