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MADreads Reviews

Book reviews by library staff and guest contributors

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Posted by Jane J on Nov 2, 2021
A review of The Mother-in-Law by
Sally
Hepworth

The Lakeview Mystery Book Group had been meeting in person over the last few months but decided to go back to meeting on Zoom now that the nights are longer and are getting colder. Last week was our return to Zoom and given how the online platform can change the shape of meetings, I was wondering if our talk would be as comfortable and free-wheeling as it had been for our in-person meetings. The answer? It certainly was a relaxed, energetic discussion. But was that the group or the book?

Strange and wild songs

Posted by Katie H on Nov 1, 2021
A review of Matrix by
Lauren
Groff

Early in Matrix, Lauren Groff’s stunning new novel, Marie of France recalls a nightingale that Queen Eleanor had raised by hand, caged among the ladies of the English court. She despises this bird, which sings the same song, unlike the wild birds that Marie knew from her days when her mother and aunts were alive, free and fierce to pursue a life away from the strictures of court and the stringent roles of the ladies there. Marie herself defies easy categorization, as both bastard and royal, the product of rape from the lanky Plantagenet king and her Amazonian French mother.

Hitting all the high notes

Posted by Jane J on Oct 27, 2021
Julie Anne
Long

There's a trope in the romance genre that almost always entertains me. And there is an author who does likewise. So you can imagine my happiness when I realized that After Dark with the Duke by Julie Anne Long has both.

All recommendations welcome

Posted by Tina on Oct 25, 2021
A review of Blacktongue Thief by
Christopher
Buehlman

I just finished the Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman and I have to say that it was a pretty fun & clever book, with adventure to spare. There are WAR COVIDS! Bigger than a person! And goblins and giants, and magical tattoos and an assassin...on the craziest road trip ever. And it was funny, which is something I feel is missing in many fantasy settings.

Saving Godzilla?

Posted by Jane J on Oct 19, 2021
John
Scalzi

I've been waiting to tell you about John Scalzi's forthcoming title for a while now as it was just the antidote I needed for a reading slump. At the time most things I'd been reading were eliciting a tepid, 'ah it was fine' response. And then came the Kaiju. Not only were they a saving grace for me, but based on the author note included in the book, were one for Scalzi as well. He'd been struggling with another book as the pandemic worsened and just couldn't make progress when the idea for this story popped into his head.

A new meaning for moonshot

Posted by Katie H on Oct 18, 2021
A review of The Apollo Murders by
Chris
Hadfield

Kazimieras “Kaz” Zemeckis was bound for the stars.  At least, that was the plan before a bird strike on a routine fighter training flight left him with a glass eye and a job shepherding astronauts through the sort of space flights he was supposed to be on himself. By 1973, the Apollo missions are winding down as budget cuts take their toll, but the Apollo 18 trip promises to be like no other.

Courage Over Fear

Posted by on Oct 13, 2021
A review of I Am (Not) Scared by
Anna
Kang

Anna Kang's fuzzy purple and brown creatures from You Are (Not) Small and That's (Not) Mine ​are back in this silly and delightful picture book about facing your fears. There are a lot of things to be scared of out there: tubs of hairy spiders, pits of lava, or (eeek!) snakes! But not a roller coaster! Roller coasters are fun! Uh oh, until there is a snake riding on the coaster with you... However, our two brave friends still hop on the coaster for a hilariously illustrated adventure. I love how this book ends.

Having her say

Posted by Jane J on Oct 11, 2021

Karen Brooks gives Chaucer's Wife of Bath a chance to tell her side of the story in this vivid and absorbing tale of how a woman could gain agency in her own life in a time when she legally had none.

Fowl doers of foul deeds?

Posted by Katie H on Oct 6, 2021
Mary
Roach

I think it’s pretty safe to say that we’d like to have Mary Roach in our high school science classes. Her ‘can-you-believe-this’ odd factoid interjections would likely liven up most classrooms while making those facts that teacher presents stick all the better.

2021 Finalists for the National Book Awards

Posted by Kathy K on Oct 5, 2021
A review of Award Finalists by

Recently the National Book Foundation announced the 2021 Finalists for the National Book Awards.  According to their website "the mission of the National Book Foundation is to celebrate the best literature in America, expand its audience, and ensure that books have a prominent place in American culture."   The categories include Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Translated Literature, Young People's Literature.

Eerie season is almost upon us

Posted by Jane J on Sep 27, 2021
A review of The Stranger Diaries by
Elly
Griffiths

October and the spooky season are just around the corner and I have the book for you. Elly Griffiths' (best known for her Ruth Galloway series of mysteries) Stranger Diaries is suspenseful and even spooky at times (there's even a ghost) and is a gothic book about a gothic story that is being written about for a book. Okay that sounds like nonsense, I know.

