Category: Books

Title: A Zeal of Zebras: An Alphabet of Collective Nouns Author: Woop Studios Category: Picture Book - Alphabet Published: August 10, 2011 by Chronicle Books Rating: 4 out of 5 stars Add: Goodreads Purchase: Amazon | IndieBound | Book Depository An embarrassment of pandas, a galaxy of starfish, a shiver of sharks...these are all collective nouns used to describe their groups. Woop Studios, acclaimed for their work on the Harry Potter movies, has illustrated these quirky phrases, creating a series of extraordinarily beautiful art that has been collected here for the first time. The colorful introduction to animals and the alphabet is accessible for young children, while the gorgeous, whimsical art and clever wordplay make it perfect for design-savvy parents and inspired gift givers. Longer than the standard picture book, with high design and production values, this is a volume readers will want on their coffee tables in addition to their child's bookshelf. I've mentioned before that I love words, including collective nouns, like an unkindness of ravens, which...

Title: The Thin Man Author: Dashiell Hammet Category: Mystery First published: 1932 Rating: 3½ out of 5 stars Add: Goodreads Purchase: Amazon | Book Depository  | IndieBound Retirement suited Nick just fine. He had a pretty wife called Nora, a Schnauzer called Asta and a taste for good Scotch. All it took was a little persuasion. Like four .32 bullets, a blonde, the newspapers, the cops, and a junked-up hoodlam in his bedroom. Nick Charles, former Trans-American Detective Agency Ace, was back in business! I feel like I should rave about The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett. It's a classic, "a murder mystery that doubles as a sophisticated comedy of manners," noir but not. The thing is, I found it a little boring. I can't even put my finger on why. It has a lot of things working for it, a wonderful, often tipsy, couple who flirt with abandon, both with each other and with secondary characters. The mystery is good, with plenty of clues and a twist that surprised, even though I should...

Title: Mouse Bird Snake Wolf Author: David Almond Illustrator: Dave McKean Category: Children's Fiction- Fantasy Published: May 14, 2013 by Candlewick Press Rating: 3½ out of 5 stars Add: Goodreads Purchase: Amazon | IndieBound | Book Depository The gods have created a world that is safe and calm and rather wonderful. They have built mountains, forests, and seas and filled the world with animals, people, and unnamed beasts. Now their days are fat with long naps in the clouds, mutual admiration, and tea and cake. But their world has gaps in it filled with emptiness, gaps that intrigue Harry, Sue, and little Ben until they begin to see what might fill them. One by one the children conjure, from twigs and leaves and stones, a mousy thing, a chirpy thing, and a twisty legless thing. But as the children’s ideas grow bolder, the power of their visions proves greater and more dangerous than they, or the gods, could ever have imagined. Is it possible to unmake what’s been...

Title: Lady Fortescue Steps Out (The Poor Relations #1) Author: Marion Chesney Reader: Davina Porter Category: Romance- Historical Audio Published: May 8, 2012 by AudioGo (First published 1992) Rating: 3 out of 5 stars Add: Goodreads Purchase: Amazon Life is not easy for the poor relations of England's upper crust. Periodically they are dusted off and conveyed to some relative's stately home, where they make themselves inconspicuous, hoping the regular meals will last as long as possible. But the day always comes when they are packed up and delivered back to London—and back to their life of genteel cold and hunger. Desperate to keep up appearances, these unfortunates keep their misery to themselves, until one momentous day when Lady Fortescue meets Colonel Sandhurst in Hyde Park. Upon seeing the Colonel's tattered yet dignified appearance, Lady Fortescue immediately realizes that he must be in straits as impoverished as her own, and she invites him to share her roof. A plan emerges: What if they were to transform her decrepit Bond Street...

Title: Clouds of Witness (Lord Peter Wimsey #2) Author: Dorothy L. Sayers Category: Mystery Published: July 31, 2012 by Open Road (First published 1926) Rating: 3½ out of 5 stars Add: Goodreads Purchase: Amazon | Book Depository After three months in Corsica, Lord Peter Wimsey has begun to forget that the gray, dangerous moors of England ever existed. But traveling through Paris, he receives a shock that jolts him back to reality. He sees it in the headlines splashed across every English paper—his brother Gerald has been arrested for murder. The trouble began at the family estate in Yorkshire, where Gerald was hunting with the man soon to be his brother-in-law, Captain Denis Cathcart. One night, Gerald confronts Cathcart with allegations about his unsavory past, leading the captain to call off the wedding. Just a few hours later, Cathcart is dead, with Gerald presumed to be the only one who could have fired the fatal shot. The clock is ticking, and only England’s premier sleuth can get to the...

Title: Ladd Springs Author: Dianne Venetta Category: Romance/Suspense Published: April 9, 2013 by Bloomin Thyme Press Rating: 3½ out of 5 stars Add: Goodreads Purchase: Amazon Delaney Wilkins finds herself at odds with hotel developer Nick Harris over a deathbed promise and a mysterious find in the forest. Both are after title to Ladd Springs, a mecca of natural springs, streams and trails in the eastern Tennessee mountains, a tract of land worth millions. But Ernie Ladd, current owner of the property and uncle to Delaney, is adamantly opposed to them both. Felicity Wilkins, Delaney’s daughter, deserves to inherit her family’s legacy, but neighbor Clem Sweeney is working against her, ingratiating himself with Ernie Ladd. Clem is also harboring a secret that will make him a very wealthy man—unless the others stop him before he can bring it to fruition. Complicating matters is Annie Owens. Ex-girlfriend to Jeremiah Ladd, Ernie’s estranged son living in Atlanta, she declares her daughter Casey is Jeremiah’s, making Casey every bit as entitled to the property...