The Harvey Girls by Lesley Poling-Kempes, 252 pages

From the 1880s to the 1950s, the Harvey Girls went west to work in Fred Harvey's restaurants along the Santa Fe railway. At a time when there were "no ladies west of Dodge City and no women west of Albuquerque," they came as waitresses, but many stayed and settled, founding the struggling cattle and mining towns that dotted the region. Interviews, historical research, and photographs help re-create the Harvey Girl experience. The accounts are personal, but laced with the history the women lived: the dust bowl, the depression, and anecdotes about some of the many famous people who ate at the restaurants--Teddy Roosevelt, Shirley Temple, Bob Hope, to name a few. This is the definitive work on the Harvey Girls and the Santa Fe Railway.

The Wet Nurse's Tale by Erica Eisdorfer, 259 pages

Susan Rose is not your average Victorian heroine. She's promiscuous, lovable, plump, and scheming-especially when it comes to escaping life as a kitchen drudge in a country house. Luckily for Susan, her big heart is covered by an equally big bosom, and her bosom is her fortune-for Susan becomes a professional wet nurse, like her mother before her. But while scullery maids and cooks live below stairs, a wet nurse lives upstairs, and if she's like Susan, she makes it her business to know all the intrigues and scandals that the upper crust would prefer to keep to themselves.
When her own child is caught up in a family scandal, Susan must use her plentiful street smarts to rescue her baby from the powerful mistress of the house. The scheme she weaves is bold, daring, and could spell ruin for her if she fails-but Susan Rose has no shortage of gumption. Bright, clever, and with a crackling wit all her own, Susan is an irresistible heroine.

Call the Nurse, True Stories of a Country Nurse on a Scottish Isle by Mary J. MacLeod, 320 pages

Tired of the pace and noise of life near London and longing for a better place to raise their young children, Mary J. MacLeod (known to all as Julia) and her husband encountered their dream while vacationing on a remote island in the Scottish Hebrides. Enthralled by its windswept beauty, they soon were the proud owners of a near-derelict croft house—a farmer’s stone cottage—on “a small acre” of land. Mary assumed duties as the island’s district nurse. Call the Nurse is her account of the first enchanted years she and her family spent there, coming to know its folk as both patients and friends.

Heathcliff, The Best of Friends by George Gately, 128 pages

Another Heathcliff comic collection.

Heathcliff, Catch of the Day by George Gately, 128 pages

Collection of Heathcliff comics.

Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat, 247 pages

A rattletrap plane landed on a frozen lake in the Keewatin Barrens, unceremoniously deposited one man and a mountain of supplies, and lurched off again into the sky. Farley Mowat, official biologist for the Canadian government, had arrived at his destination. His mission: "to determine the range/population ration of Canis lupus in order to establish contact with the study species." In other words, "The wolf, Lieutenant Mowat, is your problem!" In these pages Farley Mowat describes an Arctic summer spent watching and tracking the activities of a wolf family which he came to know better than he knew himself.
Like others before him who have made close acquaintance with the wolf, Mowat found the wolf in fact to be very different from the wolf of legend. Though he saw his wolves, at first, as objects for study, they soon became more than that. The regal, silver-white male, austerely identified as Wolf "A" in the official notebook, soon turns into"George"; his graceful, ebullient mate turns into "Angeline"; and the single male, baby-sitter for the four mischievous cubs, turns into "Uncle Albert."
Mowat unraveled the complex tactics of wolves on a hunt; investigated the male rituals of marking off the "family boundaries." He tested, by trying it himself, the nutritional value of the wolf's summer diet-mice. He observed the hospitality meted out to visiting wolves and learned how cubs are reared and educated. He found that the wolf is an adept fisherman, a loyal spouse, an impressive lover. From Ootek, an Eskimo steeped in the ways of the wolves, he learned something of their language, and of the meaning behind the Eskimo saying, "The wolf keeps the caribou strong."

