After years of trying Tiny and her husband are having a baby and Tiny is not ready to give up her music career. Tiny knows this baby was conceived by her owl lover and is convinced that she is having an owl baby. Chouette is born early in trauma and is seen by doctors and others to be imperfect and in need care for her whole life. Tiny doesn't understand their confusion or her husband's desire to fix Chouette and make her less owl baby and more human baby. Mother and child bond by night hunting small critters and Chouette screeches and squawks like a bird as well as behaving raptor- like to those she feels threatened by. For every one of her father's crazy remedies, Tiny and Chouette fight back. This is one weird journey into motherhood and psychosis. It is also a testament to a mother's love above all else. Not for the squeamish this will appeal to other strange books of motherhood like SORROWLAND and NIGHTBITCH. 4 stars
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Tookie has survived more than what COVID is dishing out. Now, out of prison and working at a local independent bookstore that specializes in indigenous titles, Tookie has another problem. One of the bookstores more annoying customers has died and is haunting the store, particularly Tookie. She must rid herself of Flora but can only do so by delving into Flora's claim of a native heritage while battling racial tension, COVID shutdowns and a lack of trust in her marriage. Beautiful heartfelt prose and witty banter combined with a strong sense of community and tribal pride this story tackles much of the fear and uncertainty we have all felt the past year and a half. One again, Louise Erdrich has treated us to another rich and colorful story. An added bonus is the extensive book list in the back of the book of all the titles mentioned. 4 stars
Alice Henderson does for animal conservation outdoor adventure what Clive Cussler does for marine archeology. Alex Carter begins a new study tagging and taking samples of the polar bear populations in the Canadian Arctic. She is happy all the drama of the last study is done only to find herself knee-deep in fresh drama and danger. Someone is trying to stop Alex and her team from getting those samples. This begins a dangerous game of sabotage, midnight robberies, being shot at and that doesn't even include the dangers from having a massive polar bear wake up early. She is smart, she knows her way around survival in extreme conditions and she is not about to let anyone get in her way from protecting defenseless and threatened animals. A thrill ride from page one, Henderson's books always include a bonus of knowledge about the animals, their habitats and the efforts to save them. For lovers of all things outdoors and scary as well as readers of C.J. Box, Clive Cussler and Paul Doiron. 4 1/2 wild stars
AO has had most of her body augmented with bionic parts after an accident that almost killed her. During a trip to the market a violent encounter brands her a terrorist forcing her to run. She heads into the desert and meets DNA a nomad herdsman with an axe to grind and together they set out into the violent desert winds. There are so many layers of messages here and themes of climate change, new ways to generate energy as well as the huge corporation who steals the land away from the nomadic tribes are all in play here. Add to that Nnedi Okorafor's melodic prose and a sci-fi Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid duo and you have another clever tale of warning. Perfect for her already numerous fans and those of Ray Bradbury and other apocalyptic authors with a distinctive African voice. 4 stars
I kept coming back to how this story reminded me of the early days of "This is Us" - even the cover art looks like Mandy Moore. Layla is finished with a half hearted attempt at singing years ago and her half hearted marriage. Now she teaches music at an elementary school, owns her own home and taking on projects like remodeling her basement into a personal music studio. Josh is in the middle of divorcing the wife he has been with since high school and trying really hard not to mess up his young daughter's life any more than it already will be. He is not looking for love any more than Layla is. What begins as friendship goes to you know what but not without a few road bumps along the way. Layla has to decide her next step and focus on what she wants out of life and who she wants in it. For readers who want a good old fashioned love story and fulfilling your dreams. 3 1/2 stars
A signal from deep space affects the lives of Ramona working on AI for Google, her on again/ off again boyfriend a cellist and music teacher and a talented music student as well as the astronaut who is sent to deep space to the source of Omni. How the discovery of Omni relates to these people was difficult for me to grasp. Ramona and Sevi just had issues with her work and their failing relationship that never really seemed to be resolved. I did enjoy the banter and philosophizing between the astronaut and his AI ship computer. Readers looking for a deep understanding of modern relationships, our failing humanity and the future with the awareness that we are not alone in the Universe will get more out of this story than I did. I did not consider this science fiction. 3 stars
Before listening to the author explain erasure poetry to me I don't think I would have picked up this book. It is fascinating to me on two levels - first, because it takes a caustic message (hate mail) and filters out the negative to leave a skeleton positive message. Second, because of the author's incredible talent to see that positive message. Kate Baer uses email and letters that she received as well as speeches and snatches of news, tv etc as inspiration. In every case the negative remarks are stripped to reveal a hidden hopeful message written in a year that felt very hopeless at times. 4 stars
Ellice opened up a Pandora's box of trouble when she arrived early to work only to find her boss/lover dead. Inheriting his job didn't help especially when she gets the sense it has more to do with the color of her skin than her job performance. She begins to get a sense that all is not well in the organization combined with the fact that someone close to her might be the number one murder suspect and every thing spirals from there. This "killer" debut builds the tension perfectly keeping you racing through the pages. It offers all the best law drama of Grisham's THE FIRM with a female lead who is smart and not afraid to go up against the big bad boys. She has more than enough secrets and a good reason to keep them secret. I am looking forward to reading more from this talented new author. 5 stars
A reimagined telling of Rumplestiltskin with a decidedly Marissa Meyer spin. Serilda lives in a small village with her father and stays away from most people because her eyes mark her for a storyteller known to exaggerate (and by that I mean lie). Her gift of stories makes her beloved to the children but gets her in trouble when she is brought before the evil Erlking who is terrorizing the locals with his bloodthirsty hunts. He and his legion of dark monsters, castle full of ghosts and the cursed make life hell for Serilda. Of course it helps that a handsome poltergeist named Gild is there to bale her out of her spinning straw into gold duties. Delightfully dark and creepy, this new world is a mixture of fairy tale and dark tales of vampires and monsters as well as a young girl yearning for the mother who is gone and the boyfriend she can't have. Young adults will devour it as we all do Meyer's other books and adults will become new fans. This will appeal to fans of gothic tales, horror classics and fairy tales for adults. 4 1/2 stars
Life for most women in the late 1800's midwest and western states was one of drudgery. Pearl had a tough childhood and early adulthood where she was expected to stop caring for her family only to marry and care for another family so she did the unexpected - she ran off and became an outlaw. Dressed as a man she robbed stage coaches, broke herself out of jail as well as whatever man she was with and became quite a celebrity for her good looks, unusual situation and her choice of a pet wild cat. She also became quite the thorn in the side of most of the western lawmen. I wouldn't call her life a happy one but she certainly did live it on her terms. Well researched and entertaining as it is informative, this spotlights an unusual family and the extremes that some went to to make it big in the west. 4 stars
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