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 What a joy to read Margaret Atwood. "A Memoir of Sorts" is a great subtitle for this book. Part autobiography, part memoir, part journal, part reflection on friends and loves, part essays on a wide variety of topics this book is hard to classify but what comes through is Atwood's easy, conversational style of writing. Reading this felt like sitting in a cozy parlor and listening to Ms Atwood tell the story of her life. Each time we sit down together she tells me something different. Sometimes it picked up where we left off the last time, and sometimes it was something she was just thinking about. I first discovered Margaret Atwood's work when I picked up her short story collection, Bluebeard's Egg , when the Fawcett edition was released in 1987. I worked in a book store at the time and I still remember unboxing it, surprised that we were getting a 'new' collection of short stories. I didn't think anyone published short stories in mass market editions ...

 I was/am unfamiliar with the Black Hammer graphic novel series, but when this came available to me and I saw Jeff Lemire's name, Geoff Johns' name, and Patton Oswalt's name in the credits I thought it was worth checking out. The book appears to be a graphic novel anthology. There are eight stories collected here, each written and illustrated by a different team of creators. Sort of an Outer Limits or Twilight Zone for graphic novel creators. And like just about any anthology, there were some stories her that I really liked and some that didn't reach me at all. The first story in the collection was "Transfer Student" by Patton Oswalt, illustrated by Dean Kotz (color by Jason Wordie). I did enjoy this but it wasn't particularly original and we could pick up on the gimmick very quickly. Think Harlan Ellison's "Jeffty is Five". I enjoyed the story of the working man Cthulhu. Imagine a horrific monster working like Al Bundy. Just the concept m...

Russ Wesley has taken a new job with Intergalactic Waste Management, LLC. It looks like it will be a totally mindless, cushy job clearing space debris while riding around in a state-of-the-art salvage processing ship. And if that wasn't sweet enough, he's working with Nina Hosseinzadeh again - a friend whose company he enjoys and someone he can trust to have his back as he has hers. But when a job is too good to be true, it probably has a dark side that simply has been revealed yet. That dark side appears when Russ discovers the dead body of a friend, hidden among some space wreckage. He's determined to do right by the memory of his friend and vows to learn how she died and get get some closure for her. Waste management comes in contact with some scummy individuals and Russ and Nina's investigation brings them in contact with some of the slimiest criminals in the quadrant as well as some of the upper-crust elite. After all, everyone has garbage. I picked up this book be...

Rebecca Rosenberg's Silver Echoes is compelling historical fiction based on real people and events set in the early 20th century. We mostly follow Silver Dollar Tabor - the daughter of Horace and Baby Doe Tabor who made their fortune during the silver mine boom in Colorado and were among the country's elite. Silver hopes to use her family's fame as a springboard and take the world by storm as an entertainer, but fame would allude her, especially after the death of her father and the loss of the mines (and therefore an income). Determined to make something of herself in the entertainment world, and to get back some of the Tabor fortune, Silver takes any job that's offered, leading her into the circus, working with dangerous animals. As if life wasn't challenging enough for Silver, she struggles with a personality disorder and has even given her alter ego a name - Echo LaVode - and will introduce herself as such when she's under Echo's control. Silver/Echo tr...

 It is atypical for me to rate a mystery/thriller with five stars, and even more so to give it to a book that probably needs a trigger warning, but this was SUCH a good book. Set in the small town of North Falls, where everyone feels as though they know everyone else, two teen girls go missing on the Fourth of July some time during or just after the local fireworks display. Officer Emmy Clifton takes the disappearance especially hard, and personally, because she had turned one of the girls away at the festive event, likely making her one of the last people to see the girl before she disappeared. Evidence at the scene of one of the missing girls' bike, suggests that at least one of the girls is no longer alive. And it gets even more difficult for Emmy when, during the course of her investigation, she discovers the bodies of the two girls - not just killed, but tortured. Emmy digs deep, having made some very unpleasant discoveries about the girls and some of the people they knew, and...

