Tuesday, September 19, 2023

The Only Purple House in Town by Ann Aguirre, 368 pages

 Iris Collins is the messy one in her family. The "chaos bunny." Her sisters are all wildly successful, while she can't balance her budget for a single month. It's no wonder she's in debt to her roommates. When she unexpectedly inherits a house from her great aunt, her plan to turn it into a B&B fails—as most of her plans do. She winds up renting rooms like a Victorian spinster, collecting other lost souls...and not all of them are "human."

Eli Reese grew up as the nerdy outcast in school, but he got rich designing apps. Now he's successful by any standards. But he's never had the same luck in finding a real community or people who understand him. Over the years, he's never forgotten his first crush, so when he spots her at a café, he takes it as a sign. Except then he gets sucked into the Iris-verse and somehow ends up renting one of her B&B rooms. As the days pass, Eli grows enchanted by the misfit boarders staying in the house...and even more so by Iris. Could Eli have finally found a person and a place to call "home"?



Sunday, September 17, 2023

The Ringmaster's Secret by Carolyn Keene, 178 pages

 Nancy is given a beautiful gold bracelet and finds that one of the charms is missing. When she learns the unusual story behind the jewelry, she sets out to solve the fascinating mystery. The bracelet had been presented to a former circus performer by a queen who loved horses. For some reason the performer had to sell the bracelet but would not reveal her true identity. Clues lead Nancy to Sims’ Circus, where she meets Lolita, an unhappy young aerialist who has a horse charm wrought exactly like those on Nancy’s bracelet. Will Nancy be able to find the original owner of the bracelet?







Cider With Rosie by Laurie Lee, 231 pages

 
A childhood, an era and a landscape - evoked in one of the best-loved autobiographies of the century.

The England of Cider with Rosie is one 'of silence...of white roads, rutted by hooves and cartwheels, innocent of oil and petrol'. It is the rich, sensuous world of Lauree Lee's childhood and youth in a remote Cotswold village, a world that has mostly vanished. Described by H. E. Bates as 'a prose poem that flashes and winks like a prism', this loving and intimate record stands as both testament and elegy.




















Saturday, September 16, 2023

Yukon Ho! by Bill Watterson, 126 pages

 The spirit of childhood leaps to life again with boundless energy and magic in Yukon Ho!, a collection of adventures featuring rambunctious six-year-old Calvin and his co-conspirator tiger-chum, Hobbes. Picking up where The Essential Calvin and Hobbes left off, Yukon Ho! is a delight!



Friday, September 15, 2023

Book of Lists: Over-Sixty: Shades of Gray by Barbara Paskoff & Carol Pack, 251 pages

 As we get older, time seems to pass more quickly, so getting to the point is more important than ever. That's why we love bullet points. What's quicker than reading a list of specifics without a bunch of long-winded explanations to annoy us or slow us down? Okay, maybe we're a little more impatient than we used to be, but after surviving wars, a pandemic, inflation, a toilet paper shortage, prevaricating politicians, and the roller coaster known as the stock market, we have a right to be touchy. That's why we wrote the Book of Lists. We have answers to questions you never knew you had!




Thursday, September 14, 2023

The Blue Caribbean by Celine Conway, 191 pages

 Just a hokey romance I picked up.




The Essential Calvin and Hobbes: A Calvin and Hobbes Treasury by Bill Watterson, 254 pages

 Perhaps the most brilliant comic strip ever created, Calvin and Hobbes continues to entertain with dazzling cartooning and tremendous humor.

Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes has been a worldwide favorite since its introduction in 1985. The strip follows the richly imaginative adventures of Calvin and his trusty tiger, Hobbes. Whether a poignant look at serious family issues or a round of time-travel (with the aid of a well-labeled cardboard box), Calvin and Hobbes will astound and delight you.

Beginning with the day Hobbes sprang into Calvin's tuna fish trap, the first two Calvin and Hobbes collections, Calvin and Hobbes and Something Under The Bed Is Drooling, are brought together in this treasury. Including black-and-white dailies and color Sundays, The Essential Calvin and Hobbes also features an original full-color 16-page story.