MADreads

Book reviews by library staff and guest contributors

The art of dostadning

Cover of The Gentle Art of Swedish
A review of The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter by Margareta Magnusson

The title of this book might put you off, but the topic is real and it is important. There is a kind of decluttering in Sweden called dostadning. Do means "death" and stadning means "cleaning." The author, Margareta Magnusson, suggests ways in which we can prepare our homes and possessions to make the most of them while we are still living and to ease the burden on others after we have died. She promotes minimalist living and choosing clothing, furniture and artifacts with care, especially as we age.

Posted by Molly W on Apr 12, 2018

Daring meets independent

Cover of Hello Stranger
A review of Hello Stranger by Lisa Kleypas

In her latest in the Ravenals series, Kleypas has loosely based the heroine on a real historical figure, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, the first (and only, for many years) female doctor in England. Kleypas' Dr. Garrett Gibson is also the lone female physician of her time and she does work in London and those are broadly the only things they have in common.

Posted by Jane J on Apr 10, 2018

Hide and Seek

Cover of Bear & Hare, Where’s Bea
A review of Bear & Hare, Where’s Bear? by Emily Gravett

The Bear & Hare books are such fun to share with young readers! Toddlers and preschoolers will enjoy the humor and charm of each one – and you will, too! To practice counting and have a first introduction to hide-and-seek, check out Bear & Hare, Where’s Bear? (Simon & Schuster, 2016). The pacing is perfect – and the illustrations are very silly. Readers get to practice counting from 1 to 10 several times as bear and hare take turns hiding. When Hare can’t find Bear at the very end, and is feeling sad, Bear appears quickly and gives his friend a much needed hug of reassurance.

Posted by Tracy on Apr 6, 2018

Finding ways to help

Cover of Wolf in the Snow
A review of Wolf in the Snow by Matthew Cordell

Winner of the coveted 2018 Randolph Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished American picture book for children, Wolf in the Snow artistically explores themes of moving beyond fear and mistrust of “the other” to a place of caring and helping. Cordell’s watercolor illustrations depict a little girl and a wolf cub who find each other in a blizzard that renders each of them lost from their families and homes.

Posted by Karen L on Apr 5, 2018

Varied leaves on the family tree

Cover of The Immortalists
A review of The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin

Author Chloe Benjamin read from her new book The Immortalists to a packed house at the first Wisconsin Book Festival event of 2018. It was a cold night but spirits were high at Cooper's Tavern as the author shared the news that her book was about to debut on The New York Times bestsellers list. Now Benjamin has been named the featured author at this year’s Book Club Café. Stay tuned for more details about that big event!

Posted by Molly W on Apr 2, 2018

April Showers!

Cover of Water is Water
A review of Water is Water by Miranda Paul

A perfect book for spring! In this non-fiction book, Wisconsin author Miranda Paul weaves a brilliant and accurate account of the water cycle through the seasons in whimsical and engaging rhyming verse. With awesome full page, water color illustrations following a family of kids jumping in a lake in the summer, splashing in puddles on their way to school in the fall, and having a snowball fight, your Wisconsin family will see themselves and their adventures reflected, while still learning all the forms water takes and all the places we encounter it around us.

Posted by Rebecca M on Mar 30, 2018

Hitting all the notes

Cover of Roomies
A review of Roomies by Christina Lauren

Marriage of convenience plots are a not-uncommon trope in the romance genre, but generally they work a bit better in historical romances (where marriage for practical purposes just feels more possible). In contemporary novels the MOC usually comes about from a couple of scenarios; either there's an inheritance at stake or someone needs to gain a green card. With Roomies, we're talking about the second scenario and it mostly works.

Posted by Jane J on Mar 29, 2018

Mixing meds and merlot

Cover of The Woman in the Window: A
A review of The Woman in the Window: A Novel by A.J. Finn

This book gave my 2018 reading log a jolt! The Woman in the Window is a psychological thriller of extreme paranoia, psychosis, medication and wine. These elements combined are dangerous for the characters in the novel and, as I was describing the book to a colleague, I felt drunken and off-balance while reading it.  

Posted by Molly W on Mar 22, 2018

Hearse attack

Cover of The Cover Story
A review of The Cover Story by Deb Richardson-Moore

Two college students are forced off a road and over an embankment by someone driving an old- fashioned hearse. One girl (Janie Rose) is killed, the other (Charlie Delaney) is seriously injured. 

Posted by Liz C on Mar 20, 2018

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