Book Review: A Comedy of Nobodies

Charlie knows he’s not the main character in his own story. He’s just one more schmuck trying to navigate life in the Ivy League. He plays in a terrible jazz band, falls in love far too easily, and generally struggles with the business of being human.

With understated hilarity this collection chronicles Charlie and his friends as they explore the meaning of life through the stories they grew up with, the stories they tell each other, and the stories they tell themselves.

As Charlie tries to find love using the scientific method, babysits a toddler in exchange for a chance to loosen those financial aid purse-strings, jumps out a window to escape a jealous football player’s wrath, and enrages a packed hockey stadium by replacing the national anthem with a jazz-trio rendition of “American Pie,” he discovers that the answers to life’s most pressing questions are almost always just more questions.

Book Review: The Fellowship of Puzzle Makers

Clayton Stumper might be in his twenties, but he dresses like your grandpa and fusses like your aunt. Abandoned at birth on the steps of the Fellowship of Puzzlemakers, he was raised by a group of eccentric enigmatologists and now finds himself among the last survivors of a fading institution.

When the esteemed crossword compiler and main maternal presence in Clayton’s life, Pippa Allsbrook, passes away, she bestows her final puzzle on him: a promise to reveal the mystery of his parentage and prepare him for life beyond the walls of the commune. So begins Clay’s quest to uncover the secrets surrounding his birth, secrets that will change Clay and the Fellowship forever.

Book Review: The Rulebreaker

Barbara Walters was a force from the time TV was exploding on the American scene in the 1960s to its waning dominance in a new world of competition from streaming services and social media half a century later. She was not just a groundbreaker for women (Oprah announced when she was seventeen that she wanted to be Barbara Walters), but also expanded the big TV interview and then dominated the genre. By the end of her career, she had interviewed more of the famous and infamous, from presidents to movie stars to criminals to despots, than any other journalist in history. Then at sixty-seven, past the age many female broadcasters found themselves involuntarily retired, she pioneered a new form of talk TV called The View. She is on the short list of those who have left the biggest imprints on television news and on our culture, male or female. So, who was the woman behind the legacy?

Book Review: Godzilla - Here There Be Dragons

Before humanity had successfully traveled the entire globe, it was believed that monsters ruled the oceans just beyond the horizon. “Here there be dragons…” was written on maps to denote the areas people dared not go.That is, until Sir Francis Drake circumnavigated the seas, visiting foreign lands and collecting treasure. That’s what history tells us, at least, but history does not have the full tale.

Monsters did lurk yonder, living on an island that still doesn’t appear on any map, and among them was the king of them all… Godzilla! From Frank Tieri and Inaki Miranda, the incredible team behind Old Lady Harley, comes a Godzilla adventure like no other. Collects the five-issue series.

Book Review: Marriage Toxin vol. 2

Poison Master Hikaru Gero is about to take on his most challenging assignment yet—getting married! But after training his entire life to become one of the world’s deadliest assassins, Gero couldn’t be more clueless when it comes to the art of dating. Thankfully, marriage swindler Mei Kinosaki knows everything there is to know about love, and together, this unlikely pair is going to do whatever it takes to get Gero hitched—even if they have to take on the entire criminal underworld in the process!

After assessing Gero’s romantic qualities (or lack thereof), Kinosaki decides the best strategy to find Gero a wife is to use his impressive talents as an assassin instead! Together they respond to a job listing to rescue Himekawa, an art thief who’s been taken hostage—but with a water master now standing in their way, their plan takes a turn for the worse! Can Gero win this fierce battle of poison versus water and take his first step toward marital bliss?

Book Review: Let Me Take You Down

John Lennon wrote “Strawberry Fields Forever” in Almería, Spain, in fall 1966, and in November, in response to that song, Paul McCartney wrote “Penny Lane” at his home in London. A culmination of what was one of the most life-altering and chaotic years in the Beatles’ career, these two songs composed the 1967 double A-side 45 rpm record that has often been called the greatest single in the history of popular music and was, according to Beatles producer George Martin, “the best record we ever made.”

Book Review: The Sicilian Inheritance

Sara Marsala barely knows who she is anymore after the failure of her business and marriage. On top of that, her beloved great-aunt Rosie passes away, leaving Sara bereft with grief. But Aunt Rosie’s death also opens an escape from her life and a window into the past by way of a plane ticket to Sicily, a deed to a possibly valuable plot of land, and a bombshell family secret. Rosie believes Sara’s great-grandmother Serafina, the family matriarch who was left behind while her husband worked in America, didn’t die of illness as family lore has it . . . she was murdered.

Thus begins a twist-filled adventure that takes Sara all over the picturesque Italian countryside as she races to solve a mystery and learn the story of Serafina—a feisty and headstrong young woman in the early 1900s thrust into motherhood in her teens, who fought for a better life not just for herself but for all the women of her small village. Unsurprisingly the more she challenges the status quo, the more she finds herself in danger.