It feels good to be with DI Jimmy Perez again. I am a fan of the Shetland books series and television series, even with DI Perez moving on, but there's definitely something unique and comforting about Jimmy Perez. DI Jimmy Perez has moved from Shetland to Orkney with his partner Willow Reeves who is currently pregnant with their second child and living a less hectic/more settled life. Jimmy gets a call one night, informing him that his close friend Archie Stout is missing. Jimmy heads to Westray to help search for the man but arrives to find that Archie has been murdered. Archie's body is found near an archeological site and the murder weapon, an ancient Westray Story Stone, is nearby. Jimmy is determined to find the person who hated Archie (a man everyone loved) enough to do something that is clearly premeditated. As Jimmy wonders if he can remain objective enough to work the case, given his close friendship with the murdered man, additional murders intensify the investigation...

 It is 1897 and the railroad company is trying hard to connect a rail line from the east coast to the west coast. Things are tough all over - there's been severe drought and ranches are closing up as herds are dying off. Anyone looking for a job is also struggling to find a ranch that is still hiring on. But there is one - the Callahan Ranch in the American Southwest is thriving. In addition to the usual ranch hands, Callahan also has a number of gunmen on payroll. One day an older gentleman rides in looking for work. Jackson "Jack" Swagger is calm and confident and more skilled with a gun than any of the other men currently working for the ranch. Jack spent time in the war, though doesn't speak too much of it, but his demeanor, skills, and background are appealing to Colonel Callahan, an ex-military man himself, and Jack is hired on. It doesn't take long for Jack to prove himself the most skilled and most trusted man in the outfit when, on a run into Mexico, he l...

Nan's three best friends, all of the students at the local school, have gone missing at one of the popular watering holes. It's been a year and something's been nagging at Nan, a little voice in her head telling her that someone knows something. And then one of the missing girls walks out of Saltcedar Canyon and into town. Everyone is excited and happy to have the girl return. Everyone but Nan, that is, since Nan's the one who killed her. This isn't giving anything away from the story - the book pretty much puts that description right on the book. Which means this isn't a mystery about what happened to the girls - at least not what INITIALLY happened. Instead, this is a creepy, eerie, YA about teen girls and the extraordinary lengths they might go to when dealing with jealousy and angst. Times ten. Rory Power, author of Wilder Girls , goes inside the mind of what we might, at first, think is an ordinary teen dealing with some extraordinary circumstances - losing...

In the country of Avon, Callum, the son of the recently deposed ruler, is determined to become the country's next leader. But to do so, he must kill his ailing father. Callum is an unusual aristocrat as he's got both a conscience and strong morals. He wants to do right by the country. Callum's sister knows that Callum needs support and, well, some balls. She approaches Lady Caterine - an in-demand, highly skilled courtesan at Avon's premiere sex club - and pays for Caterine (Cate) to take on Callum as her only client and to help boost his confidence. This should be easy, but Lady Caterine is Gifted (her gift: she has the ability to manipulate the emotions of anyone who experiences an orgasm in her presence) and Callum has a deep-seated distrust of the Gifted. Cate decides that her mission should not only include what she's being paid for, but to also to turn Callum's mind on what the Gifted have to offer and not to fear the Gifts. After all, he is a man of consc...

Oh, it is so nice to have another Accidental Alchemist mystery book! Zoe Faust is a very old alchemist. Very old. Like 300 years old. Though she doesn't look much older than 30. She currently lives in Oregon with Dorian Robert-Houdin - a gargoyle who was brought to 'life' by some backward alchemy. Now he is an alchemist himself, though his appearance - still a stone gargoyle - makes it difficult for him to spend any time outdoors (if he's not adorning a rooftop). Now, Zoe is in England trying to track down a rare book of backwards alchemy which might help Dorian. Surprising Zoe is Dorian, who shipped himself in a crate in order to help in the search. The book in question is one that Zoe once had in her possession, centuries ago. Now, the book is devolving and is possibly itself poison - people who've touched the book have small, but serious calamities befall them. Sticking to the shadows as he often does, Dorian believes he's witness a murder but Zoe and her mys...