Jane Litte's Blog, page 93

REVIEW: A Day at the Gallery: An arty animal search book jam-packed with facts by Nia Gould

The mice are captivated by Matisse and the cats are exploring the Surrealists’ room … what else is going on in the gallery?

This quirky and creative search-and-find book takes children, room by room, through a wonderfully illustrated gallery, where an array of animals are enjoying everything from Impressionism and Surrealism to Pop Art and Cubism.

Each room is filled with strange and astonishing works of art, with things for children to spot and information that introduces artists and art move...

REVIEW: A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Cat: The Life and Times of Artistic Felines by Nia Gould

Life and Times of Artistic Felines

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Cat is a book of more than 20 influential artists reimagined as artistic felines.

From Frida Catlo to Yayoi Catsama, Wassily Catdinski to Henri Catisse, each portrait of the artist as a young cat is accompanied by a clever tongue-in-cheek biography revealing the thrilling feline lives (all nine) behind their famed artwork.

Loaded with clever cat puns, this playful romp through art history will twist the whiskers of any cat-...

Review: Murder Under Her Skin (Pentecost and Parker#2) by Stephen Spotswood

Stephen Spotswood hard-boils with the best of ’em! –Alan Bradley, bestselling author of the Flavia de Luce mystery series

Someone’s put a blade in the back of the Amazing Tattooed Woman, and Willowjean “Will” Parker’s former knife-throwing mentor has been stitched up for the crime. To uncover the truth, Will and her boss, world-famous detective Lillian Pentecost, travel south into a snakepit of old grudges, small-town crime, and secrets worth killing for.

New York, 1946: The last time Will Par...

Jayne’s Best of 2021 List

From space aliens in the form of a cat or a unicorn, to Aussie prisoners, to a Chinese princess, to a 1920s down on her financial luck heroine, to hero determined to save his childhood love or another ready to deck some halls with Christmas cheer, my reading was all over the place this year. Here are my A grade books from this year and a few from previous years that would have made my list if I’d read them then.

The Dressmakers of Yarrandarrah Prison by Meredith Jaffe

My Review

Can a wedding d...

What Janine is Reading: Rachel Reid’s Game Changers series, Part I

Earlier in the year I read (or in one case, tried to read) the first three books in Rachel Reid’s m/m contemporary romance series, Game Changers, which follows queer NHL players as they fall in love and have to deal with the conflict presented by the heteronormative culture of the NHL and its fandom. I would label the first two books erotic romances, but not the third. Although my response to the books was decidedly mixed (as you’ll see if you keep reading) I plan to continue the series to follo...

REVIEW: Marriage or Ruin for the Heiress by Lauri Robinson

A pretend marriageA passion that’s anything but…

The great depression has left heiress Jolie Cramer’s family destitute! To save them, Jolie must abandon her dreams of independence and marry wealthy Randal Osterlund. Thank goodness Randal only wants a wife to secure a business deal and shares her feelings about love—nothing but heartache! Jolie quickly realizes that’s not all they have in common, but falling for her charismatic husband wasn’t part of their agreement…

Dear Ms. Robinson, 

I’ve e...

Kaetrin’s Best of 2021 List

I had a hit and miss year with reading, spending a few months in a terrible slump and then taking time off due to injury where I could not do any reviewing and so I read from my TBR and caught up on some series’ which had been languishing there. I read some fantastic books over the course of the year but these lists are about books published this year so I was ruthless in my sorting after I exported my Goodreads data and only looked at 2021 releases.  Lucky for me there were exactly 10 standouts...

REVIEW: The Ghost of Madison Avenue by Nancy Bilyeau

In this unforgettable story, bestselling author Nancy Bilyeau takes readers to J. P. Morgan’s private library in December 1912, when two very different people haunted by lost love come together in an unexpected way.

Helen O’Neill, part of a tight-knit Irish-American family in the Bronx, is only too happy to report to work at the spectacular private library built on Madison Avenue by millionaire financier J. P. Morgan. The head librarian, the brilliant and beautiful Belle da Costa Greene, had h...

REVIEW: Holiday Sparks by Shannon Stacey

House-sitting for her parents seemed like a good idea, until the microwave blew up and the lights went out.

Now Chloe Burke thinks upgrading the electrical system of her childhood home while they are away would make the perfect Christmas gift. Fortunately, there’s an electrician in town who can get the job done by the holidays.

Scott Quinn has wanted to get his hands on the Burkes’ wiring for almost as long as he’s wanted to get his hands on their daughter. Chloe didn’t notice Scott back in hi...

REVIEW: Safety Protocols for Human Holidays by Angel Martinez

Someone has to fix their broken human. Raskli’s not sure why it has to be her.

As a security officer on an interspecies ship, Growlan Raskli’s experienced in heading off species-specific aberrant behaviors in order to keep the peace. But when her captain asks her to find out what’s bothering their sole human crew member, Raskli’s out of her depths. She hardly knows anything about humans and she’s not a psych doctor.

Something’s definitely upset Human Jen, something to do with human holidays. T...