Month: March 2018

THE SECRET OF THE LADY'S MAID

THE SECRET OF THE LADY'S MAID

Rosalind Thorne makes her way in a male-dominated society by helping the ladies of London’s haut ton resolve all sorts of domestic dilemmas. Most recently, Marianna Levitton has sought Rosalind’s help finding her niece, Cate, who disappeared from her house in Bath after a sojourn there. Marianna doesn’t know that Cate’s been living upstairs at the house Rosalind shares with writer Alice Littlefield ever since her niece was brought there, obviously sick, by Amelia McGowan, their housemaid. The presence of Cate, Amelia’s onetime paramour, upsets the deepening relationship between Amelia and Alice and puts Rosalind in a precarious position with Marianna and Beatrice, Cate’s mother. While Rosalind tries to sort out the Levittons’ domestic affairs, Bow Street runner Adam Harkness hopes to make her an offer of marriage by earning the reward offered for the capture of the fugitive George Edwards, a key figure in the Cato Street uprising. In between the two quests stand Jack Beachamp and Francesca Finch, a pair of miscreants who see fit to meddle in both family conflicts and matters …

THREE SIXES AND A FORKED TONGUE OR COLD MEDICINE AND A LIAR

THREE SIXES AND A FORKED TONGUE OR COLD MEDICINE AND A LIAR

It’s 1970 in Clockmaker, West Virginia, a small coal-mining town, and teenagers Joseph Smith and Priscilla Carpenter feel trapped. Joseph will one day escape to follow the Grateful Dead, but Priscilla has no such out. She lives in constant fear of her abusive father, Everett. Life improves when Priscilla finds a book about witchcraft, but the dark arts aren’t easy to master. She must work with disgusting ingredients, and she must also learn discipline. To become a real witch, she patiently climbs the ladder, like a “kung fu master.” But her sacrifices will be worth it if she can, for example, make urine rain on those who deserve it. Of course, satisfying petty grievances is merely the beginning; when it seems Priscilla’s ready to set aside her witch’s cauldron, there’s much more to come. An older Priscilla revisits her powers to address a health issue and, in so doing, draws unholy attention to herself. Enter the devil himself. Toothman’s novel ably builds the inner life of his lead (as with Priscilla’s taste in literature) and …

ON THE PLUS SIDE | Kirkus Reviews

ON THE PLUS SIDE | Kirkus Reviews

by James McBride ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 8, 2023 If it’s possible for America to have a poet laureate, why can’t James McBride be its storyteller-in-chief? Likes 13 Our Verdict GET IT Kirkus Reviews’Best Books Of 2023 Kirkus Prizewinner New York Times Bestseller McBride follows up his hit novel Deacon King Kong (2020) with another boisterous hymn to community, mercy, and karmic justice. It’s June 1972, and the Pennsylvania State Police have some questions concerning a skeleton found at the bottom of an old well in the ramshackle Chicken Hill section of Pottstown that’s been marked for redevelopment. But Hurricane Agnes intervenes by washing away the skeleton and all other physical evidence of a series of extraordinary events that began more than 40 years earlier, when Jewish and African American citizens shared lives, hopes, and heartbreak in that same neighborhood. At the literal and figurative heart of these events is Chona Ludlow, the forbearing, compassionate Jewish proprietor of the novel’s eponymous grocery store, whose instinctive kindness and fairness toward the Black families of Chicken Hill …

OF PAINT AND PANCAKES | Kirkus Reviews

OF PAINT AND PANCAKES | Kirkus Reviews

by James McBride ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 8, 2023 If it’s possible for America to have a poet laureate, why can’t James McBride be its storyteller-in-chief? Likes 13 Our Verdict GET IT Kirkus Reviews’ Best Books Of 2023 Kirkus Prize winner New York Times Bestseller McBride follows up his hit novel Deacon King Kong (2020) with another boisterous hymn to community, mercy, and karmic justice. It’s June 1972, and the Pennsylvania State Police have some questions concerning a skeleton found at the bottom of an old well in the ramshackle Chicken Hill section of Pottstown that’s been marked for redevelopment. But Hurricane Agnes intervenes by washing away the skeleton and all other physical evidence of a series of extraordinary events that began more than 40 years earlier, when Jewish and African American citizens shared lives, hopes, and heartbreak in that same neighborhood. At the literal and figurative heart of these events is Chona Ludlow, the forbearing, compassionate Jewish proprietor of the novel’s eponymous grocery store, whose instinctive kindness and fairness toward the Black families of …

YOUR VOICE, YOUR VOTE | Kirkus Reviews

YOUR VOICE, YOUR VOTE | Kirkus Reviews

by Matthew McConaughey illustrated by Renée Kurilla ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 12, 2023 Charming and thought-provoking proof that we all contain multitudes. Oscar winner McConaughey offers intriguing life observations. The series of pithy, wry comments, each starting with the phrase “Just because,” makes clear that each of us is a mass of contradictions: “Just because we’re friends, / doesn’t mean you can’t burn me. / Just because I’m stubborn, / doesn’t mean that you can’t turn me.” Witty, digitally rendered vignettes portray youngsters diverse in terms of race and ability (occasionally with pets looking on) dealing with everything from friendship drama to a nerve-wracking footrace. “Just because I’m dirty, / doesn’t mean I can’t get clean” is paired with an image of a youngster taking a bath while another character (possibly an older sibling) sits nearby, smiling. “Just because you’re nice, / doesn’t mean you can’t get mean” depicts the older one berating the younger one for tracking mud into the house. The artwork effectively brings to life the succinct, rhyming text and will help …

