MADreads Reviews

Overdrive has a new Big Library Read title, The Darwin Affair by Tim Mason, and you can find a copy to borrow August 3-17th. The Darwin Affair is an historical mystery set in 1860 London with a mystery that has assassination attempts, murder, and a conspiracy centered on the publication of Charles Darwin's controversial On the Origin of the Species. Sounds like the perfect escape for these the doldrums of our summer.

If you and your little ones love books, Open This Little Book is the perfect choice. It's a story within a story, a book within a book -- and it's all a lot of fun! Madison native, Jesse Klausmeier, along with illustrator-extraordinaire Suzy Lee, have created an imaginative and exciting picture book that will have your kids asking to read it again and again. But what's inside the book? You'll have to check it out and find out for yourself!

The magic mind behind the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy is back with a modern day retelling of A Room with a View that starts out in Capri, winds its way through the Hamptons and culminates on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Described by the publisher as a glittering tale of love and longing, I would add that it's a titanium coated scrutiny of isms: classism, elitism, ageism, sexism, and racism set with sapphires, diamonds and emeralds the size of goose eggs, served up with Peking duck and a side of dumplings.

Evie Dunmore's debut novel Bringing Down the Duke made a splash last year both because of it's feminist love story and it's general sparkliness (is that a word?) both inside and outside. Inside was a sharp, funny, lovely story of opposites attracting and on the outside was a colorful, illustrated design that was part of a major trend in the publishing world.

Though we've been lucky this summer, every Midwesterner knows its keening sound, a reminder that tornado season is upon us once again. Tornadoes remain something of an enigma today, even as technology and YouTube videos make the prediction and experience of storms more routine. But our knowledge of tornados is a very recent phenomenon, as Lee Sandlin chronicles in Storm Kings: The Untold History of America’s First Storm Chasers.

Pirio Kasparov is a medical and biological anomaly. She survived for more than four hours in 40 degree water in the North Atlantic when the small fishing boat she was on was hit by a larger ship. Her survival in waters that would generally kill others within a short period of time is newsworthy, but for Pirio the much bigger issue is the fact that her friend Ned didn't survive the crash and she's beginning to suspect that his death was not an accident. The authorities conclude that the collision was an accident, but Ned's young son Noah is relying on Pirio to figure things out.

The pandemic has put the kibosh on the library being able to offer in person events - something we've been missing in a major way - and this is true for the Wisconsin Book Festival as well. Though they hold events all year long, they've had to come up with a new way of doing things. So if getting to the Central library, finding and paying for parking, and then finding a seat for a popular event were often just too much or just not feasible, here's your chance.

One of my favorite things lately is Japanese cartoonist Yoshiharu Tsuge.

Active from the 1960s-1980s, Tsuge has had a lasting influence on Japanese culture. Among other accomplishments, he helped pioneer manga’s “I-comics” genre, creating fiction out of his personal life, domestic strife and declining mental health included. Big in Japan for decades, Tsuge is finally getting an American roll-out.

Honor Holland thinks she's about to have the best night of her life. She's decided to propose to her lover, Brogan, and finally make their relationship official. Problem is, Brogan has always considered Honor to be a 'friend with benefits' rather then a true romantic partner. And to add serious insult to injury, after crying on her best friend's shoulder, Honor finds out that that same best friend is who Brogan plans to marry. Honor is not only devastated, she's also a little desperate. She's 35 years old and truly wants a family.

Recently someone asked me for recommendations for "intelligent" mysteries. Her description for these was "a combination of a dense, resonant setting with character and plot development that grab you but that are new and thought provoking; characters, attitudes, thoughts, insights you haven't read before but which strike a chord and reveal something about the world." That description helped me to help her find some books, but it also fits a science fiction title I read. Ancillary Justice is very well-written and complex.

What are seven young ladies to do when the headmistress and her brother abruptly falls over dead during dinner? They don't want to go back to their homes and there may be a killer amongst them. The solution: bury the corpses in the garden and dress up one of the students as their headmistress. The mystery thickens as the young ladies, each with her own unique characteristic, tries to keep up this farce and deal with meddling neighbors, a lovestruck admiral, long-lost relatives, and inquisitive constables.

In 1917 fourteen-year-old Jessie Carr disappeared from her Pacific Northwest home near Portland. She's the heir to the vast Carr fortune and if she is not found before her twenty-first birthday, now only months away, the fortune will be dispersed to other relatives. Now her uncle, Oliver Beckett, thinks he's found Jessie when he sees her performing on a vaudeville stage. The problem is the young woman insists her name is Leah and though she is the spitting image of Jessie, Oliver soon realizes his error. Though she is not Jessie, Oliver has a back-up plan.

It's a bit of misnomer to call Kwana Jackson’s newest novel, Real Men Knit a romance. It’s being billed as such by its publisher, but this is really more the story of a family with strong elements of romance intertwined. And unlike many other romances, this one begins with a tragedy: Mama Joy Strong, a foster-turned-adoptive mother to four boys and the proprietor of Harlem’s Strong Knits knitting store, has suddenly died. Her boys, now all grown and more or less launched into life with varying degrees of success, are left stunned.

At the beginning of every month LINKcat publishes the Don't Miss Lists of new books and materials that have been added to the catalog. And those lists are super fun to browse and give me books to add to my 'to be read' lists. But what's not fun is realizing as you're perusing is how long you might have to wait for an item to come in for you just when you want something new to read. So here's a tip.

I don’t often re-visit the children’s books I’ve read, but Echo Mountain is worth taking a second dip. In 1930’s post-depression era Maine Ellie is the middle child of a white family displaced by the depression that moved to the mountains to start fresh. Ellie’s father has been in a coma after an accident for which Ellie has been silently (and mistakenly) blamed by her elder sister and her mother. The family has been in survival mode ever since, with both Ellie’s mother and older sister fervently wishing to return to the town they left.

If the current state of politics in the world is stressing you out, then have I got the book for you. Not only is the politician in this book hard-working and honorable (though certainly not perfect), but there is also deep discussion of cakes and pies and pastries and pizza and tacos! I'm getting hungry just writing about it.

What is the road to hell paved with? Such a Fun Age is like that. Over and over again.

Emira is 25 years old and about to age out of coverage from her parents health insurance. Her B.A. in English from Temple University in Philadelphia holds zero interest for her and her college friends are moving on to jobs with 401(k) plans, dental coverage and larger apartments with adult furniture. Emira works two part-time jobs that are okay but she's kind of lost and doesn't know what to do with her life.

I've been super motivated this summer to read political memoirs and manifestos, starting with Congresswoman Ilhan Omar's life story, This is What America Looks Like.  

During the last few months while we've been social distancing and keeping close to home there have been times when I just want something new to read right now. And at those times I turn to the wonderful Lucky Day section of Wisconsin's Overdrive collection. On any given day when you click into the collection you'll see a lot of familiar authors like James Patterson and Jodi Picoult and Lee Child, to name a few.

I absolutely love Maira Kalman’s artwork. Colorful and sweet with an endearing naivete, her work is like a cotton-candy version of a better life but with melancholic undertones. I love it and I want to live in it. So when I heard Kalman had illustrated one of my favorite books, Gertrude Stein’s The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, I was thrilled. This is the crossover event of 2020 as far as I’m concerned.