by Hannah Barnaby

There are many quotes in this title. They are divided by subject. To name a few, there are quotes about Change, Courage, Creativity, Hope, Kindness, Saying Good-bye, Siblings and Thankfulness, among others.

Along with the quotes, those who pick up this book will, I think, enjoy the illustrations. Some are whimsical, all are engaging.

This book’s audience is children but I think that many adults will enjoy it as well. It will remind them of some of the books that they treasured when they were younger.

Many thanks to Sourcebooks Kids for this title. All opinions are my own.

Pub date: 04 November 2025

About the book:

From the publisher

A delightful treasury of quotes to spark joy and imagination while growing up!

This beautifully illustrated collection offers quotes from historical and modern classics for today’s kids. Centered around helpful themes, such as courage, kindness, and self-confidence, these inspirational words from some of the most creative minds in children’s literature offer readers timeless wisdom for growing up in today’s world.

Over 170 beloved children’s books are found in this treasury, including:

The Velveteen Rabbit

The Wizard of Oz

Coraline

Ramona the Pest

James and the Giant Peach

Tar Beach

A Long Walk to Water

Last Stop to Market Street

Looking for Alaska

“We are born to dream and make the things we dream about.” — The Sun Is Also a Star, Nicola Yoon

“Courage is if you knew where there were some mountains, you would definitely climb them.” — Courage, Bernard Waber

“You can’t run away from who you are, but what you can do is run toward who you want to be.” — Ghost, Jason Reynolds

About the author:

From Amazon

About the Author

Hannah Barnaby was a children’s book editor, independent bookseller, and reviewer before becoming the first children’s writer-in-residence at the Boston Public Library. She holds an MA in Children’s Literature an MFA in Writing. Her books have earned awards and starred reviews. Hannah lives in Virginia with her family and dogs. You can visit her online at http://www.hannahbarnaby.com.

About the Illustrator:

From Amazon

About the Author

Hannah Barnaby was a children’s book editor, independent bookseller, and reviewer before becoming the first children’s writer-in-residence at the Boston Public Library. She holds an MA in Children’s Literature an MFA in Writing. Her books have earned awards and starred reviews. Hannah lives in Virginia with her family and dogs. You can visit her online at http://www.hannahbarnaby.com.

Ruth Burrows is a British illustrator and designer currently working worldwide from her studio in sunny Lincolnshire, UK. She studied Theatre Design before computers were invented. Drawing, painting, and fixing things keeps her young, and she usually has her best ideas while out walking the dog.

I have enjoyed other novels by Eliza Knight including The Mayfair Bookshop and The Queen’s Faithful Companion. So, when I see her name on a book cover, I am excited.

This time, Knight explores the world of publishing in the early 1960s. To say that women were not highly valued for their skills is an understatement.

As this story opens, Bernadette is working on editorial tasks but is not respected for this. Rather, she is asked to bring her boss’s dirty laundry to the cleaner. Understandably, Bernadette does not appreciate this and wants more. Will she succeed? Will friends that she makes at the New York Public Library help her? Find out in this enjoyable read that also features a likeable editor who has fallen for Bernadette. I recommend it.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks-Landmark for this title. All thoughts are my own.

Pub date:10 June 2025

From the Publisher

A Novel

by Susan Mallery

So, this novel has the perfect title for a read at this time of year. It will be enjoyed by both her new and old readers of this author. They will find an involving story about characters, families and the choices that people make.

Robyn’s life involved always being there for her husband and children. In order to do this, she ruled out options like going to college. Now, in her forties, Robyn’s husband and she are divorced. He has had a series of relationships, some of which are questionable. Robyn’s daughter, Harlow, is planning to marry young, while her son has decided not to go to college. Oh, by the way, Robyn also has to figure out how to support herself when the payments from her former spouse stop. Yes, she has a lot to think about.

While Robyn is in Florida, her great aunt Lillian (aged 94 or so) is in California. Lillian is getting to know the former Marine (and current writer) Mason to whom her husband left her eccentric home. It will pass to him when Lillian dies. There is also a bequest to Robyn.

Robyn decides to leave family behind for a trip to California and Lillian. Will her family stay behind? What will happen out West? How will Robyn’s life change as a result? Readers will find out over the course of this story.

In addition to following Robyn, there is also a secondary plot about Robyn’s best friend and her marriage. Robyn has worked part-time in this friend’s antique business. So, two families that readers get to know.

