‘The Marriage Sabbatical’ by Lian Dolan is an enjoyable light story of marriage and discovery

/ Pamela Kramer

In “The Marriage Sabbatical,” this not-a-romance novel, Lian Dolan introduces Jason and Nicole Elswick, who have been married for almost a quarter of a century. Jason is in publishing, and as he approaches his twenty-five year anniversary with his company, he gets a year sabbatical. Since the death of his best friend, he is determined to fulfill their dream of traveling through Patagonia on motorcycles. He has the whole year planned, with a few months in a small village on the Pacific learning to surf and writing a book at the end of the trip, and before he and Nicole meet their children, two college students who are traveling abroad for the school year.

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‘Max in the House of Spies: A Tale of World War II’ by Adam Gidwitz is both charming and chilling

/ Pamela Kramer

Adam Gidwitz is a much loved children’s author whose fabulous tales have taken readers young and old from Grimm’s fairy tales (“A Tale Dark and Grimm“) to the Inquisition (“The Inquisitor’s Tale“) and now to WWII in “Max in the House of Spies: A Tale of World War II.” This historical fiction also contains Gidwitz’s trademark fantasy twist with two mythical creatures who accompany main character Max as he travels from Berlin to London as part of the Kindertransport, which took Jewish children from Germany to countries where they stayed in foster homes until the end of the war.

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Percival Everett: “James,” Jim, and by the way, Huckleberry Finn

/ Pamela Kramer

Percival Everett’s brilliant novel, “James,” is a significant achievement, almost as important, perhaps, for what it is not, as much as for what it certainly is. It is not simply a “reimagining” of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” Nor is it simply an “updating” or “retelling” of Twain’s magnificent contribution to American literature. It is, instead, a moving, fiery, anger-inducing, sad, and occasionally humorous account of a slave in 1860 America. That slave, Jim, is a friend of a semi-wild fourteen- or fifteen-year-old ultra-country boy named Huck.

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‘The Lies Among Us’ by Sarah Beth Durst is a thoughtful fantasy

/ Pamela Kramer

Award-winning author Sarah Beth Durst’s new novel, “The Lies Among Us,” is a bit of a mystery at first. We are taken aback as we meet Hannah, the first person narrator, when she is inside her mother’s casket just before burial. That’s our first clue that Hannah isn’t a flesh-and-blood person. We quickly learn that Hannah’s mother has just died, leaving only Hannah’s sister Leah. And Leah can’t see or hear Hannah, so basically, Hannah is alone for the first time in her life.

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‘The Sicilian Inheritance’ by Jo Piazza is a thoughtful novel about culture, family, and how women survive

/ Pamela Kramer

I must admit, at the beginning I didn’t much like the main character in “The Sicilian Inheritance.” When I started reading Jo Piazza’s newest novel about a woman who was a butcher, a restaurateur, a mother, and who apparently wasn’t really good at several of those things, I didn’t know how I would connect with her and care about her story. But that might be part of the message that this brilliant novel imparts: that women don’t need to be best friends or even like each other much to help and support each other in times of need.

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‘The Murder of Mr. Ma’ by John Shen Yen Nee and SJ Rozan is a period mystery

/ Pamela Kramer

As fascinating as the murder mystery “The Murder of Mr. Ma” is, the afterward and acknowledgments at the end are almost, but certainly not completely, as intriguing as the actual mystery itself. Cowritten by John Shen Yen Nee and SJ Rozan, this series opener introduces two Chinese men, Lao She and Judge Dee Ren Jie, who are actual historic figures from China’s past. These two men collaborate to investigate the murder of a Chinese man, which death is quickly multiplied when more Chinese men, all of whom knew each other, are found murdered by the same weapon, an unusual butterfly sword.

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Bentley: An ode to a dog with brains and heart and beauty

/ Pamela Kramer

 

Today is almost four years since Bentley died. He was perhaps the dog I’ve loved most in my life since my dog Billy, who captured my heart when I was in high school. Bentley came into my life years later when one of my daughters couldn’t keep him, so she left him with us. And that was a gift, because Bentley enriched our lives in many, many ways. He was both the most magnificent and the most difficult dog we’ve ever had. But at all times, he was wonderful, handsome, kind, and supremely intelligent. My students adored him, teachers loved him, and everyone was entranced by his silky fur and gentle nature. This is at least part of his story. We’ll never know about the first years of his life, but his last decade was incredible. I wrote this in three parts. One part I just wrote, four years after his passing. The other two parts were written a year before his death and the day after his death. 

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‘Matterhorn’: High Adventure by Christopher Reich

/ Pamela Kramer

A casual glance at the cover of Christopher Reich’s latest novel, “Matterhorn,” might lead one to assume that he or she is looking at a piece about mountain climbing; but after a closer, more careful look, that potential reader would spy a helicopter and perhaps some angry-looking red-orange clouds, perhaps orange for fireworks and red for blood. The fact is that the novel IS about the art, skill, and danger of climbing, but it’s also about the art, skill, and danger of spying — killing with impunity, morality or lack of same, passion or apparent lack of same, and the reality of pursuing whatever means are necessary to achieve one’s ends, be they for good, evil, riches, or pure power.

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‘The Duchess’ is the second in ‘The Scandalous Ladies of London’ series by Sophie Jordan

/ Pamela Kramer

Unlike most historical romance novels, which feature young innocent debutantes and more mature males, Sophie Jordan created “The Scandalous Ladies of London,” this Regency romance series to feature mature women. The main characters in these novels are women who are either the mothers of debutantes or of an age in which they could be mothers to the debutantes. These are not young ingenues, but rather seasoned, experienced women who may have been married but have not had the joy of a loving relationship. While they are not in the first blush of youth, their beauty has grown with age, like a fine wine.

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Entertaining picture books with more than humor to share

/ Pamela Kramer

Picture books, as I’ve said before (apologies for beating this to death), are inspiring ways of entertaining children while also opening the door for discussion of important topics. These picture books will certainly open the door for talks about topics as diverse as brother-sister rivalry, parental admonitions, cloud formation, stereotyping, and even facts vs. lies. All of these would be perfect additions for a classroom or school library.

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‘The Stars Turned Inside Out’ by Nova Jacobs is much more than “just” a murder mystery

/ Pamela Kramer

While there is a death at the very beginning of “The Stars Turned Inside Out,” author Nova Jacobs has much more in store for readers than a typical murder mystery. This very sophisticated story takes place in Switzerland, in the CERN facility, to be exact. And it’s in this place where physicists try to divide atoms into smaller and smaller pieces, and try to find dark matter, that mysterious concept most of us don’t fully understand, where the death takes place. And while the cause of death is clear, how it happened is not.

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