Jump to navigation Jump to main content
Posts by Jane J
From the award-winning author of Station Eleven, an exhilarating novel set at the glittering intersection of two seemingly disparate events–a massive Ponzi scheme collapse and the mysterious disappearance of a woman from a ship at sea. Emily St.
Wisconsin's Digital Library just got bigger. There are now 300 magazine titles that have been added for you to check out from home. They range from popular and venerable (Us Weekly, The New Yorker, National Geographic, Cooks Illustrated) to the obscure (Cricket Skills and Secrets). The magazines include current issues and back issues.
In Eldridge's new series the main character is a Chinese-Norwegian ninja-trained woman who takes on the Ukranian mob in Los Angeles. Talk about cross-cultural! This is it. It's also action-packed and fast-paced and the perfect book to dive into if you're hunkered down during this polar vortex.
Libertie Sampson is a free-born Black girl coming of age in 1860s Brooklyn. She is the daughter of the only Black woman doctor in the region and as such feels incredible pressure from her mother to follow in her footsteps. She's always known that her mother wants her to go to college and study medicine so that they can one day open a practice together. And to a point Libertie is willing to go along - mostly because this is all that she has ever imagined.
Sera Fleece is recently divorced, out of a job and at extreme loose ends. Her only emotional outlet is a true crime podcast hosted by Rachel Bard. Rachel's stories of unsolved crimes of the missing keep Sera company as she struggles with depression and loneliness. When Rachel suddenly stops posting new episodes and there are no new updates on her social media, Sera is thrown for a loop. The only thing she can think to do is find out what has happened to Rachel, who may have disappeared just like the subjects of the podcast.
I'm re-upping this review as the new adaptation of All Creatures Great and Small on PBS is bringing James Herriot's books to mind. If you're watching the lovely new version and have already done your Herriot re-read but are still wanting to feel those feelings, The Call is a great companion work.
Literary Hub is a great site with much, much great book content. But my favorite thing about it, I'll admit, is its offshoot site CrimeReads.
Did you know that you can get MADreads review emailed to you weekly? Or that you can find out what new Book Club Kits have been added to the collection? Or learn what's new with the Wisconsin Book Festival? All of these, plus a whole lot of other book news, are options when you subscribe to the Library's Insider Newsletters.
Big reader of mysteries? You're covered. Someone who'd rather listen than read a print book? We've got your back.
When I read that Loretta Chase's (a favorite historical romance author) newest novel would be a take-off of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, I wasn't super-enthused. Taming is not a favorite of mine and thus I came into this novel with only middling expectations. Those expectations were exceeded in pretty much every way. This is Chase's best outing in a number of years.
Anna Tromedlov hasn't had a gig in weeks from her temp agency so she jumps at the chance for a data entry position that might last a few weeks - even though she'll have to work on site (she prefers working from home). An offer to do some field work is unexpected but makes for a nice change of pace and she is promised that it's safe. Only it's not so much and what should have been a routine press conference by her villain boss turns into a violent attack when a hero crashes the event.