A Spoonful of Murder by Connie Archer, 291 pages

Winter is big business in small town Snowflake, Vermont. Tourists arrive to hit the ski slopes-and what could be more satisfying after a chilly day of carving powder than a steaming bowl of soup?
When Lucky Jamieson inherits her parents' soup shop, By the Spoonful, she realizes it's time to take stock of her life. Should she sell her parents' house or move in herself? Does she really want to run a restaurant business? And what about her grandfather Jack, who seems to be showing signs of Alzheimer's?
But her life decisions are moved to the back burner after an icy blonde tourist is found frozen to death behind the soup shop. And Lucky is bowled over when her soup chef, Sage DuBois, is led out of the kitchen by the police. As suspicion and speculations snowball, Lucky decides that the only way to save her employee and her business is to find out herself who iced the tourist-and landed her chef in the soup...

My Not So Perfect Life by Sophie Kinsella, 585 pages

Everywhere Katie Brenner looks, someone else is living the life she longs for, particularly her boss, Demeter Farlowe. Katie's life is a daily struggle. No wonder she takes refuge in not-quite-true Instagram posts. Just as she's finding her feet the worst happens. Demeter fires Katie. Determined to stay positive, Katie retreats to her family's farm in Somerset to help them set up a vacation business. London has never seemed so far away-until Demeter unexpectedly turns up as a guest. Secrets are spilled and relationships rejiggered, and as the stakes for Katie's future gets higher, she must question her own assumptions about what makes for a truly meaningful life.

Banana Cream Pie Murder by Joanne Fluke, 521 pages

After an extravagant honeymoon, Hannah is eager to settle down in Lake Eden. But when her mother's neighbor is discovered murdered in the condo downstairs, reality becomes a nightmarish investigation. Victoria Bascomb, once a renowned stage actress, was active in the theater community during her brief appearance in town...and made throngs of enemies along the way. Did a random intruder murder the woman as police claim, or was a deadlier scheme at play? As Hannah peels through countless suspects and some new troubles of her own, solving this crime might prove trickier than mixing up the ultimate banana cream pie.

Strikeout of the Bleacher Weenies by David Lubar, 205 pages

Welcome to the Weenie Zone! The appearance of a mysterious new girl in school stops her classmates cold. A boy gets the surprise of his life when he tries to sabotage a magic show. And stands full of screaming and shouting bleacher weenies are about to make the ultimate sacrifice.
Here are thirty hilarious and harrowing stories that will scare you, make you laugh, or make you see the world in a whole new way. Find out where the author got the idea for each story at the end of the book. Don't be a weenie. Read these stories. If you dare!

Dying for Dinner Rolls by Lois Lavrisa, 159 pages

She's been held at gunpoint, stuck in a burning dumpster, chased out of a grocery store, caught impersonating a police officer and almost run over by a wayward vehicle. How is that for a first day on the job as an amateur sleuth? Along with her friend Annie Mae, Cat investigates the brick-paved, oak-lined streets of Savannah to find their friend's murderer. To say the very least, it is not smooth sailing for these self appointed detectives. Will they catch the killer before the killer gets them? Or will their first case be their last?
I'd seen this series mentioned in a mystery cookbook and thought I would give it a try. Was not my favorite, I don't think I'll pick up the others in the series.

Death of a Ghost by M.C. Beaton, 246 pages

When Police Sergeant Hamish Macbeth hears reports of a haunted castle near Drim, he assumes the eerie noises and lights reported by the villagers are just local teenagers going there to smoke pot or, worse, inject themselves with drugs. Still, Hamish decides that he and his policeman, Charlie "Clumsy" Carson, will spend the night at the ruined castle to get to the bottom of the rumors once and for all.
There's no sign of any ghost...but then Charlie disappears through the floor. It turns out he's fallen into the cellar. And what Hamish and Charlie find there is worse than a ghost: a dead body propped up against the wall. Waiting for help to arrive, Hamish and Charlie leave the castle just for a moment-to eat bacon baps-but when they return, the body is nowhere to be seen. It's clear something strange-and deadly-is going on at the castle, and Hamish must get to the bottom of it before the "ghost" can strike again....

Do They Ever Grow Up? by Lynn Johnston, 108 pages

A collection of some of her very earliest comics.

