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Cindy: I’ve just finished a major kitchen remodel project and it seems that during this time my literary tastes leaned toward books that featured FOOD. I was eating lots of salads and crock pot meals in real life, but in my book world, I was a gourmand. Relish: My Life in the Kitchen (First Second [...]

Cindy: I’ve been waiting for Unthinkable (Dial Sept., 2013) for a couple of reasons. First, I liked Impossible (2008), an interesting blend of faerie and edgy teen novel based on the Scarborough Fair folk song,  a lot. In that book Lucy is raped on prom night and becomes pregnant and discovers that she is one in [...]

Lynn:  How’s this for, ahem, a killer premise?  A young woman returns home after years away to discover that her mother lies buried within a wrought-iron cage.  Try resisting that, I dare you!  Salerni’s creepy premise is just the beginning of a terrifically compelling mystery and The Caged Graves (Clarion 2013) is the perfect book [...]

Lynn:  Sometimes you have to stand up for what is right for you but what happens if the result is not what you intended?  Can you back down on one element without jeopardizing your hard-won independence?  This is just one of the fascinating issues Sara Zarr explores in her beautifully nuanced new book, The Lucy [...]

Cindy: After Lynn found this book at the public library and foolishly loaned it to me, her overdue fines would have purchased a Bakelite bracelet set.  I’ve finally returned the book to her so we can get this post published. Style Me Vintage: Clothes: A Guide to Sourcing and Creating Retro Looks ( Pavilion 2012) [...]

Lynn:  I have to start this post with a confession.  I have had copies of Carriger’s Parasol Protectorate series on my to-read shelf of adult books for a long time but never found the time to squeeze them in.  So I was really excited to see Carriger’s teen debut and it was the first book [...]

Lynn:  The finalists for this year’s Los Angeles Book Prizes were announced yesterday.  The winners will be announced April 19th at 7:30 pm in the Bovard Auditorium on the USC campus.  The announcement leads off the 18th Los Angeles Festival of Books, the largest public literary event in the country which will be held April [...]

Cindy: This Saturday my #1 nationally ranked Indiana Hoosiers will play Lynn’s Purdue Boilermakers in Bloomington, IN. You know where we will be at 2 p.m. EST! Where was I? Oh, yes, the blog…basketball. Lynn and I love college basketball, as most of you know, so we have been delighted with the recent basketball books that [...]

Cindy: The aspiring teen writer in me wishes this book had been available 35 years ago. Barring the development of a time machine, I will have to settle for sharing it with kindred spirits in my book club, and I am eager to do so. The Curiosities (Carolrhoda LAB 2012) is the joint effort of [...]

Cindy: Well, I’m probably the last one on the trolley to read Bray’s new book. As you can see by Lynn’s comments below, I picked up this book early at the summer ALA Conference, gave it to Lynn first and then didn’t get it read myself. I have no good excuse. This week I finished [...]