Baby Blues: Unplugged by Rick Kirkman & Jerry Scott, 128 pages

Usually the biggest struggles (and the biggest laughs) are over the smallest things, and nowhere is this truer than in households with kids. "Baby Blues Unplugged," overflows with all of the familiar domestic discord and chaos that has made this venerable family comic strip such a phenomenal success. In one strip, Hammie makes skis out of hot wheel tracks and two hair scrunchies and careens down a mountain of couch cushions. Meanwhile, Zoe carefully deliberates whether she wants her bath with or without bubbles, finally telling her Dad, "How about a regular bath with bubbles on the side?" "Baby Blues" provides parents with a much-needed laugh as they battle the daily challenges of keeping pace with their kids.

Never a Dry Moment by Rick Kirkman & Jerry Scott, 128 pages

"It's been a while since there has been a baby in Baby Blues, but here they go again. Darryl and Wanda, already the parents of two, are adding a third little one to the MacPherson household, and they somehow continue to stay good-humored about life amid the chaos of a household on the grow.

Never a Dry Moment is the latest collection of the phenomenally popular comic strip. In this latest collection, Zoe and Hammie watch in amazement as their mommy's pregnancy takes shape--literally. Zoe wonders if her mom's oversized belly truly is all baby or if it's also housing a whole box of pudding pops that seems to be missing. "That's a different bulge," says Wanda. "Check behind me." And Hammie and Zoe still want Wanda to play baseball with them, even if it is just to be the backstop.

Dad to The Bone by Rick Kirkman & Jerry Scott, 128 pages

""Well, on the day you were born, the nurses all gathered 'round. And they gazed in wide wonder, as my face hit the ground. The head nurse looked up, said, ""Leave this one prone."" She could tell right away that I was Dad to the bone.""-Sing to the tune of George Thorogood's Bad to the Bone

If you read the job description in a want ad, you might think long and hard before responding. WANTED: A man willing to change diapers that could nuke the ozone, plop down on all fours and become a horsie at a moment's notice, arise from a deep sleep for an hour to calm nightmares, and part with a significant chunk of his hard-earned nest egg. There's only one explanation for why a man such as Baby Blues' Darryl MacPherson would accept such a challenge . . . because he's Dad to the Bone.

""Now, when I coach your teams, I go out of my mind! Every holler and scream means I'm proud that you're mine! As the years go by, pretty baby, can't believe how much you've grown! I wanna thank you for makin' me a Dad to the Bone!""

Of course, Baby Blues isn't only about fatherhood. This is a well-rounded family, with mom Wanda becoming more well-rounded every day as she heads into her third pregnancy. Over the years, creators Jerry Scott and Rick Kirkman have perfected this family-centered strip that presents the joyful moments with the frustrating in a way that is hilarious and heartfelt without being syrupy sweet.

The Paris Spy by Susan Elia MacNeal, 301 pages

Maggie Hope has come a long way since serving as a typist for Winston Churchill. Now she’s working undercover for the Special Operations Executive in the elegant but eerily silent city of Paris, where SS officers prowl the streets in their Mercedes and the Ritz is draped with swastika banners. Walking among the enemy is tense and terrifying, and even though she’s disguised in chic Chanel, Maggie can’t help longing for home.

But her missions come first. Maggie’s half sister, Elise, has disappeared after being saved from a concentration camp, and Maggie is desperate to find her—that is, if Elise even wants to be found. Equally urgent, Churchill is planning the Allied invasion of France, and SOE agent Erica Calvert has been captured, the whereabouts of her vital research regarding Normandy unknown. Maggie must risk her life to penetrate powerful circles and employ all her talents for deception and spycraft to root out a traitor, find her sister, and locate the reports crucial to planning D-Day in a deadly game of wits with the Nazi intelligence elite.

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, 850 pages

The year is 1945. Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is just back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon when she walks through a standing stone in one of the ancient circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach—an “outlander”—in a Scotland torn by war and raiding border clans in the year of Our Lord...1743.

Hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand, Claire is catapulted into the intrigues of lairds and spies that may threaten her life, and shatter her heart. For here James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, shows her a love so absolute that Claire becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire—and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.

Okay, I can kinda see what all the hype is about.

MASH Goes to Maine by Richard Hooker, 192 pages

Back from Korea and zanier than ever, those four irreverent military surgeons--Hawkeye, Trapper, Duke and Spearchucker--are eager and ready to operate again. This time it's on the crusty natives of Spruce Harbor, Maine.

There the irrepressible M.D.s meet their lunatic equals and join with them in a wacky, hilarious romp through every operating room and bedroom in town. 

Women Heroes of World War II by Kathryn Atwood, 266 pages

Noor Inayat Khan was the first female radio operator sent into occupied France and transferred crucial messages. Johtje Vos, a Dutch housewife, hid Jews in her home and repeatedly outsmarted the Gestapo. Law student Hannie Schaft became involved in the most dangerous resistance work--sabotage, weapons transference, and assassinations. In these pages, young readers will meet these and many other similarly courageous women and girls who risked their lives to help defeat the Nazis.

            Twenty-six engaging and suspense-filled stories unfold from across Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Denmark, Great Britain, and the United States, providing an inspiring reminder of women and girls’ refusal to sit on the sidelines around the world and throughout history.

Mary Poppins Comes Back by P. L. Travers, 268 pages

Pulled down from the clouds at the end of a kite string, Mary Poppins is back. In Mary’s care, the Banks children meet the King of the Castle and the Dirty Rascal, visit the upside-down world of Mr. Turvy and his bride, Miss Topsy, and spend a breathless afternoon above the park, dangling from a clutch of balloons.

Florida Ghost Stories by Robert R. Jones, 149 pages

Twenty-six haunting tales of Florida's ghosts, from a haunted schoolhouse in Micanopy to the many spirits lingering in St. Augustine, America's oldest city. 

Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers, 191 pages

By P.L. Travers, the author featured in the major motion picture, Saving Mr. Banks. From the moment Mary Poppins arrives at Number Seventeen Cherry-Tree Lane, everyday life at the Banks house is forever changed.

It all starts when Mary Poppins is blown by the east wind onto the doorstep of the Banks house. She becomes a most unusual nanny to Jane, Michael, and the twins. Who else but Mary Poppins can slide up banisters, pull an entire armchair out of an empty carpetbag, and make a dose of medicine taste like delicious lime-juice cordial? A day with Mary Poppins is a day of magic and make-believe come to life!

In The Dark: The True Story of the Blackout Ripper by Simon Read, 286 pages

In 1942, while the Luftwaffe bombed London and its citizens fled underground, a killer emerged from the shadows to satisfy his inner darkness. Over a five-day period, "The Blackout Ripper" murdered with a lightning-fast ferocity that stunned and baffled investigators. Original. 

Lumberjanes: Parents' Day!, 112 pages

It's PARENTS' DAY at the Lumberjanes camp!

Everyone at camp is super excited about the best day of the summer-Parents' Day, when they get to show their folks what they've been up to! Molly seems really worried, though, and even her friends are unsure of how to cheer her up.

This New York Times bestseller and multiple Eisner-Award and GLAAD-award winning series is written by Shannon Watters and Kat Leyh (Super Cakes) and illustrated by Ayme Sotuyo! 

A Poisoned Season by Tasha Alexander, 308 pages

London's social season is in full swing, and Victorian aristocracy is atwitter over a certain gentleman who claims to be the direct descendant of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Adding to their fascination with all things French, an audacious cat burglar is systematically stealing valuable items that once belonged to the ill–fated queen.
But things take a dark turn. The owner of one of the pilfered treasures is found murdered after the theft is reported in the newspapers, and the mysterious thief develops a twisted obsession with Lady Emily Ashton. It takes all of Lady Emily's wit and perseverance to unmask her stalker and ferret out the murderer, while faced with a brewing scandal that threatens both her reputation and her romance with the dashing Colin Hargreaves.

