by Lauren Wolk Annabelle lives a steady life with her parents, grandparents, two younger brothers plus aunt in a small Pennsylvania farming town. The arrival of the new girl Betty shakes things up and not in a good way. Annabelle quickly learns the new girl is a relentless bully who threatens not only Annabelle […]
Little Black Lies by Sharon BoltonI read this book in a day. I got home from work and sat down on the sofa with a cup of tea and this book to pass time before dinner. When I finally looked up and away from the page, the sun was rising. Every sentence was perfect. The […]
Eating DirtBy Charlotte Gill Imagine a life of dirty, tough work out in the backcountry. Imagine that the wilderness is home for eight months of the year and that you can’t have a proper shower or get any real privacy during this time. Then imagine that this is the life you choose for yourself. This […]
The Buried Giant The Buried Giant, by Kazuo Ishiguro, is a fantasy novel that covers the journey of Axl and Beatrice, a couple who set off on a journey to find their son, who they have not seen for some time, and actually do not remember very well. As the story moves along with their […]
by Katie KennedyAn asteroid is hurtling towards Earth, and NASA has amassed a group of scientists to figure out how to stop it before it destroys North America. Yuri is a 17-year-old Russian physics phenom who NASA has recruited to be part of the team. Yuri’s colleagues in Russia are used to his youthfulness, and […]
The Last Thirteen: 13 By James Phelan Sam, Eva and Alex are average teenagers, but their dreams are intense and sometimes frightening. Sam has been sent to a psychiatrist to deal with his dreams and the aftermath of a traumatic event. But when Sam’s school is raided by “national security agents” and he is whisked […]
Miriam Toews has this way of writing lines that are so beautiful that sometimes I have to close her books for a moment just to marvel at them. All My Puny Sorrowsis a book that is full of such moments; alternating equally between being eloquently wise, wickedly funny and jaggedly heartbreaking. In every one […]
By Mary Roach While there are plenty of books that cover the political and human impacts of war, we rarely see and examination of more unusual aspects of maintaining a military force. Grunt by Mary Roach isn’t about new guns and tanks, drones and missiles. This is the kind of stuff that most people don’t […]
The Wild Robot By Peter Brown Can a robot survive in the wilderness? Robot Roz must do exactly that when she discovers that she has washed up on the shore of a remote island. Although Roz has been programmed to know many things, she does not know how to survive in the outdoors. But Roz, […]
By Nancy FarmerIn a future world that feels very “old world”, the USA and Azatlán (formerly known as Mexico) have struck a deal to curb illegal immigration. Along the length of the border, a new country named Opium has been established. The thousands of miles of drug fields are owned by a handful of very […]