Book Review: Walt Disney World Hacks, 2nd Edition

Did you know…

- Some attractions inflate their wait time at the end of the day to discourage riders from entering the line when they’re preparing to close? Check the rides in person...you might be able to cut your wait time in half since there might not actually be a long line!

- Although pricier, Genie+ can sometimes come with extra “freebies”—if you know where to look? A great benefit is free digital downloads of select Disney PhotoPass attraction photos.

- Packing something as simple as an extra pair of socks can really save your Disney day? Whether you’re met with unexpected weather or are just tired from miles (literally!) of walking, switching out your socks halfway through the day can provide a much-needed refresh.

Book Review: Dwellings

Welcome to Elwich—an oasis of small-town perfection, where the schools overflow with cheery-eyed children, lovingly adorned homes line the historic boulevards . . . and only the crows can see the deep, festering rot that lurks beneath the pristine surface.

Murder.

Demonology.

Possession.

Obsession.

Elwich has them all on offer—and behind every dwelling awaits a horrifying new story to be told.

Book Review: The Day Tripper

It's 1995, and twenty-year-old Alex Dean has it all: a spot at Cambridge University next year, the love of Holly, and all the time in the world ahead of him. Then he wakes one morning to find he’s fifteen years into his future, broke and ruined, his features ravaged by time and poor decisions. After finally drifting off to sleep that night, he wakes the following morning to find it’s now 2019, another nine years later. But the day after that, it’s 1999.

Never knowing which day of his life he’ll wake up in next, Alex sets off on an emotional journey to piece together what went so wrong in his life, and test whether it’s possible to change one’s fate. Why did nothing turn out like he thought it would? What happened to Cambridge, to Holly, to his music? It turns out that small actions can have untold impact, and causes still have effects, even in a life happening out of order. Perhaps it’s enough to save himself, and those he loves.

Book Review: Mr. Churchill's Secretary

London, 1940. Winston Churchill has just been sworn in, war rages across the Channel, and the threat of a Blitz looms larger by the day. But none of this deters Maggie Hope. She graduated at the top of her college class and possesses all the skills of the finest minds in British intelligence, but her gender qualifies her only to be the newest typist at No. 10 Downing Street. Her indefatigable spirit and remarkable gifts for codebreaking, though, rival those of even the highest men in government, and Maggie finds that working for the prime minister affords her a level of clearance she could never have imagined—and opportunities she will not let pass. In troubled, deadly times, with air-raid sirens sending multitudes underground, access to the War Rooms also exposes Maggie to the machinations of a menacing faction determined to do whatever it takes to change the course of history.

Book Review: A Good Bad Boy

Best known for playing loner rebel Dylan McKay in Beverly Hills 90210, Luke Perry was fifty-two years old when he died of a stroke in 2019. There have been other deaths of 90’s stars, but this one hit different. Gen X was reminded of their own inescapable mortality, and robbed of an exciting career resurgence for one of their most cherished icons—with recent roles in the hit series Riverdale and Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time In Hollywood bringing him renewed attention and acclaim. Only upon his death, as stories poured out online about his authenticity and kindness, did it become clear how little was known about the exceedingly humble actor and how deeply he impacted popular culture.

Book Review: The Last Days of the Midnight Ramblers

Anke Berben is ready to tell all. A legendary model and style icon, she reveled in headline-grabbing romances with not one but three members of the hugely influential rock band the Midnight Ramblers. The band members were as famous for their backstage drama as for their music, and Anke is the only one who fully understands the tangled relationships, betrayals, and suspicions that have added to the Ramblers’ enduring appeal and mystique. That is most evident in the mystery around Anke’s role in the death of Mal, the band’s founder and Anke’s husband, in 1969.

Book Review: The Mystery Writer

There's nothing easier to dismiss than a conspiracy theory—until it turns out to be true.

When Theodosia Benton abandons her career path as an attorney and shows up on her brother's doorstep with two suitcases and an unfinished novel, she expects to face a few challenges. Will her brother support her ambition or send her back to finish her degree? What will her parents say when they learn of her decision? Does she even have what it takes to be a successful writer?

What Theo never expects is to be drawn into a hidden literary world in which identity is something that can be lost and remade for the sake of an audience. When her mentor, a highly successful author, is brutally murdered, Theo wants the killer to be found and justice to be served. Then the police begin looking at her brother, Gus, as their prime suspect, and Theo does the unthinkable in order to protect him. But the writer has left a trail, a thread out of the labyrinth in the form of a story. Gus finds that thread and follows it, and in his attempt to save his sister he inadvertently threatens the foundations of the labyrinth itself. To protect the carefully constructed narrative, Theo Benton, and everyone looking for her, will have to die.