MADreads Reviews

Florence Day is a ghost writer for one of the most famous romance authors in the industry and finds herself stuck after a bad breakup. She believes love is dead and the inspiration to write has vanished. Yet, she cannot shake the dead, because she also sees and communicates with ghosts, no matter how hard she tries to ignore them. So, you have a ghost writer who sees ghosts and believes love is dead even though the dead are present all around her. Are you following all this?

This graphic novel companion to the Bridgerton series is an absolute delight - candy for the mind and soul. I don't mean that in the empty calories and high fructose corn syrup way. I mean that in the irresistible way that fresh saltwater taffy, or homemade fudge, or hand dipped chocolate candy overwhelms the senses, and for me, is perfection. Sweet as honey combined with buttery brickle. I could go on and on, but you get the idea.

Kings of the Wyld has a Band of old, fat and worn out men getting together for one last tour. Only this is a band of mercenaries once known as Saga and the tour is a trek across the realm battling monsters, magicians, crooks and other mercenaries along the way. Their quest? Defeat a horde of thousands of monsters to reach a besieged city and rescue the daughter of one of the members. Easy, peasy, right?

I'm always a little skeptical of books about libraries - maybe being a librarian has made me too jaded. But this story isn't really about libraries, and it's not even really about books, although there is a gorgeously illustrated spread celebrating the breadth of imagination and worlds to be found within the pages of a book and the walls of a library. 

Written and illustrated by Chinese-Americans whose parents came from China and raised them in the United States, I am Golden celebrates the heritage behind the Chinese-American experience. With poetic language and colorful, captivating imagery, Mei's story is shared with us through the eyes of her immigrant parents. This is a loving, encouraging book with additional photographs and backstories about the author and illustrator at the end.

The best science fiction, fantasy and horror novels were picked and announced on June 25th by the Locus Science Fiction Foundation. There are lots of good possibilities for a summer read from the winners and the other nominated titles.

Author Megan Abbott has received deserved praise recently for her noirish thrillers probing the psyches of teenage girls and female friendship, including Dare Me, The Fever and You Will Know Me.

Do you like reading other people's stories? Then check out Booklist's latest top 10 list of biographies.They includes singers, artists, scientists, playwrights, and activists.  Are there any biographies that you would add to the list?

Are you looking for a great summer ghost story for middle grades? I highly recommend The Girl in the Lake. Celeste, her younger brother Owen, and their cousins Daisy and Capri are invited to spend several weeks at their grandparents' lake home where the water is murky, the weather is stormy and tensions are high. Without giving too much away, there's a haunted house, a family mystery, a spooky lake and enough summer thunderstorms to send anyone hiding under the covers.

Fonda Lee's Green Bone Saga has been on my radar and has had steady positive buzz since this, the first book, came out a few years ago. So I've known I wanted to read it for a while. But I also knew, given the subject matter, I had to be in the right reading mood. Well this weekend I was and wow! it definitely lives up to the hype.

Kat Leyh’s Snapdragon came out in 2020, and it’s been almost a year since the last time I read it, but I still find myself talking about it all the time! What was initially just an interesting-sounding graphic novel that I picked up on a whim quickly became one of my absolute favorite middle grade books.

Katrina Nguyen escapes her abusive home with nothing but a few dollars and her violin. A connection within the LGBTQIA community brings her to the San Gabriel Valley in hopes of starting fresh. But the scars (literal and figurative) of her past are not easily erased and she's not sure what she'll do next when her beloved violin is stolen by the "friends" who promised to help. Enter Shizuka Satomi.

"Era la víspera de Orgullo, cálida como ninguna. La gente se alistaba al salir la luna."

Ever been tempted to wonder about literary might-have-beens? Say, if F. Scott Fitzgerald had lived and written during the Regency period, or Emily Bronte had imagined Cathy and Heathcliff marrying and living happily (or not) ever after? Author Claudia Gray (aka Amy Vincent) loves Jane Austen, and like a lot of other Austenites, she too wonders, what if? In this case, her what if? musings have borne fruit in The Murder of Mr. Wickham.

It's been a while since I've read one of Sophie Hannah's mystery/suspense novels, but with this her newest sounding so intriguing, I thought I'd dip back in. In the past, I've known Ms. Hannah to write complex, tricky tales, and she holds true to that ethos here.

Get swept up in the sweetest, cutest, kindest, most romantic young love! Charlie and Nick sit next to each other in class and become friends.

Amal is the smartest student in her Pakistani village with the best grades, highest scores, and a desire to become a teacher. Her family is in crisis after the birth of a fifth daughter and Amal struggles to care for her younger sisters, complete homework, and help around the house while her mother recovers. Well aware of how she's treated differently because she's a girl, Amal wants another kind of life for herself. She misses school and her classmates and especially her best friend, Omar.

Leslie Patricelli is a staple in this librarian’s house. She’s taught our two year old such valuable lessons already, like haircuts don’t hurt (Hair), how to make our mad go away (Mad, Mad, MAD), and possibly most important… that all toots are funny! (Toot) This summer, she’s back with an exciting trip to the beach in Splash!

Inspired by the author's critically acclaimed album Dirty Computer, this Afrofuturistic collection of five connected stories center around a woman named Jane 57821 who is looking for refuge from the world of the Dirty Computer. The Dirty Computer is what society views as human imperfection, tainted by memory, emotion, and time.

Izumi lives in northern California with her single mother and behaves the same way so many high school seniors do: she hangs out with friends, they obsess over love interests, pancakes, style, and their present and future potential. Izzy, as she's known to her friends, has never met her father and doesn't even know his full name. She knows he's Japanese and went to Harvard with her mother but not much more. After some internet sleuthing to find likely candidates an exciting truth is uncovered: Izzy's dad is the Crown Prince of Japan.