reviews

A Poignant Story About Starting Again Author: Jamie Beck Annie Sullivan did everything she was supposed to do, yet her husband left her for a younger woman. She doesn’t know how to step outside of the role of wife and mother now – or what happened to cause her to fail at both. She gave up her burgeoning career as an artist when she married her college boyfriend and had her first and only child, Katy. She did what she thought was right, but with her husband already ensconced with his fiancé – and the divorce isn’t even final yet – [...]

Piranesi: A Book For the Dreamers Author: Susanna Clarke It does not matter that you do not understand the reason. You are the Beloved Child of the House. Be comforted. Piranesi lives outside of time in a ruined house where the sea roars through the lower levels and the dangerous tides drown galleries and creep up stairs. In this house there are few windows but infinite statues and hall after hall to explore. Some halls are crusted in barnacles while others are tumbled ruins with gaping holes leading to the drowned levels where the fish swim and the beautiful flowering [...]

Image from the 1941 edition, which captures the critical meeting between Nancy and Rai. Nancy and the Mystical Author: Carolyn Keene (This review is for the original 1930s version). When a giant snake gives Nancy the squeeze at a train station, a dangerous new adventure begins. This time the mystery goes all the way back to India and involves a shifty circus, a malicious animal handler named Rai, his abused boy assistant (Coya), and a woman named Miss Alison who owns an eerily empty circus house and claims to see visions. Tying everything together is a rare ivory charm [...]