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden, 319 pages

At the edge of the Russian wilderness, winter lasts most of the year and the snowdrifts grow taller than houses. But Vasilisa doesn't mind-she spends the winter nights huddled around the embers of a fire with her beloved siblings, listening to her nurse's fairy tales. Above all, she loves the chilling story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon, who appears in the frigid night to claim unwary souls. Wise Russians fear him, her nurse says, and honor the spirits of the house and yard and forest that protect their homes from evil.
After Vasilisa's mother dies, her father goes to Moscow and brings home a new wife. Fiercely devout, city-bred, Vasilisa's new stepmother forbids her family from honoring the household spirits. The family acquiesces, but Vasilisa is frightened, sensing that more hinges upon their rituals than anyone knows.
And indeed, crops begin to fail, evil creatures of the forest creep nearer, and misfortune stalks the village. All the while, Vasilisa's stepmother grows ever harsher in her determination to groom her rebellious stepdaughter for either marriage or confinement in a convent.
As danger circles, Vasilisa must defy even the people she loves and call on dangerous gifts she has long concealed-this, in order to protect her family from a threat that seems to have stepped from her nurse's most frightening tales.

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa & Robert Hack, 160 pages

On the eve of her sixteenth birthday, young sorceress Sabrina Spellman finds herself at a crossroads, forced to choose between an unearthly destiny and her own mortal boyfriend, Harvey. But Madam Satan, a deadly foe from her family's past, has arrived in Greendale, and she has her sights set squarely on the young witch. Can Sabrina face the challenge, or will her witching career-and high school life-end all too abruptly?

The Bone Collection by Kathy Reichs, 388 pages

In First Bones, a prequel to Reichs's first novel, Deja Dead, she at last reveals the tale of how Tempe became a forensic anthropologist. In this never-before-published story, Tempe recalls the case that lured from a promising career in academia into the grim but addictive world of criminal investigation. The collection is rounded out with three more stories that take Tempe from the low country of the Florida Everglades, where she makes a grisly discovery in the stomach of an eighteen-foot Burmese python, to the heights of Mount Everest, where a frozen corpse is unearthed. No matter where she goes, Tempe's cases make for the most gripping reading.

The Uninvited by Steven LaChance w/Laura Long-Helbig, 238 pages

Its screams still wake me from sleep. I see the man standing in the basement butcher shower washing away the blood from his naked body. He turns, and his eyes sweep across me. The room begins to spin...
What kind of evil lives at the Union Screaming House?
In this true and terrifying firsthand account, Steven LaChance reveals how he and his three children were driven from their Union, Missouri, home by demonic attacks.
LaChance chronicles how the house's relentless supernatural predators infest those around them. He consults paranormal investigators, psychics, and priests, but the demonic attacks-screams, growls, putrid odors, invisible shoves, bites, and other physical violations-only grow worse. The entities clearly demonstrate their wrath and power: killing family pets, sexually assaulting individuals, even causing two people to be institutionalized.
The demons' next target is the current homeowner, Helen. When the entities take possession and urge Helen toward murder and madness, LaChance must engage in a hair-raising battle for her soul.

We Wish You a Murderous Christmas by Vicki Delany, 294 pages

It's Christmastime 365 days a year in Rudolph, New York-but when merriment makes way for murder, shop owner Merry Wilkinson must uncover a cold-blooded killer...
As Christmas Day approaches, Merry is enjoying a rare evening off at the Yuletide Inn when she runs into owners Grace and Jack Olsen. With Jack's health failing, Merry is relieved to hear that his son, Gord, will be taking over the day-to-day running of the inn.
But then Gord reveals that his new plans have no room for Christmas at the inn, and Merry and the other shop owners start to fret about the effect a bland franchise hotel could have on their livelihoods.
When Gord is found stabbed to death, there's an entire town of potential suspects-and it's up to Merry to find whoever brought homicide home for the holidays....

