reviews

The science of stings and slime... Author:  Juli Berwald Charisma.  Some animals have it in abundance, from honey bees to polar bears to dolphins.  If you want to write a science book that thrills, a charismatic topic is always a wise choice.  That’s why you don’t come across a lot of books about jellyfish.  From their sliminess and nasty stings to the fact that they don’t even have a face (or a brain), it’s hard to love a jellyfish.  It was this rather unfair reality that motivated science writer Juli Berwald to write about her favorite animal, the lowly jellyfish.  [...]

Mystery, Childhood Trauma, and the Darkness of Families Author: Tana French In the Woods begins with an atmospheric prelude, both oddly sunny and sinister, a kaleidoscopic image of children before blood, disaster, a sole survivor with blood-filled shoes left weeping, and unsolved mystery. Twenty odd years later, Adam Ryan (renamed Rob), is trying to piece together what really happened that day in the woods and who took, and presumably killed, his never-to-be-seen again childhood friends. Yet, he swears that this memory of the calm before the storm isn’t responsible for his current career in the Dublin Murder Squad; that the [...]

Blame it on the Alcohol Author: Catie Dolan-Leach In a twisting scavenger hunt of a story, Dead Letters takes two formerly close twins, separated by lust and betrayal, and throws them together in the aftermath of a suspected murder. Ava Antipova, the twin to be born second, has long been in her sister’s shadow. Ava’s the good twin. The one who will grow up to run the family vineyard. The one who is practical and reliable. The responsible person in the midst of her astoundingly dysfunctional family. The twin who stays grounded while her firstborn sister, the inimitable Zelda, drugs [...]