reviews

Murder, Arson, and a Mysterious Diary Author: Carolyn Keene After my previous favorite two Nancy stories, in which our titian-haired sleuth goes gumshoeing Wild West style only to follow that with a farm bound, secret cult mystery, The Clue in the Diary is a more sedate Nancy adventure. She’s still in Riverside, able to reach her father, Carson Drew, easily, trucking home after a long day to her own comfortable house and the attentions of housekeeper Hannah Gruen. That’s not to say that her danger is any less. Perhaps it’s even more because in her familiarity of location she soon [...]

The Most Perfect Father Tim Story for Summer Author: Jan Karon As lively and comforting as a gentle, sunshiny spring day, the Mitford series continues with book five, A New Song. Father Tim may have retired, but his adventures (both spiritual and physical) are hardly over. It’s time to temporarily take off from their beloved Mitford, new red Mustang in tow, to a quiet town on Whitecap Island where Father Tim will do his best as an interim for his new flock. In between learning to deep sea fish, helping a new parishioner fight depression, taking in a precocious five-year [...]

Half full or half empty...? Author:  Edward O. Wilson Which parts are essential?  As humanity slowly dismantles and unravels the world’s ecosystems, bending them towards its ends, how will we know when we’ve gone too far?  Is it already too late?  In Half-Earth, acclaimed naturalist and author E.O. Wilson – still going strong at age 90 – argues that the moment of reckoning is soon upon us and that only with decisive action can we avert disastrous ecologic collapse.  It’s some truly sobering stuff. Serving as the last piece of a trilogy – preceded by The Social Conquest of Earth [...]