Recipes For Love and Murder by Sally Andrew, 419 pages

Annie Maria ("tannie" meaning auntie, the respectful Afrikaans address for a woman older than you) is a middle-aged widow who likes to cook-and eat. She shares her culinary love through her work as a recipe columnist for the local paper, until the Gazette decides its readers are hungrier for advice on matters of the heart than for lunch and dinner ideas.
Tannie Maria doesn't like the change but soon discovers she has a knack-and a passion-for helping people. Of course, a recipe is always part of the remedy she offers. Assisting other people with their problems, Tannie Maria is eventually forced to face her own issues, especially when the troubles of those she helps touch on the pain of her past-like a woman who contacts her, desperate to escape her abusive husband.
When the woman is murdered, Tannie Maria becomes dangerously entwined in the investigation, despite the best efforts of the handsome detective named Kannemyer, who is determined to keep her safe. Suddenly, this practical, down-to-earth woman is involved in something mush more sinister than perfecting her chocolate cake recipe....

This was a fantastic read! I can't believe it's the author's first fiction novel. A line from the first chapter just blew me away. "God, faith, love went out the window in my years with Fanie. I've left the windows open since then, but they haven't come back in."

Famous Curses by Daniel Cohen, 116 pages

What Evil Power lies in a Curse? Can it harm? Can it...kill? Can a curse really make something evil happen? That's for you to decide-once you've read these chilling...FAMOUS CURSES!

Being a Green Mother by Piers Anthony, 313 pages

Orb had a rare gift-the magic which manifested whenever she sang or played her harp. No one could resist her music. But greater magic than Orb's lay in the Llano, the mystic music that controlled all things. The quest for the Llano occupied Orb's life.
Then she met Natasha. He was handsome, charming-and an even finer musician than she. Natasha began teaching Orb the music of the Llano, and she found herself falling in love with him.
Then Orb's mother Niobe came as an Aspect of Fate, bearing the news that Orb was chosen for the role of the Incarnation of Nature-the Green Mother. And Niobe warned Orb of the prophecy made years before-that Orb was to marry Evil. Could she be sure that Natasha was not really Satan, the Master of Illusion, laying a trap for her?

The Beast Within by Serena Valentino, 215 pages

The tale is as old as time; a cruel prince is transformed into a beast. A lovely maiden comes into this monster's life. He is transformed by her compassion, and the love he feels for her in return. The two live happily ever after.
But any tale, especially one as storied as Beauty and the Beast's, has been told many different times, and in many different ways. No matter which version one hears, the nagging question remains; what was it that transformed the prince into the beast we are introduced to? This is one version, pulled from the many passed down through the ages. It's a story of vanity and arrogance, of love and hatred, of beastliness, and, of course, of beauty.

Poor Unfortunate Soul by Serena Valentino, 196 pages

The tale of the sea king's daughter Ariel is a beloved one of losing-and then finding-one's own voice. The story has been told many times and in many ways. But always the mergirl wants more than her world can offer, and her father demands that she lives within the confines of his domain. Her rebelliousness costs the little mermaid her voice and nearly her soul. But the power of good prevails, and Ariel emerges proud and changed. And yet this is only half the story. So what of Ariel's nemesis, Ursula, the sea witch? What led to her becoming so twisted, scorned, and filled with hatred? Many tales have tried to explain her motives. Here is one account of what might have shaped the sea witch into a detestable and poor unfortunate soul.

Tales of the Peculiar by Ransom Riggs, 160 pages

Before Miss Peregrine gave them a home, the story of peculiars was written in the Tales. Wealthy cannibals who dine on the discarded limbs of peculiars. A fork-tongued princess. The origins of the first ymbryne. These are but a few of the truly brilliant and haunting stories in Tales of the Peculiar-known to hide information about the peculiar world-first introduced by Ransom Riggs in his #1 bestselling Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children series. Riggs now invites you to share his secrets of peculiar history, with a collection of original stories in this deluxe volume of Tales of the Peculiar, as collected and annotated by Millard Nullings, ward of Miss Peregrine and scholar of all things peculiar.

The Man Who Fell to Earth by Walter Tevis, 209 pages

This was for a book club I'm in. A sci-fi read written in 1963, set in the late 1980s, and was an interesting take on what our world would look like, especially as seen through the eyes of an alien.

Fairest of Them All by Serena Valentino, 256 pages

For anyone who's seen Walt Disney's Snow White, you'll know that the Wicked Queen is one evil woman! After all, it's not everyone who wants to cut out their teenage step-daughter's heart and have it delivered back in a locked keepsake box. (And even if this sort of thing is a common urge, we don't know many people who have acted upon it.)
Now, for the first time, we'll examine the life of the Wicked Queen and find out just what it is that makes her so nasty. Here's a hint: the creepy-looking man in the magic mirror is not just some random spooky visage-and he just might have something to do with the Queen's wicked ways!

