We Bought a Zoo by Benjamin Mee

Title:  We Bought a Zoo

Author: Benjamin Mee 

This true story is about a family that buys a rundown zoo with 200 animals and how they preserver through tragedy & setback after setback. Benjamin Mee  with his brothers and mother (along with family support) survive through all the stress and pain of buying the zoo during which a new tragedy strikes, one that will change the family forever. Through it all they get the zoo and go about making it ready for the public to see. There are problems upon problems. On top of it all they must deal with money and staff problems.  This book was a joy to read, it’s about a family bond that is so great it was able to include 200 animals and save them and make the world a little richer for it.

Review by:  Julie

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Title:  Cinder

Author: Marissa Meyer 

In the future, androids, and cyborgs may live peacefully together with the humans but that doesn’t mean that they are treated equally.  Cinder, a cyborg, lives with a step-mother that hates her and works as a mechanic in the market to make money for her step-family’s living expenses.

An act of betrayal uncovers hidden secrets about her past and she must make a decision to save herself or protect her world’s future.  This is Cinderella as you’ve never imagined it!

Review by:  Jannelle

Hemingway's Boat: Everything He Loved in Life, and Lost, 1934-1961

Title:  Hemingway's Boat: Everything He Loved in Life, and Lost, 1934-1961

Author: Paul Hendrickson 

Ernest Hemingway was a complex man with an extraordinary love of the sea, fishing & Havana Cuba. He lived a life full of contradistinctions ranging from compassion to strangers in need to darkness and disappointment in his own family. By today’s standards, his family epitomized dysfunction with three marriages and a cross dressing son. This dysfunctional world led to his ultimate personal destruction. If you enjoyed “Glass Castle” by Jeanette Walls you will really like this biography too.

Review by:  Becky

What’s Wrong With My Vegetable Garden? by David Deardorff and Kathryn Wadsworth

Title:  What’s Wrong With My Vegetable Garden? 100% Organic Solutions For All Your Vegetables From Artichokes to Zucchini.

Author: David Deardorff and Kathryn Wadsworth 

I own almost every How-To-Garden book out there.  They’ve been very helpful tools to set up my home garden.  But what happens when something goes wrong?  (And believe me, MANY things have gone wrong!)  Most of my books have small sections that might help identify the problem but offers very few or vague solutions.

Now the help I’ve been seeking has arrived!  Full of pictures of plant diseases and pests this guide offers clear step-by-step solutions for keeping your vegetable garden healthy & bountiful. 

Can’t wait to get out to my garden to try these ideas out!

Review by:  Jannelle

Phantom Toll Booth by Norton Juster

Title:  Phantom Toll Booth

Author: Norton Juster 

I first read the Phantom Tollbooth in second grade. I found it instantly captivating and it is still one of my all time favorites. It is the story of Milo, a boy who does not see the point in learning anything and for whom the world is dull. One day a mysterious package arrives and Milo drives through a Tollbooth to another world. As is typical in these sorts of children's stories, Milo is given an impossible quest to restore Rhyme and Reason to the kingdom. What is not typical are the quirky sense of humor, eccentric wordplay, and stunning metaphors. I think this was the first book I ever read that showed me that language, words, could be captivating all on their own. This is a story about the awakening of the mind and the joy of knowledge for it's own sake. No matter how old you are this book is not one to miss.

Review by:  Anna

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

Title:  1Q84

Author: Haruki Murakami

At its most fundamental level, 1Q84 is about the merging of opposites: East and West; science and religion; male and female; and, most importantly, the real and the unreal. This fusion of opposites is evident even in the novel's physical body. The partially transparent dust jacket together creates a complete image. Inside, Murakami's title takes up eight pages, each letter presented as an image and a photographic negative. The novel's central characters are Tengo, a mathematics teacher and budding novelist, and Aomame, a fitness instructor who moonlights as an assassin, killing the husbands of battered women. While their lives seem unconnected at first, Murakami slowly weaves Tengo and Aomame's stories together. Throughout, Murakami draws on Chekhov, Murasaki Shikibu's Tale of Genji, the Christian Bible, Buddhist sutras, and (as the title would imply) George Orwell's 1984, and he does so with a calm understated style other writers can only envy. 1Q84 is, like all Murakami novels, a dense read, but, like all Murakami novels, it's worth the effort.

Review by:  David

Reality Is Broken by Jane McGonigal

Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World
Jane McGonigal

If you think that gaming is about nothing more than the kids sitting in front of the computer or TV exercising their thumbs on game controllers, think again. Today games are having a much greater and more positive impact than ever before. Game designer Jane McGonigal shows us how games are making the difference in everything from improved social interaction, to reduced stress on airplane flights, to even family members competing over who gets to do the household chores! Reality is Broken shows us how games can, and are improving our world.

Review by:  Ben

Author's web site: janemcgonigal.com

Made by Hand now in paperback

Made By Hand: Searching for Meaning in a Throwaway World by Mark Frauenfelder

Do you find yourself feeling “disconnected” from your world? Why not try
a do-it-yourself (DIY) project? Make something by hand. In his book Made
by Hand, Mark Frauenfelder tells about various ways he tried to “do it
himself” including raising chickens, growing his own food, crafting a
guitar, and even keeping bees. For me, learning from his experiences in
these things has inspired me to do my own DIY projects. There’s
something very satisfying to have completed something that you created
on your own. I can’t wait to get started. Read this book as a companion
to to Shop Class as Soul craft by Matthew Crawford and you’ll find
 meaning in your manual labors.

Review by: Ben 

The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry

The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry

In an unnamed city where the streets are always slick with rain a mystery is unfolding. Charles Unwin, a clerk working for the city's law enforcement agency, receives an unexpected promotion to the rank of detective. Unwin responds by doing what any bureaucrat in his position would do: He assumes there has been a mistake and sets out to correct this error. So begins a dream-like noir novel that will keep you guessing until the final pages. Filled with intrigue, sly humor, femme fatales and clues that often raise questions instead of providing answers, the world Berry has created is both familiar and fantastical. I highly recommend The Manual of Detection for a fun yet absorbing read on a rainy afternoon.

Review by:  Mac 

See also:  thirdarchive.net

Hounded by Kevin Hearne

Hounded by Kevin Hearne

Think the gods are not around anymore, you would be wrong!! Think Druids are dead you would be wrong (He is lives in Arizona)! Atticus seems like a nice young man who runs a occult bookshop but, he is really a twenty-one centuries old! He has to deal with a Celtic god who wants his sward back and witches who want him dead and a goddess of death that is up to know good!! It is a good thing he has friends like Hal(who is a werewolf) and a few others.
This book is a fast read but well worth it! It is urban fantasy at it's best!  This takes on a new twist with the gods walking the earth and messing with us humans and Atticus doing his best to stop the crazy ones.

Review by:  Julie 

See also:  kevinhearne.com