Back to top

MADreads

Book reviews by library staff and guest contributors

A walk down the psycho path

Cover of Lying in Wait
A review of Lying in Wait by Liz Nugent

There are people who don't recognize good and bad. They appear normal, even charming, but lack conscience and empathy. They see others as objects to use for their own benefit. They are called psychopaths. They are out there, wandering among us, and there's nothing we can do about it.

Liz Nugent's Lying in Wait is about just such a person. The path to who this person is and what they are willing to do leads the reader on a terrifying maze of twists and turns of shock and second-guessing, and in my case, a little shrieking.

Aug 13, 2018

Awwwkward...

Cover of The Proposal
A review of The Proposal by Jasmine Guillory

In Guillory's second contemporary romance the hero's best friend from book one (The Wedding Date) gets his chance to find love - even if he's convinced that he doesn't have the time or space in his life for it. 

Aug 9, 2018

It's time

Cover of Dear Madam President: An O
A review of Dear Madam President: An Open Letter to the Women Who Will Run the World by Jennifer Palmieri

Not only is this an open letter to the women who will run the world one day, it's also a first-hand account of what it was like to be a part of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign and how future candidates (and all of us) can learn from the way a woman candidate was treated and how upcoming elections will be different.

Aug 6, 2018

Death and antiquities

Cover of Scandal Above Stairs
A review of Scandal Above Stairs by Jennifer Ashley

Resourceful cook Kat Holloway has a new mystery to solve in the second of this historical mystery series. Though Kat is still the cook for Lord Rankin's household in Victorian London, but the people she's cooking for have changed a bit (after the events of Death Below Stairs). Lord Rankin has departed for the country and Lady Cynthia, though nominally chaperoned by an aunt and uncle, is left mostly to her own devices.

Aug 3, 2018

Sex and the history

Cover of Sex and the City and Us: H
A review of Sex and the City and Us: How Four Single Women Changed the Way We Think, Live, and Love by Jennifer Armstrong

I’m a total Carrie.

How about you?

If you’re fan enough to get my meaning, especially if you dig behind-the-scenes showbiz nonfiction, you will probably love entertainment journalist Jennifer Keishin Armstrong’s fresh look at the enduring zeitgeistiness of HBO’s landmark sitcom Sex and the City.   

Jul 31, 2018

A suggested arrangement

Cover of When Dimple Met Rishi
A review of When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon
When Dimple Met Rishi was a fantastic book. It was very funny and will easily sweep you away into the lives of Dimple and Rishi. Both characters are amazing and the book shows their emotions really well. The book also includes a lot of culture, which helps to build the plot in a really nice way. The way that they build the romance is wonderful as it shows the progression of their feelings and how they change. This is a book I would definitely recommend.
 
Review by Victoria Lenius
Jul 26, 2018

Weird and wonderful and somewhat sinister

Cover of The Merry Spinster: Tales
A review of The Merry Spinster: Tales of Everyday Horror by Daniel Mallory Ortberg

I picked this book up thinking it was a collection of darkly mischievous stories based on fairy tales. Perfect! That is just my cup of tea! But there's more to it than that. The Merry Spinster is a collection of stories representing classic children's literature, Grimms' Fairy Tales, Scottish folklore, the Book of Genesis, and more. That's a lot to take on!

Jul 24, 2018

In a perfect world...?

Cover of Scythe
A review of Scythe by Neal Shusterman

This book is an interesting view on immortality and complete harmony. Centuries into the future, anything that brought despair has been eliminated - government, war, illness, famine, etc. This leaves life almost limitless. The only people who can kill are in the Scythe Legion. Offending a Scythe leads to certain death. However, the main character, Citra, is taken to be an apprentice Scythe. This novel creates a very realistic world, if the world was a perfect, idealistic, utopia.

Jul 20, 2018

Pages

Subscribe to MADreads