Cannibalism, A Perfectly Natural History by Bill Schutt, 332 pages

For centuries scientists have written off cannibalism as a bizarre phenomenon with little biological significance. Its presence in nature was dismissed as a desperate response to starvation or other life-threatening circumstances, and few spent time studying it. A taboo subject in our culture, the behavior was portrayed mostly through horror movies or tabloids sensationalizing the crimes of real-life flesh-eaters. But the true nature of cannibalism-the role it plays in evolution as well as human history-is even more intriguing (and more normal) than the misconceptions we've come to accept as fact.
In Cannibalism, zoologist Bill Schutt sets the record straight, debunking common myths and investigating our new understanding of cannibalism's role in biology, anthropology, and history in the most fascinating account yet written on this complex topic. Schutt takes readers from Arizona's Chiricahua Mountains, where he wades through ponds full of tadpoles devouring their siblings, to the Sierra Nevadas, where he joins researchers who are shedding new light on what happened to the Donner Party-the most infamous episode of cannibalism in American history. He even meets with an expert on the preparation and consumption of human placenta (and, yes, it does go well with Chianti).
Bringing together the latest cutting-edge science, Schutt answers questions such as why some amphibians consume their mother's skin; why certain insects bite the heads off their partners after sex; why, up until the end of the twentieth century, Europeans regularly ate human body parts as medical curatives; and how cannibalism might be linked to the extinction of the Neanderthals. He takes us into the future as well, investigating whether, as climate change causes famine, disease, and overcrowding, we may see more outbreaks of cannibalism in many more species-including our own.
Cannibalism places a perfectly natural occurrence into a vital new context and invites us to explore why it both enthralls and repels us.

This was a totally fascinating read. I drove my family crazy by telling them interesting facts that I kept coming across.

Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney, 287 pages

She took 1930s New York by storm, working her way up writing copy for R.H. Macy's to become the highest-paid advertising woman in the country. It was a job that, she says, "in some ways saved my life, and in other ways ruined it."
Now it's the last night of 1984 and Lillian, eighty-five years old but just as sharp and savvy as ever, is on her way to a party. It's chilly enough for her mink coat, and Manhattan is grittier now-her son keeps warning her about a subway vigilante on the prowl-but the quick-tongued poetess has never been one to scare easily. On a walk that takes her more than ten miles around the city, she meets bartenders, bodega clerks, security guards, criminals, children, parents, and parents-to-be, while reviewing a life of excitement and adversity, passion and heartbreak, illuminating all the ways New York has changed-and has not.
A love letter to city life, the book paints a portrait of a remarkable woman across the canvas of a changing America: from the Jazz Age to the onset of the AIDS epidemic, the Great Depression to the birth of the hip-hop. Lillian figures she might as well take her time. For now, after all, the night is still young.

Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night by Barbara J. Taylor, 319 pages

In early 20th century Pennsylvania, a few months after her sister's mysterious death, eight-year-old Violet befriends a motherless schoolmate, Stanley, who works as a breaker boy in the mines. Meanwhile, Violet's father and mother find other ways cope with their grief.
This was a really touching read.

Venom Doc by Bryan Grieg Fry, 292 pages

Venomologist Bryan Grieg Fry has one of the most dangerous jobs on earth: he works with its deadliest creatures. He's been bitten by twenty-six venomous snakes, been stung by three stingrays, and survived a near-fatal scorpion sting while deep in the Amazon jungle. He's received more than four hundred stitches and broken twenty-three bones, including breaking his back in three places, and had to learn how to walk again. But when you research only the venom you yourself have collected, the adventures-and danger-never stop.
Imagine a three-week-long first date in Siberia catching venomous water shrews with the daughter of a Russian war hero; a wedding attended by Eastern European prime ministers and their machine-gun-wielding bodyguards and snakes; or leading a team to Antarctica that results in the discovery of four new species of venomous octopi. Bryan's discoveries have radically reshaped views on venom evolution and contributed to the creation of venom-based life-saving medications. In pursuit of venom, he has traveled the world collecting samples from Indonesia to Mexico, Germany, and Brazil. He's encountered venomous creatures of all kinds, including the Malaysian king cobra, the Komodo dragon, and the funnel-web spider. Bryan recounts his lifelong passion for studying the world's most venomous creatures in this outlandish captivating memoir, where he and danger are never far apart.
I love biographies of people with interesting jobs and this definitely falls in that category. It was very educational and entertaining.

