Naomi Cottle finds lost children. She finds abducted children. She finds trapped children. Though only in her late 20s, Naomi is exceptionally good at her job. Hired by desperate parents who refuse to give up hope and working with stymied police departments, she seems to have a special instinct for following the trail of an […]
This moving novel takes us to post-World War II England where Jaunsz and Silvana Nowak and their 6-year old son Aurek are finally reunited after spending the war years apart. After Poland was conquered by the Germans, their lives became ones of desperate survival. Silvana’s story, especially, is one of unspeakable experiences and hardships for […]
History. mystery, art, fun, murder, food, really rich people and the people who want to sell things to them. A missing painting by Watteau named The Improbability of Love is found, put up for auction, stolen. Annie, a young woman in London suffering from a broken heart, comes across a dirty old painting in a […]
Have you read Raymie Nightingale by Kate DiCamillo? This is the devastatingly beautiful sequel. You can read it without having read the previous book, but not matter what, read it. It is vintage Kate DiCamillo — loopy, sweet, painful, sorrowful and lovely. One of the best books I read this year. I will recommend it […]
Hadia is the good girl, first-born and wanting to please her father, aiming for medical school to make him happy. Plain-spoken Huda, the middle child, adores her older sister and does not make waves. Amar, the son, questions everything. These first generation Pakistani-American children struggle to find peace and their place within the traditions of […]
Both specific and vague, this chilling modern fairy tale revolves around a cursed family living in an old mansion next to a mysterious wood. Over the centuries, several women in the family have entered the forest and disappeared. Maisie is the last in the line, having unintentionally killed her mother before her birth, gestating in […]
1908 Shanghai As the last Chinese dynasty collapses, a young mixed race girl awaits the return of her mother, hiding in the Western Residence of the house on Dragon Springs Road. Using Chinese magical realism and gritty historical detail, author Janie Chang tells the coming of age story of young Jialing, from that time awaiting […]
“Ester, do not rue your lack of freedom.” Ester, however, burns to be free, to reason freely, to write. Helen, approaching forced retirement from her English university History Department, discovers a cache of 350 year old letters hidden under the stair of a 17th century house. In deciphering them, she is thrilled to realize that […]
Robert is 9.8 years old. He’s just learned decimals in school but along with his family must flee Hungary from the pressing Russians. He and his adored older brother Attila, 13.5 and much more sophisticated than his younger brother, head by train to Paris with their parents, grandmother and one sack each. During the journey, […]
This short novel is deceptively simple. It tells the story of a middle aged Japanese woman, Keiko Furukura, who has been working part-time in a convenience store for the past 18 years. For Keiko the store and her co-workers function as a manual on how to pass as normal, something she struggles with after some […]
