reviews

Feel the burn... Author:  Bill Streever Heat.  The monosyllabic title didn’t inspire much enthusiasm in this reader.  But much like he did in his preceding book, the best-selling and much praised Cold, Anchorage-based biologist Bill Streever has a knack for finding the fascinating in the seemingly mundane. Sand dunes in Death Valley...very hot. This time around, frequently accompanied by his wife, the author travels the world seeking out all varieties of heat, both natural and manmade.  Deserts, forest fires, fossil fuels, thermonuclear bombs and a quantum supercollider – checking in at seven trillion degrees Fahrenheit – all come [...]

Plot in Peril: Mystery Up In Smoke Author: Cleo Coyle In the ninth Coffeehouse Mystery, Roast Mortem, it’s back to Brooklyn for some simmering recipes, hot firemen, and combustible family secrets. Clare’s relationship with dashing detective Mike Quinn is going well and coffee business is steadily percolating. Old family friends are reconnecting and Madame is feeling the need for a bit of surreptitious romance when the opportunity to retrieve an antique blender formerly belonging to The Blend arises. Not one to let business go along without pleasure, Madame takes Clare for some introductions and the duo instead find themselves trapped [...]

Important Topic, Lackluster Delivery Authors: Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely Recipient of multiple awards for children's fiction and already mandatory reading in some Maryland schools, All American Boys was also chosen as the Frederick Reads title and therefore added as my book club's October selection. Responding to a world in political turmoil, the dual authored All American Boys is more famous for its conversation starting capabilities than its plot. Examining the Black Lives Matter movement from all sides, the book is divided between two teenage boys. We have Rashad, a black boy who despite his questioning and love of what [...]