reviews

A passion for mischief... Author:  Lyanda Lynn Haupt So Mozart had a pet bird.  It’s not a topic that sounds particularly captivating.  But in the hands of Seattle-based “ecophilosopher”, bird enthusiast and award-winning author Lyanda Lynn Haupt, the story of the 18th century’s greatest composer and an unassuming starling comes to life in ways that I didn’t expect.  Mozart’s Starling delivers a remarkable look at music, birds and everything in between. A common starling, planning shenanigans. Before Haupt can tackle the topic, however, she has to go all in and find a pet starling of her own.  As [...]

Magic Beans, Masquerades, and Murders Author: Cleo Coyle Central Park is abuzz with activity as New York’s first Storybook Kingdom festival thrills children and brings magic themed macchiatos to the tired adults. There are fantastical characters – knights and princes and princesses – everywhere, regaling children with classical stories from all over the world. Clare and her entourage (minus Tuck who is traveling with his contingent of actors), with their still fairly new coffee truck, are decked out in Jack the Bean Stalk ensembles, handing sweets to the children and dishing out coffees to an endless array of fairy-tale actors [...]

Bad Nose Jobs and Barracudas Author: Carl Hiaasen Earlier last year, I stretched out on the beach for a much-needed de-stressing vacation and grabbed the nearest Carl Hiaasen, ready to return to his wacky world of corrupt Floridians, con-artists, gangsters galore, and slap-stick murder. In Skin Tight, ex-cop/investigator Mick Stranahan has hung up his Glock to retire to Stiltsville, out in the ocean, where he can spend his days blissfully alone, caring for a giant Barracuda and fishing. This also means being far away from his continual spree of bad marriages (five in and counting) and away from his not so [...]