MADreads Reviews

Raven Leilani's Luster wins The Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize for best debut novel.

Nigerian-Canadian immigrant Azere has known since she was a child that she would marry a Nigerian man. This is something she promised her dying father when she was twelve years old after her family had newly arrived in Canada. This promise and her mother's ongoing fear that their Nigerian culture will be lost has been a driving force in Azere's entire life. Though she is now a successful copy writer in an advertising firm and lives an independent, adult life in every other way, she continues to go on dates with the men her mother picks.

Arden Maynor was six years old when she wandered away from home in the middle of the night. A terrible storm with flooding rain swept her away without a trace resulting in a massive community search. Days later she was found hanging onto a storm drain grate from inside an old mining tunnel and after a harrowing ordeal, finally rescued. She was horribly injured, dehydrated and unable to recall how she got there.

Are you looking for something new to read? The 2020 National Book Awards longlist has a wide variety to choose from. The categories include: Nonfiction, Fiction.

Milla Vane takes the reader deeper into the realms she has created with her second in her Gathering of Dragons fantasy/romance series and I couldn't be more thrilled. This is both a tightly written, imaginatively drawn fantasy novel and a deeply angsty romance between two extremely honorable people. And the cover isn't bad either.***

The 1960s was an especially rife period for political assassinations, but for years, one of the most famous deaths of the decade—the killing of United Nations General Secretary Dag Hammarskjold—was officially an accident. The downing of the general secretary’s plane in the skies of Rhodesia (modern Zambia) in the early hours of September 18, 1961, has long been cast in doubt, almost from the moment the burnt out remains of the plane and its fifteen crash victims were discovered in the sweltering jungle (the sole survivor would later die in hospital after making some intriguing comments).

This is a tribute to one of society's most enduring yet under-recognized relationships: female best friends. Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman met at a Gossip Girl viewing party when they were in their mid-twenties and struggling to start their careers. They've seen each other through heartaches and heartbreaks, job triumphs and disasters, health scares and holidays. More than a decade later, these are their stories of real-life and recognizable female friendship. I saw myself in their stories and if you've been nurturing your own big friendships, you will, too.  

Is there any guilty pleasure quite as satisfying as royal watching? We all love to tune into the elaborate weddings, analyze sartorial choices and coo when a royal baby arrives on the scene. But as basically every generation of royalty throughout history has shown, the happy ever after surface doesn’t always match what’s happening behind palace walls, and occasionally that unhappiness breaks into the public.

The Wisconsin Book Festival’s fall celebration kicks off with Emma Straub’s discussion of her new book, All Adults Here at 4 pm tomorrow.

Apprentice witch Nova Huang is spending a “gap year” working at the family café and bookshop when she learns that a white wolf has been spotted in the woods. It turns out that Nova's long lost childhood friend Tam Lang is the white wolf. Tam is glad to be back in town but they're hiding something more than their werewolf status. Tam is unsure of and insecure about their werewolf magic and enlists Nova and her grandmothers to find their power. The merging of magic is thrilling and inspirational and the reader will be rooting for Tam and Nova to succeed.

I've been delving into Overdrive for titles that are a little older (so they don't have a long wait list) and re-discovered Amanda Kyle Williams and her Keye Street series. And a happy discovery it was! Keye is an investigator/consultant running her own office in Atlanta. She does a little bit of everything; including background checks, catching bail jumpers, and because of her former job as an FBI profiler, sometimes consulting with local police when a serial killer may be working. The most recent request comes from the small town of Whisper, Georgia.

Soap opera actress Jasmine Lin Rodriguez has landed a starring role alongside telenovela star Ashton Suarez in a bilingual Netflix-like series called Carmen in Charge. The show is important to Jasmine and Ashton for different reasons and they both desperately want it to be a success. For Jasmine, this is her first starring role. For Ashton, this is his chance to show that he's leading man material in a different entertainment market.

Alyssa Cole has become an auto-read for me since I discovered her Reluctant Royals series and this start to a new, tangential series, Runaway Royals, keeps the streak going. Though How to Catch a Queen isn't my very favorite of her books (A Princess in Theory), it has two great things going for it.

Laura Lee Guhrke continues her American Heiress in London series with another delightful love story, How to Lose a Duke in Ten Days. This story of an arranged marriage that turns into a true love match follows When the Marquess Met His Match.

My reading these past few months has gone in fits and starts as life and world events have had a major impact on just what can grab and hold my attention. And when nothing can hold my attention for longer stretches of time, I turn to writing and podcasts about books rather than to the books themselves. If you're like me, then I offer some options for your shorter reading attention needs.

Self Care, a new novel by Leigh Stein, is a breezy beach read with satirical bite.

Cat would like to read a simple story about a little girl who wears a redhood and takes a basket of goodies to her grandmother’s house. At least that’s what Cat is trying to do. Dog has other ideas. And questions. Lots of questions. What’s the little girl’s superhero power? After all she is wearing a cape. Does she hypnotize bad guys? Why doesn’t the wolf eat little red riding hood in the woods? Does little red have a Kindness Ray? Are the eggs in the basket exploding eggs? In fact Dog is driving Cat to distraction.

The world has gone to hell. The environment has collapsed, as has the economy. World-wide, all governments have fallen to the martial law of the Reestablishment, which is run by a single Supreme Commander. The globe is divided into numbered sectors, each with a ruthless leader, all resources are seized, all citizens mercilessly catalogued and controlled.

Overdrive has a new Big Library Read title, The Darwin Affair by Tim Mason, and you can find a copy to borrow August 3-17th. The Darwin Affair is an historical mystery set in 1860 London with a mystery that has assassination attempts, murder, and a conspiracy centered on the publication of Charles Darwin's controversial On the Origin of the Species. Sounds like the perfect escape for these the doldrums of our summer.