The rain brings more than water

Posted by Molly W on Sep 21, 2021
A review of After the Rain by
John Jennings
and illustrated by David Brame

The graphic novel adaptation of Nnedi Okorafor's short story "On the Road" takes the reader on a journey that connects the mind and body with an infinite past of cultural heritage. Chioma, a young Nigerian-American police officer from New York City, visits family in a small, rural Nigerian village during a terrible storm and unleashes an unidentified power. Chioma's western sensibilities try to reconcile what's happening but she struggles, even with the help of her family.

A child of grace

Posted by Katie H on Sep 20, 2021
A review of The Ninth Hour by
Alice
McDermott

It may seem incongruous that The Ninth Hour, Alice McDermott’s exquisite family saga of faith, sacrifice and grace, should begin with a suicide. When Jim shoos his young wife Annie out of their Brooklyn tenement to do some shopping, locks the door behind her and turns on the gas, it looks as bleak as could be for the young widow. Early-twentieth century Brooklyn is a tough place for its many inhabitants, and particularly so for a young Irish widow with a baby on the way.

Edwardian era magic

Posted by Jane J on Sep 16, 2021
A review of A Marvellous Light by
Freya
Marske

There are some books that make me feel like I'm smiling from the first page to the last. I finish the book and immediately want to tell everyone about the delight I had in reading it (I think I've already mentioned it to multiple co-workers). Such was the case with A Marvellous Light, a debut queer fantasy novel full of "magic, contracts, and conspiracies".

Different, with love

Posted by Tracy on Sep 10, 2021
A review of Mila Has Two Beds by
Judith
Koppens

Mila Has Two Beds shares a story familiar to many children – going between two houses and two parents. Mila says goodbye to “Sweet Daddy” and her dog, Pepper, and returns to the “Mommy-house” and “smiling Mommy”. The illustrations are drenched in color and show happy and cozy scenes and each parent’s house. Mila has a different bed, a different toothbrush, and a different bedtime routine at each house. Even the goodnight wishes are different: “Good night, my darling,” says her Mommy, and “Nighty-night, little princess,” says her Daddy.

Top 10 Sports and Recreation: 2021

Posted by Kathy K on Sep 10, 2021
A review of New Sports Books by

The fall sports season has started and what better way to start it with a top 10 list from Booklist. The latest is for new sports books. This diverse list includes books about polo in the inner city, tennis stars, soccer players, a woman boxer, football in WWII, and Victorian spiritualists. Are there any titles that you would add?

30 takes on the talk

Posted by Molly W on Sep 8, 2021
Wade Hudson and
Cheryl Willis Hudson

Thirty award-winning authors and illustrators share stories and discussions about "the talk" - the conversations they have with their children about race and racism, identity, and self-esteem. For some parents it's a way to prepare their kids, for others it's a way to protect them, for still others it's a way to explain. All of the talks and the reasons for the talk are varied, just like humans are varied. 

Dead bodies and wedding dresses

Posted by Molly W on Sep 7, 2021
A review of Dial A for Aunties by
Jesse Q.
Sutanto

Meddelin Chan's tightly knit Chinese-Indonesian family runs a full-service wedding business that provides cakes (Big Aunt), hair and make-up (Second Aunt), flowers (Meddie's mom), entertainment (Fourth Aunt), and photography (Meddie). A spectacularly rich couple hire the Chan's for their biggest event yet, a grand wedding to be held at an exclusive resort on an island off the coast of California. Things go wrong almost immediately. Some of the "wrong" includes a dead body, groomsmen too drunk to get dressed for the wedding, a major theft and an impending storm.

Not as they seem

Posted by Jane J on Sep 4, 2021
A review of No One Will Miss Her by
Kat
Rosenfield

Lizzie Oullette has been found dead and no one in her rural Maine town seems to care. It's only when it becomes clear that her husband Dwayne is the one who likely murdered her that people start to show an interest. Dwayne was an admired member of the community until he hooked up with town outcast Lizzie. So if he did kill her? Maybe it's for the best. At least that's what investigator Ian Bird is able to glean from the townsfolk. That and somehow Lizzie's death is connected to a Adrienne Richards, a glamorous blonde Instagram influencer who'd been renting a house from Lizzie.

Singing to the sky

Posted by on Sep 1, 2021
Tasha
Spillett-Sumner

This is a beautiful book from an Indigenous author/illustrator collaboration.

Through heartfelt text the author shares the anticipation and joy of a mother waiting for the birth of a child. Through the course of the patient months, the mother gathers meaningful elements form nature to create a medicine bundle for her child. Following the birth, the mother recognizes that the new baby is a medicine bundle for herself and for the community.