Motherhood is Not For Wimps by Rick Kirkman & Jerry Scott, 128 pages

Both folly and food are flying in Motherhood Is Not for Wimps, the collection of the immensely popular strip Baby Blues. The parents of young Zoe and Hamish uncover chicken nuggets in the dryer, bribe their children with Fudgsicles, referee a debate on which child got the bigger cookie, and learn that there is quite likely maple syrup in the VCR. And fun with food is just the start of the countless laughs and never-ending mayhem in this collection.

The charm and universal appeal of Baby Blues lies in its ability to humorously capture the everyday joys and trials of parenting young children. The strip helps moms and dads the world over laugh their way through the daily challenges of keeping up with their kids. Yet, you don't have to be a parent of small children to appreciate the humorous situations fictional parents Darryl and Wanda face in Motherhood Is Not for Wimps. 

The Once & Future King by T. H. White, 677 pages

Once upon a time, a young boy called “Wart” was tutored by a magician named Merlyn in preparation for a future he couldn’t possibly imagine. A future in which he would ally himself with the greatest knights, love a legendary queen and unite a country dedicated to chivalrous values. A future that would see him crowned and known for all time as Arthur, King of the Britons.

During Arthur’s reign, the kingdom of Camelot was founded to cast enlightenment on the Dark Ages, while the knights of the Round Table embarked on many a noble quest. But Merlyn foresaw the treachery that awaited his liege: the forbidden love between Queen Guinevere and Lancelot, the wicked plots of Arthur’s half-sister Morgause, and the hatred she fostered in Mordred that would bring an end to the king’s dreams for Britain--and to the king himself.

Death in the City of Light by David King, 416 pages

Death in the City of Light is the gripping, true story of a brutal serial killer who unleashed his own reign of terror in Nazi-Occupied Paris. As decapitated heads and dismembered body parts surfaced in the Seine, Commissaire Georges-Victor Massu, head of the Brigade Criminelle, was tasked with tracking down the elusive murderer in a twilight world of Gestapo, gangsters, resistance fighters, pimps, prostitutes, spies, and other shadowy figures of the Parisian underworld.

The main suspect was Dr. Marcel Petiot, a handsome, charming physician with remarkable charisma. He was the “People’s Doctor,” known for his many acts of kindness and generosity, not least in providing free medical care for the poor. Petiot, however, would soon be charged with twenty-seven murders, though authorities suspected the total was considerably higher, perhaps even as many as 150.

Who was being slaughtered, and why? Was Petiot a sexual sadist, as the press suggested, killing for thrills? Was he allied with the Gestapo, or, on the contrary, the French Resistance? Or did he work for no one other than himself? Trying to solve the many mysteries of the case, Massu would unravel a plot of unspeakable deviousness. When Petiot was finally arrested, the French police hoped for answers. 

But the trial soon became a circus. Attempting to try all twenty-seven cases at once, the prosecution stumbled in its marathon cross-examinations, and Petiot, enjoying the spotlight, responded with astonishing ease. His attorney, René Floriot, a rising star in the world of criminal defense, also effectively, if aggressively, countered the charges.  Soon, despite a team of prosecuting attorneys, dozens of witnesses, and over one ton of evidence, Petiot’s brilliance and wit threatened to win the day.

Drawing extensively on many new sources, including the massive, classified French police file on Dr. Petiot, Death in the City of Light is a brilliant evocation of Nazi-Occupied Paris and a harrowing exploration of murder, betrayal, and evil of staggering proportions.

I Shouldn't Have to Scream More Than Once!!! by Rick Kirkman & Jerry Scott, 128 pages

In the early days of Baby Blues, Darryl and Wanda were surprised at the unexpected demands of parenting. Now, however, the nonstop antics of their lovably active kids, Zoe and Hamish, keep them hopping. Darryl and Wanda have accepted, and even learned to laugh at, the general upheaval of their lives.

