• Books,  Reviews

    Theo of Golden

    One spring morning, a stranger arrives in the small southern city of Golden. No one knows where he has come from…or why… His name is Theo. And he asks a lot more questions than he answers. Theo visits the local coffeehouse, where ninety-two pencil portraits hang on the walls, portraits of the people of Golden done by a local artist. He begins purchasing them, one at a time, and putting them back in the hands of their “rightful owners.” With each exchange, a story is told, a friendship born, and a life altered. A story of giving and receiving, of seeing and being seen, Theo of Golden is a beautifully…

  • Books,  Reviews

    The Odyssey

    In this fresh, authoritative version—the first English translation of The Odyssey by a woman—this stirring tale of shipwrecks, monsters, and magic comes alive in an entirely new way. Written in iambic pentameter verse and a vivid, contemporary idiom, this engrossing translation matches the number of lines in the Greek original, thus striding at Homer's sprightly pace and singing with a voice that echoes Homer's music. A fascinating introduction provides an informative overview of the Bronze Age milieu that produced the epic, the major themes of the poem, the controversies about its origins, and the unparalleled scope of its impact and influence.

  • Crochet,  Crochet Patterns

    Codebreaker Cowl

    Last year, I read a book called The Berlin Letters by Katherine Reay. It was a lovely historical fiction novel set amidst the fall of the Berlin wall. I know. I know...right now you're thinking, but what does this have to do with yarn? Well, inspiration comes from many places, and on the cover of this book was a beautiful knit cowl with lovely drape that I knew I had to have. The problem...I don't knit. So, I set out to mimic it with crochet stitches instead.

  • Books,  Reviews

    Magic for Crosswise Witches

    Bound by blood and betrayal to the dark, unforgiving waters of the lake two centuries earlier, the Crosswise Witch can save or destroy. Each year, the Thorngood women feed their ancestress’s spirit in a fragile bargain for protection. Truly Thorngood was raised to inherit her family’s magic and the land they’ve kept for generations. But one fateful night, violence shattered everything. Young Truly flees to New Orleans and swears off magic, leaving the Justice missing in her wake. When her mother vanishes thirteen years later to the day—and the Justice’s son begins connecting the disappearances—Truly is forced to return home, where the Clay family’s hunger for vengeance waits. As the…

  • Books,  Reviews

    Saltwater

    In 1992 Sarah Lingate is found dead below the cliffs of Capri. Despite suspicions that the old-money Lingates are involved, Sarah’s death is ruled an accident. On the thirtieth anniversary of Sarah’s death, the Lingates arrive at the villa in Capri to find a surprise waiting for them—the necklace Sarah was wearing the night she died. The legendary Lingate family unity is pushed to a breaking point, and Sarah's daughter, Helen, enlists the help of Lorna Moreno, a family assistant, to plot their escape from Helen’s paranoid, insular family. When Lorna disappears and the investigation into Sarah’s death is reopened, Helen has to confront the fact that everyone who was…

  • Books,  Reviews

    The Bear and the Nightingale

    At the edge of the Russian wilderness, winter lasts most of the year and the snowdrifts grow taller than houses. But Vasilisa doesn't mind—she spends the winter nights huddled around the embers of a fire with her beloved siblings, listening to her nurse's fairy tales. Above all, she loves the chilling story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon, who appears in the frigid night to claim unwary souls. After Vasilisa's mother dies, her father goes to Moscow and brings home a new, fiercely devout wife, who forbids her family from honoring the household spirits. The family acquiesces, but Vasilisa is frightened, sensing that more hinges upon their rituals than anyone…

  • Books,  Reviews

    Dungeon Crawler Carl

    A man and his ex-girlfriend's cat are luckily outside when every human-erected structure on Earth flattens to the ground and the people who were inside were either killed or, along with other bits of human civilization, become fodder for the dungeon. The dungeon is an 18-level labyrinth filled with traps, monsters, and loot and is so enormous, it circles the entire globe. Carl and Donut enter and once they're in, there's no way out but through. They must compete—video game style—to survive, but not just survive, they must do it in style, appealing to the viewers of the most-watched game show in the galaxy that they suddenly find themselves participating…

  • Books,  Reviews

    The Colony Club

    When young Gilded Age society matron Daisy Harriman is refused a room at the Waldorf because they don't cater to unaccompanied females, she takes matters into her own hands. She establishes the Colony Club, the first women's club in Manhattan. As "the best dressed actress on the Rialto," Elsie de Wolfe has an eye for décor, but her career is stagnating. So when Stanford White, the architect for The Colony Club, asks her to design the clubhouse interiors, she jumps at the chance and the opportunity to add a woman's touch. Nora Bromely is determined to become an architect in spite of hostility and sabotage from her male colleagues. But…