MADreads Reviews

Looking for a way to help your child find their own quiet place in a busy, noisy, clambering world? Charlotte and the Quiet Place by Deborah Sosin takes a gentle look at how to find quiet and peacefulness inside your own self. Charlotte, the young protagonist in the story, lives in a noisy house, a noisy neighborhood, and a noisy school. She has trouble finding one spot that’s quiet and peaceful. Then, one day while she’s walking her dog, she finds a place in nature – that’s quieter than quiet.

Prince was working on THE rock memoir of all time with journalist Dan Piepenbring when he unexpectedly died in April of 2016. Random House held the rights to the book but there wasn't enough content to complete it at that time. After a number of years and change in direction, the book was finally published under the prestigious Spiegel and Grau imprint this past October. The book is a stunning tribute but not the rock memoir it could have been.

This book has been checked out to me since winter and I kept waiting to read it until my brain was ready to absorb all its Michael Eric Dyson-ness. I realized that day might never arrive and decided to go for it. Reading something academic stretched my brain to its limits but this book was the perfect thing to read right now.

My Dark Vanessa is a debut novel that got a lot of initial buzz when it was first published and is now getting renewed interest from readers on social media. It absolutely deserves every bit of that. It's an incredible, disturbing, and timely story - one that has stuck with me long after I read the last page.

In 2017 a painting, the Salvator Mundi, was sold at auction for $450 million. The question remains, was it painted by Leonardo da Vinci?

I'm behind in my movie watching so I only recently watched the adaptation of this excellent novel. And while the movie was beautifully done, it made me realize just how much the novel had impacted me.

This is the thirtieth book in the Agatha Raisin series and I was hoping and praying that M.C.

I've been hearing the buzz about this debut romance for a while and though I was skeptical it could live up to the hype (as I would be with any hyped piece), my skepticism proved to be unfounded. Funny and sparkly and complicated and lovely are all adjectives that fit.

The American Library Association (ALA) announced the top books, video and audio books for children and young adults, including the Caldecott, Coretta Scott King, Newbery and Printz awards at its Midwinter Meeting and Exhibits in Philadelphia today.

Winner of the 2017 Tony Hillerman Prize, this debut mystery lives up to the buzz. Potenza's gritty police procedural is set in the American Southwest and gives the reader an interesting detective and a multi-threaded story involving drugs, gambling, missing people, undercover FBI agents, and more. It's readable and also deeply imbedded in Native American culture. Looking forward to more by this author.

It's the time of year for "best lists" and it can't come at a better time for holiday gift ideas for the readers in your life. First up I'll mention the "best" list I contribute to.

I'll tell you what it was like: there were tons of phone calls. On a landline. Everything took forever. If you made plans with a friend to meet up and one of you went to the wrong location, there was no way to connect with them. You both went back home and that was the end of it. It's not that life was easier or harder but communication and work were different. Gary Janetti's book captures this time with perfection and hilarity.

Some of the things that I enjoy most about Gary:

A dense but often lyrical book of many levels. In one sense it is one man’s retracing his life’s journeys to remote and far flung points on earth. In another, it is a contemplation of human kinds' significance and insignificance in the history of our planet, and the concern that our hubris dooms not only our species but earth itself. Does our ability to create sublime beauty such as the music of Beethoven or the art of Manet supplant our equally ugly creations such as the many prisons built over the ages and the despicable ways we treat our own kind?

Cruel Acts is the 8th in the Maeve Kerrigan series of police procedurals set in London. As you can guess, as the series is named Maeve Kerrigan, she's the Detective protagonist. Her partner is Josh Derwent and together they've worked out an effective partnership. Though she is good with people and he is decidedly not, both are intelligent and driven and extremely good at their job, which is why they've been tasked with a delicate job. A convicted killer, Leo Stone, is about to win his appeal based on jury misconduct. Leo was convicted of killing Sara Grey and suspected of killing another.

Did you know the Wisconsin Book Festival goes on all year round (and not just on one weekend in October)? If not, take heed. The Fest hosts author events throughout the year and the next one is tomorrow night. The author is Adam Minter who'll be talking about his newest book, Secondhand: Travels in the New Global Garage Sale.

I love to play pretend so I loved spending a day with Maggie, the heroine of Princess Super Kitty. Maggie does some of the same everyday things I do (eating lunch, lifting heavy things, helping other people) but she has so much fun doing them, because she uses her imagination the whole time. If you are ready to take your day (or even just your princess play) to the next level, reach for Princess Super Kitty.

Lillian Breaker is at loose ends. She's just turned 28 years old, works at the local Save-a-Lot and is still living in her mother's house (in the attic no less). To say that she's going nowhere would be an understatement. Until she receives the latest letter from her highschool friend Madison Roberts. Madison has always been everything Lillian is not, pretty, confident, wealthy and now married to the man, Senator Jasper Roberts, slated to be the next US Secretary of State. But Madison has a little problem. One that she would like Lillian to solve.

Jacqueline Woodson's third adult novel explores the role of history and community in shaping the lives of family. It is a stunner and heartbreaker, starting with the title, Red at the Bone. Imagine the point at which the human body is at its most raw and hurt state. That's what red at the bone is described as by one of the main characters, Iris, like there is something inside of her undone and bleeding.

• The Clockmaker  by Jane A Adams [9/3]
  character: Scotland Yard Det. Chief Insp. Henry Johnstone
  setting: 1929 London