In I Shouldn't Have to Scream More than Once!, the MacPhersons continue their quest to raise their two small children. One day, Zoe asserts she needs her mother to teach her how to jump rope-""It's a girl thing,"" she tells Darryl. Later, Wanda and Darryl are happy their son has gone to the potty himself, until Zoe queries, ""Don't you want me to tell you where he went?"" And Wanda resorts to feeding Hammie on the floor after Zoe spots him picking up old peas. At the MacPherson household, it's all fodder for fun that has a delightful edge of truth for parents the world over.

The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth and Other Curiosities from the History of Medicine by Thomas Morris, 351 pages

A puzzling series of dental explosions beginning in the nineteenth century, with the most recent case in the 1960s, is just one of many strange tales that have long lain undiscovered in the pages of old medical journals. Award-winning medical historian Thomas Morris has assembled the stories thematically so readers will witness Mysterious Illnesses (such as the Rhode Island woman who peed through her nose), Horrifying Operations (1635: A hungover Dutchman swallows a knife, which is then surgically removed from his stomach), Dubious Treatments ("Take twelve young swallows out of the nest . . ."), Unfortunate Predicaments (such as that of the boy who honked like a goose after inhaling a bird's larynx), and many other marvels.

Read together, these entertaining stories amount to far more than a series of anecdotes. They are worth reading for their entertainment value alone, but they also tell us a great deal about the evolution of modern medicine. Some show the medical profession hopeless in the face of ailments which today would be quickly banished by modern drugs; but others are heartening tales of recovery against the odds, patients saved from death by the devotion or ingenuity of a conscientious doctor. As a collection they allow the reader to learn about the evolution of medical expertise and to understand the rationale behind therapeutic regimes that would otherwise seem inexplicable today.

However embarrassing the ailment or ludicrous the treatment, every case tells us something about the knowledge (and ignorance) of an earlier age, along with the sheer resilience of human life.

Sister Bffs by Philippa Rice, 143 pages

From the author of the #1 New York Times best-selling graphic novel Soppy: A Love Story comes this sweet, witty collection of comics about the push and pull of sisterhood.
 

Sister BFFs follows a pair of sisters who are not quite adults, but trying desperately to act like them. From job searches to embarrassing encounters with former crushes, these twenty-something sisters navigate the ups, downs, and in-betweens of early adulthood – together. Loosely based on the author’s own life, Sister BFFs celebrates the complicated love-hate relationship between sisters to hilarious effect.  They tease and trick each other but always stay loyal.

This was a hilarious read. I'm glad I was in my car on lunch, because I was laughing so loud. I kept sending pictures to my daughters of ones that reminded me of them, and I've told them both that they HAVE to read it. I totally recommend this!!!

Lift and Separate by Jerry Scott and Rick Kirkman, 128 pages

Darryl and Wanda have the parenting thing down all right, but they still continue to be surprised by the delightfully devilish antics of their two live-wire children. From first steps to bedtime snacks, from shopping adventures to sibling rivalry, Zoe and Hamish keep their parents on the move and the rest of us in stitches.

If I'm a Stay-At-Home Mom, Why Am I Always in the Car by Rick Kirkman & Jerry Scott, 128 pages

  Darryl and Wanda MacPherson have come a long way since little Zoe was born. Back then, they agonized over Wanda's transition from career woman to stay-at-home mom. They struggled with the great breast-feeding-in-public debate. They learned that mommy spit was the universal solvent and determined those all-important child-safe cuss words. These days, they're more mature, more experienced. With Zoe now playing the big sister to baby Hammie who's started to walk, the MacPhersons are calm parental units.

  Don't be too sure! In If I'm a Stay-At-Home Mom..., Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott show us the reality of Darryl and Wanda's world. Consider what the MacPhersons found out: one four-year-old voice is louder than 200 adult voices in a crowded restaurant; a flushing toilet and the word "Oops!" (heard together) produce more anxiety than any sounds in nature; and bribery is not only not wrong, it's totally necessary.

And Only To Deceive by Tasha Alexander, 320 pages

Emily agreed to wed Philip, the Viscount Ashton, primarily to escape her overbearing mother. Philip's death while on safari soon after their wedding left Emily feeling little grief, for she barely knew the dashing stranger.