Laduree Chocolate by Vincent Lemains & Julien Christophe, 344 pages

The universe of chocolate is a world shaped by a thousand secrets, by perseverance and by know-how founded on passion (Les Marquis de Laduree).
Ladurée continues its quest for the ultimate indulgence with Les Marquis de Ladurée, opening a magical portal to a dreamlike world, where dainty meets delicious, a universe exclusively dedicated to chocolate.
In this book, chocolate lovers will discover its many varieties and virtues, but also its history, its process of fabrication, the art of enjoying chocolate, as well as famous chocolate connoisseurs of the past and present. And since you could hardly be expected to read about chocolate without treating yourself to a taste, Ladurée proposes a selection of recipes for chocolate bonbons and other pastries that you can make at home...

This was a beautiful coffee table type book that covers the history of chocolate and then has fancy chocolate recipes in the last half. I picked this up as a present for my oldest but had to read it myself. I really want to go to Paris and try this chocolate shop.

Prick With a Fork by Larissa Dubecki, 300 pages

Before she was one of Australia's restaurant critics, Larissa Dubecki was one of its worst waitresses. A loving homage to her ten-year reign of dining-room terror, Prick With a Fork takes you where a diner should never go. From the crappiest suburban Italian to the hottest place in town, what goes on behind the scenes is rarely less fraught than the seventh circle of hell. Psychopathic chefs, lecherous owners, impossible demands and insufferable customers are just the start of an average shift.
As a former server myself, this was an entertaining read.

Scythe by Neal Shusterman, 435 pages

A world with no hunger, no disease, no war, no misery. Humanity has conquered all those things, and has even conquered death. Now scythes are the only ones who can end life-and they are commanded to do so, in order to keep the size of the population under control. Citra and Rowan are chosen to apprentice to a scythe-a role that neither wants. These teens must master the "art" of taking life, knowing that the consequence of failure could mean losing their own.
I love Neal Shusterman's books, even more so after getting to meet him a few years ago. This was a fantastic read, just as good as Unwind.

Bellevue, Three Centuries of Medicine and Mayhem at America's Most Storied Hospital by David Oshinsky, 387 pages

This was a nonfiction look at the history of New York City's Bellevue Hospital. It was also a good overview of the history of medicine in America.

Bleed, Blister, Puke, and Purge by J. Marin Younker, 110 pages

Welcome, that is, to the early days of the American medicine. (A time when your best option was usually to stay as far away from doctors as you possibly could.) This is a story of blood and guts, but it's also a surreal account of how difficult it was for good ideas to win out and for successful treatments to take hold. It's hard to believe that today's cutting-edge medicine originated from such crude beginnings, but this book reminds us to be grateful for today's medical care, while also raising the question: what current medical practices will be the horrors of tomorrow? There is progress here, but it's achieved over a whole lot of dead bodies. Prepare to be shocked, appalled, and very, very relieved that you happened to be born in a world with anesthetics.

The Hatching by Ezekiel Boone, 334 pages

Deep in the jungles of Peru, where so much remains unknown, a black, skittering mass devours an American tourist whole. Thousands of miles away, an FBI agent investigates a fatal plane crash in Minneapolis and makes a gruesome discovery. Unusual seismic patterns register in a Kanpur, India, earthquake lab, confounding the scientists there. During the same week, the Chinese government "accidentally" drops a nuclear bomb in an isolated region of its own country. As these incidents being to sweep the globe, a mysterious package from South America arrives at a Washington, DC, laboratory. Something wants out. The world is on the brink of an apocalyptic disaster. An ancient species, long dormant, is now very much awake.
This was a terrifying read, especially when you're trying to eat lunch.