Jane Litte's Blog, page 19

REVIEW: Dogland: Passion, Glory, and Lots of Slobber at the Westminster Dog Show by Tommy Tomlinson

From Pulitzer Prize finalist Tommy Tomlinson comes an inside account of the Westminster Dog Show that follows one dog on his quest to become a champion—and explores the bond between dogs and their people.

Tommy Tomlinson was watching a dog show on television a few years ago when he had a sudden thought: Are those dogs happy? How about pet dogs—are they happy? Those questions sparked a quest to venture inside the dog-show world, in search of a deeper understanding of the relationship between ...

Review: Way Station by Clifford D. Simak

Enoch Wallace is an ageless hermit, striding across his untended farm as he has done for over a century, still carrying the gun with which he had served in the Civil War. But what his neighbors must never know is that, inside his unchanging house, he meets with a host of unimaginable friends from the farthest stars.

More than a hundred years before, an alien named Ulysses had recruited Enoch as the keeper of Earth’s only galactic transfer station. Now, as Enoch studies the progress of Earth ...

REVIEW: The Sixth Henry by Caroline Warfield

The passion of red—the sweetness of white. Together they may create a love for the ages.

When Henry Bradley, sixth of that name, is suddenly elevated to Duke of Roseleigh, he finds the responsibilities almost outweigh the privileges. Beset by litigious neighbors, needy tenants, and nagging relatives, he also endures pressure from all sides to make sure Roseleigh’s brilliant red roses best the Earl of Edgecote’s white ones at the York Rose Show in the spring. When the Earl’s daughter Margaret p...

REVIEW: Dictionary of Fine Distinctions: Nuances, Niceties, and Subtle Shades of Meaning by Eli Burnstein

What’s the difference between mazes and labyrinths? Proverbs and adages? Clementines and tangerines? Join author Eli Burnstein on a hairsplitter’s odyssey into the world of the ultra-subtle with Dictionary of Fine Distinctions. Illustrated by New Yorker cartoonist Liana Finck, this humorous dictionary takes a neurotic, brain-tickling plunge into the infinite (and infinitesimal) nuances that make up our world.

The perfect gift for book lovers, word nerds, trivia geeks, and everyday readers, thi...

REVIEW: Christa Comes Out of Her Shell by Abbi Waxman

Just when she thought she’d gotten far enough away . . . a life-changing phone call throws an antisocial scientist back into her least favorite place—the spotlight.

After a tumultuous childhood, Christa Barnet has hidden away, both figuratively and literally. Happily studying sea snails in the middle of the Indian Ocean, Christa finds her tranquil existence thrown into chaos when her once-famous father—long thought dead after a plane crash—turns out to be alive, well, and ready to make amends...

Review: The Empty Throne by Megan Derr

The Kingdom of Cremisio is in turmoil—the royal family dead by assassination, a secret heir no one can find, and three enemy kingdoms fighting bitterly to each take control of Cremisio for themselves. If the missing heir cannot be identified and located, Cremisio will fall once and for all, and thousands of people will die with it. Only one person knows the identity of the missing Lord Cohea Szelis, the Duke of Lindquist, also known as the Fox of Cremisio. Notoriously honorable, impossible to b...

REVIEW: I Don’t Really Need You: A very French romantic comedy by Marie Vareille

The best selling romance by France’s answer to Sophie Kinsella finally available in English

Chloe is the perfect Parisian: she’s too skinny, smokes too much, and drinks too much. She also has the bad habit of getting into toxic relationships, particularly with her ex Guillaume who is engaged to another woman. Her friend Constance, however, is a hopeless romantic, spends all her money on Jane Austen memorabilia yet is unable to find her Mr. Darcy.

One day, the two friends make a bet: Chloe will...

REVIEW: Keeping Pace by Laurie Morrison

Laurie Morrison’s Keeping Pace is a poignant middle-grade novel about friends-turned-rivals training for a half-marathon—and rethinking what it means to win and what they mean to each other.

Grace has been working for years to beat her former friend Jonah Perkins’s GPA so she can be named top scholar of the eighth grade. But when Jonah beats her for the title, it feels like none of Grace’s academic accomplishments have really mattered. They weren’t enough to win—or to impress her dad. And then...

REVIEW: The Arrangement : A Sweet Muslim Friends to Lovers Sports Romance by BF Queen

“The Arrangement” by BF Queen is the latest installment in the Ramadan Night series – a heartwarming sports romance that follows Yassine, a world-famous goalkeeper who requires a green card to continue playing in the US and represent Morocco in the World Cup. His solution: marriage to Nouha, a bookish personal assistant at the soccer club who has been scarred both physically and emotionally by a tragic accident. As their arrangement progresses, Nouha questions whether Yassine’s feelings are ge...

REVIEW: Mal Goes to War by Edward Ashton

The humans are fighting again. Go figure.

As a free A.I., Mal finds the war between the modded and augmented Federals and the puritanical Humanists about as interesting as a battle between rival anthills. He’s not above scouting the battlefield for salvage, though, and when the Humanists abruptly cut off access to infospace he finds himself trapped in the body of a cyborg mercenary, and responsible for the safety of the modded girl she died protecting.

A dark comedy wrapped in a techno thrill...