From One Book Lover

What else should an Intrepid Reader do during the winter but — well, read? Join the Polar Book Club in reading The Lemoncholy Life of Annie Aster by Scott Wilbanks .  It's a novel loaded with time travel, mystery, and — you know what? I'll let the author describe the book himself: Annabelle Aster has discovered a curious thing behind her home in San Francisco: a letter box perched atop a picket fence.  The note inside is blunt—“Trespass is dealt with at the business end of a shotgun in these parts!”— spurring some lively correspondence between the Bay Area orphan and her new neighbor, a feisty widow living in a nineteenth century Kansas wheat field.  The source of mischief is an antique door Annie installed at the rear of her house. The man who made the door—a famed Victorian illusionist—died under mysterious circumstances. Annie and her new neighbor, with the help of friends and strangers alike, must solve the mystery of what connects them across time before on...

2018 was a good year for reading.  In 365 days, I read 79 books in total — almost tying my own record  — and enjoyed a variety of authors and subjects. Though some books were modest — How a Mouse Saved the Royal Cat was a mere 14 pages — books in total averaged 241 pages. I wandered my local library and combed the shelves of used bookstores. I read some books recommended by trusted critics, and learned who shared my taste.  I perused my own library and shuffled my hefty Kindle selection for some delights, and a few clunkers. I read general fiction, children's books, cookbooks, how-tos, and travelogues. I was intrigued by the art of tattoos. I marveled at libraries around the country, grand and modest. I was shocked and horrified by violence and sexism in classic literature, and shocked and horrified that it took me this long to recognize it. I read books narrated by immigrants, gay men, time travelers, people livi ng with autism, journalists, people living with ...

Intrepid Reader Karen had a great summer reading. How great? Well, it looks like she consumed the entire Outlander series and immersed herself in cozy mysteries.  Did you know "cozy mysteries" is a thing? I have been reading them for ages and just thought that was my author's pet name for her series.  "Cozy mysteries" apparently involve cats saving humans from their own foolishness. (Maybe it's just me....) Well, I know my cats are exhausted each night after they keep me out of danger every day, even when I am at work — thanks to the Cat Networks. At any rate, here is what Karen read this summer: Troublemaker  Outlander  Dragonfly in Amber  Voyager  Drums of Autumn  The Fiery Cross A Breath of Snow and Ashes  An Echo in the Bone Written in my Own Heart’s Blood  Murder in the Art Gallery  A Sip of Murder:A Japanese Tea Garden Mystery  Cream Puff Murder Gone with the Ghost  You’ve Got Tail The Secre...

Home no one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark you only run for the border when you see the whole city running as well your neighbors running faster than you breath bloody in their throats the boy you went to school with who kissed you dizzy behind the old tin factory is holding a gun bigger than his body you only leave home when home won’t let you stay. no one leaves home unless home chases you fire under feet hot blood in your belly it’s not something you ever thought of doing until the blade burnt threats into your neck and even then you carried the anthem under your breath only tearing up your passport in an airport toilets sobbing as each mouthful of paper made it clear that you wouldn’t be going back. you have to understand, that no one puts their children in a boat unless the water is safer than the land no one burns their palms under trains beneath carriages no one spends days and nights in the stomach of a truck feeding on newspaper unless the miles tr...