REALITY CHECK | Kirkus Reviews

REALITY CHECK | Kirkus Reviews

by Britney Spears ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 24, 2023 Spears’ vulnerability shines through as she describes her painful journey from vulnerable girl to empowered woman. A heartfelt memoir from the pop superstar. Spears grew up with an alcoholic father, an exacting mother, and a fear of disappointing them both. She also displayed a natural talent for singing and dancing and a strong work ethic. Spears is grateful for the adult professionals who helped her get her start, but the same can’t be said of her peers. When she met Justin Timberlake, also a Mouseketeer on the Disney Channel’s updated Mickey Mouse Club, the two formed an instant bond. Spears describes her teenage feelings for Timberlake as “so in love with him it was pathetic,” and she’s clearly angry about the rumors and breakup that followed. This tumultuous period haunted her for years. Out of many candidates for villains of the book, Timberlake included, perhaps the worst are the careless journalists of the late 1990s and early 2000s, who indulged Timberlake while vilifying Spears. The cycle …

TO DOGS, WITH LOVE | Kirkus Reviews

TO DOGS, WITH LOVE | Kirkus Reviews

by Erin Guendelsberger ; illustrated by Elizaveta Tretyakova ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2020 Sadly, the storytelling runs aground. A little red sleigh has big Christmas dreams. Although the detailed, full-color art doesn’t anthropomorphize the protagonist (which readers will likely identify as a sled and not a sleigh), a close third-person text affords the object thoughts and feelings while assigning feminine pronouns. “She longed to become Santa’s big red sleigh,” reads an early line establishing the sleigh’s motivation to leave her Christmas-shop home for the North Pole. Other toys discourage her, but she perseveres despite creeping self-doubt. A train and truck help the sleigh along, and when she wishes she were big, fast, and powerful like them, they offer encouragement and counsel patience. When a storm descends after the sleigh strikes out on her own, an unnamed girl playing in the snow brings her to a group of children who all take turns riding the sleigh down a hill. When the girl brings her home, the sleigh is crestfallen she didn’t reach the North Pole. …

DEADLIEST ANIMALS ON THE PLANET

DEADLIEST ANIMALS ON THE PLANET

From toothy great white sharks to bad-tempered koalas, Szymanski introduces dozens of different animals through striking, close-up color photographs. The images usually cover a full page and sometimes three-quarters of a double-page spread. Each animal gets a paragraph of text describing its offensive or defensive weapons. There’s no obvious organization, but occasionally a spread will feature a group with common characteristics such as large appetites, powerful bites, or dangerous body parts. Some of these animals are deadly to humans—toxic to eat or capable of inflicting a mortal wound—but many would more accurately be labeled dangerous. Readers might not expect to encounter some of the creatures, like dragonflies and pelicans, both of which have prodigious appetites, and prey with highly developed defenses that can make a stink, like tamanduas and skunks, or fulmars, a type of seabird with oily vomit. There are carnivores and vegetarians; land, sea, and sky dwellers; and familiar and unfamiliar creatures from all over the world. This work is a browser’s delight, with a helpful index that includes animal groups (birds, the …

BRIGHTEST LIGHT OF SUNSHINE | Kirkus Reviews

BRIGHTEST LIGHT OF SUNSHINE | Kirkus Reviews

by Colleen Hoover ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 2, 2016 Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of… Likes 332 Our Verdict GET IT New York Times Bestseller Hoover’s (November 9, 2015, etc.) latest tackles the difficult subject of domestic violence with romantic tenderness and emotional heft. At first glance, the couple is edgy but cute: Lily Bloom runs a flower shop for people who hate flowers; Ryle Kincaid is a surgeon who says he never wants to get married or have kids. They meet on a rooftop in Boston on the night Ryle loses a patient and Lily attends her abusive father’s funeral. The provocative opening takes a dark turn when Lily receives a warning about Ryle’s intentions from his sister, who becomes Lily’s employee and close friend. Lily swears she’ll never end up in another abusive home, but when Ryle starts to show all the same warning signs that her mother ignored, Lily learns just how hard it is to say goodbye. When Ryle …

COCONUT DROP DEAD | Kirkus Reviews

COCONUT DROP DEAD | Kirkus Reviews

by Michael Connelly ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 7, 2023 The most richly accomplished of the brothers’ pairings to date—and given Connelly’s high standards, that’s saying a lot. Harry Bosch and the Lincoln Lawyer team up to exonerate a woman who’s already served five years for killing her ex-husband. The evidence against Lucinda Sanz was so overwhelming that she followed the advice of Frank Silver, the B-grade attorney who’d elbowed his way onto her defense, and pleaded no contest to manslaughter to avoid a life sentence for shooting Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Roberto Sanz in the back as he stalked out of her yard after their latest argument. But now that her son, Eric, is 13, old enough to get recruited by local gangs, she wants to be out of stir and at his side. So she writes to Mickey Haller, who asks his half-brother for help. After all his years working for the LAPD, Bosch is adamant about not working for a criminal defendant, even though Haller’s already taken him on as an associate …