But her discovery of his journals nearly two years later reveals a far different man than she imagined-a gentleman scholar and antiquities collector who apparently loved his new wife deeply. Emily's desire to learn more about her late husband leads her through the quiet corners of the British Museum and into a dangerous mystery involving rare stolen artifacts. To complicate matters, she's juggling two very prominent and wealthy suitors, one of whose intentions may go beyond matrimony into darker realms.

The Complete Funky Winkerbean, Volume 6 1987-1989, 595 pages

Working my way through back strips. I hadn't realized how old this strip was.

The Queen's Accomplice by Susan Elia MacNeal, 353 pages

England, 1942. The Nazis relentless Blitz may have paused, but London's nightly blackouts continue. Now, under the cover of darkness, a madman is brutally killing and mutilating young women in eerie and exact re-creations of Jack the Ripper's crimes. What s more, he's targeting women who are reporting for duty to be Winston Churchill's spies and saboteurs abroad. The officers at MI-5 quickly realize they need the help of special agent Maggie Hope to find the killer dubbed the Blackout Beast. A trap is set. But once the murderer has his sights on Maggie, not even Buckingham Palace can protect the resourceful spy from her fate. 

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite, 226 pages

Satire meets slasher in this short, darkly funny hand grenade of a novel about a Nigerian woman whose younger sister has a very inconvenient habit of killing her boyfriends.
"Femi makes three, you know. Three and they label you a serial killer."

Korede is bitter. How could she not be? Her sister, Ayoola, is many things: the favorite child, the beautiful one, possibly sociopathic. And now Ayoola's third boyfriend in a row is dead. Korede's practicality is the sisters' saving grace. She knows the best solutions for cleaning blood, the trunk of her car is big enough for a body, and she keeps Ayoola from posting pictures of her dinner to Instagram when she should be mourning her "missing" boyfriend. Not that she gets any credit.
A kind, handsome doctor at the hospital where Korede works, is the bright spot in her life. She dreams of the day when he will realize they're perfect for each other. But one day Ayoola shows up to the hospital uninvited and he takes notice. When he asks Korede for Ayoola's phone number, she must reckon with what her sister has become and what she will do about it.
Sharp as nails and full of deadpan wit, Oyinkan Braithwaite has written a deliciously deadly debut that's as fun as it is frightening.

This was a really enjoyable read. The format was intriguing, the shape and layout of the book was interesting, including the page number fonts, and the whole experience was great. I definitely recommend this book.

Operation Columba: The Secret Pigeon Service by Gordon Corera, 334 pages

Between 1941 and 1944, sixteen thousand plucky homing pigeons were dropped in an arc from Bordeaux to Copenhagen as part of 'Columba' – a secret British operation to bring back intelligence from those living under Nazi occupation. The messages flooded back written on tiny pieces of rice paper tucked into canisters and tied to the legs of the birds. Authentic voices from rural France, the Netherlands and Belgium – they were sometimes comic, often tragic and occasionally invaluable with details of German troop movements and fortifications, new Nazi weapons, radar system or the deployment of the feared V-1 and V-2 rockets that terrorized London.

Who were the people who provided this rich seam of intelligence? Many were not trained agents nor, with a few exceptions, people with any experience of spying. At the centre of this book is the ‘Leopold Vindictive’ network – a small group of Belgian villagers prepared to take huge risks. They were led by an extraordinary priest, Joseph Raskin – a man connected to royalty and whose intelligence was so valuable it was shown to Churchill, leading MI6 to parachute agents in to assist him.

A powerful and tragic tale of wartime espionage, the book brings together the British and Belgian sides of the Leopold Vindictive’s story and reveals for the first time the wider history of a quirky, quarrelsome band of spy masters and their special wartime operations, as well as how bitter rivalries in London placed the lives of secret agents at risk. It is a book not so much about pigeons as the remarkable people living in occupied Europe who were faced with the choice of how to respond to a call for help, and took the decision to resist.