🌟🌟🌟🌟 Written by a former school-teacher, this lovely children’s book is a gentle look at the sometimes frightening, always expectant, world of the young, - a world where change-without-explanation can be as bewildering and it is distressing. Chloe is a smart, self-sufficient and curious eleven-year-old, living with a mysterious mother…
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 What do you get when you take two articulate and learned sociologists, an astoundingly-clever cartoonist, and a desire to spread knowledge, awareness and a ray of hope concerning an eternally-challenging social structure - one that, in and of itself, perhaps more than any other construct, may be responsible for…
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 A fascinating, multi-layered look at the “hard” problem of consciousness, which this reader found totally and absolutely mesmerizing. (My own consciousness working hard to keep up, expanding with the extraordinarily-sweeping insights of this author). Taking an unusual approach, the author, a neuroscientist, considers one true-to-life scenario - the stimulation…
🌟🌟🌟🌟 Packed with sardonic humor (Note to reader: watch where you read this book. I found myself laughing out loud in several places) pop culture (many of which were obscure to this reader), faux fur, and pink velvet, this ode to growing up a literary-wannabe in the exploding world of…
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Beautifully textured, this mind-altering speculative fiction story tells a tale of time, of humanity, and our never-ending search for meaning and understanding, amidst our existential quest to live a “tranquil life in the face of death”. With impeccable finesse the author builds an intricate and mesmerizing world (actually, many…
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 I adore this series. Having followed (and loved) the work of this brilliant and prolific author for decades, it is this series in particular - Isabel Dalhousie, her essential “goodness”, and her gorgeously-welcoming literary world - that has earned a very special place in my heart. An indulgence of…
🌟🌟🌟🌟💫 A continuation of the Detective Moralès series, this was my introduction to this author, and easily enjoyed as a stand-alone novel. Part dread, part horror, and all suspense, this is a brilliantly crafted story with an atmosphere so darkly charged with foreboding, that this reader, for one, finds it…
🌟🌟🌟🌟💫 This beautiful cook-book is a labor-of love between two authors, both of Chinese heritage and heavily influenced by a love of the food and flavors of their roots - one, Rosheen Kaul , (of Kashmiri and Chinese/Filipino descent), a head chef; and the other, Joanna Hu, experienced in food…
🌟🌟🌟🌟💫 How would you handle it - in the blink of an eye, your entire world turned upside down? Not once, in fact, but actually, twice - first, the overwhelming (and somewhat expected) devastation driven by grief-stricken loss, followed by a revelation, hidden and spectacularly unsuspected for decades, life-altering in…