This book will be enjoyed by those who read women’s fiction. They will most likely then eagerly await the author’s next book.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for this title. All opinions are my own.

Pub date: 15 Mar 2022

Editorial Reviews

Review

PRAISE FOR THE SUMMER GETAWAY

“The Summer Getaway is a reflective and moving tale of family ties.”—New York Journal of Books

“Mallery’s latest contemporary romance has the family dynamics, heartfelt introspection, and emotional truths that keep readers coming back. The perfect escape for readers wanting to get away.”—Booklist

PRAISE FOR SUSAN MALLERY

“Susan Mallery never disappoints.”—Debbie Macomber, #1 New York Times bestselling author

“Mallery is one of a kind.”—RT Book Reviews

“Mallery is an expert at writing about strong women, their friendships, and their romances.”—Booklist

From the Publisher

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/24/books/cozy-fall-books.html

www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/10/27/books/review/1980s-novels-quiz.html

I have read two other books by this author and love her imagination and ability to tell a story. Seeing Jurczyk’s name on this title and the beautiful cover drew me right in.

Take a train ticket, hop on, think that things will happen one way only to find how wrong an assumption that is when the train breaks down and there is a murder in this closed environment. Will Agatha, whose husband had purchased a ticket for her for this Canadian rail journey, emerge unscathed? Why was there a murder? What are Agatha’s connections to those on the train? How will the story unfold? Pick this one up to find out. You will be glad that you did.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for this title. All opinions are my own.

Pub date: 23 September 2025

Mystery & Thriller

352 pages

Also by this author:

Note that I have reposted here and do not know if either of these titles is currently an e book bargain

What could go wrong in: The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections

What happened on: That Night in the Library (Eva Jurczyk)

#TheLastDeathoftheYear #NetGalley

Sophie Hannah has developed a reputation as the inheritor of Agatha Christie’s best known character. Christie’s estate gave Hannah the go ahead to write the new stories that feature Poirot and Inspector Catchpool. I think that many have enjoyed these novels. The Last Death of the Year is the sixth of these mysteries.

This time, Poirot and Catchpool are on a Greek Island (better December weather) with a group of characters that have come to live with a man with a vision. With such noble purpose, could something as dastardly as a murder occur? No spoiler…of course.

All who live on the dilapidated Nash Athanasiou’s estate agree to a set of rules, among which the most important is forgiveness for wrongs. The group who come to live here and to (supposedly) abide by this dictum is varied and complex. There are many backstories and interconnections among this group. When murder strikes, will Poirot be able to solve the case? No spoiler…yes, but I think that it will be very difficult for the reader to do so. Kirkus Reviews states:

Fans hoping to beat Poirot to the mind-bogglingly ingenious solution are well-advised to concede the competition in advance.

Those who want more Christie stories, those who like crime fiction set at the holiday period, those who want a clever story and those who want a fictional escape to a warmer climate in winter will want to pick this up.

Overall, I did enjoy this book. That said, it took a moment or two for me to get all of the characters straight in my mind and to decide if I cared enough about them.

Many thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for this title. All opinions are my own.

Pub date: 28 October 2025

From the Publisher

Other Sophie Hannah novels featuring Poirot:

The Killings at Kingfisher Hill

The inimitable: Hercule Poirot’s Silent Night (Sophie Hannah)

My thoughts:

I listened to this author’s class on Jane Austen last year and very much enjoyed it. Looser was a wonderful guide to Austen, her world and her novels.

I was intrigued to see what Looser would have to say in this book that is focused on “wildness” and if it would feel fresh. It did indeed.

This title is divided into three main sections, Wild Writings and Wild Family, followed by Shambolic Afterlives. In the first, Looser looks at each of the novels. Read about them all or pick a favorite. Either way, gain some insight.

The second section of the book delves into Jane’s relatives. Learn how one of Austen’s relatives was arrested for shoplifting and more.

Section 3, for example, has a chapter title Sense and Sensibility Goes to Court. Why?

Those interested in spending some time in Austen’s world will want to give this title a look.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this title. All opinions are my own.

Pub date: 02 September 2025

Description:

From the publisher:

Incisive, funny, and deeply-researched insights into the life, writing, and legacy of Jane Austen, by the preeminent scholar Devoney Looser.

Thieves! Spies! Abolitionists! Ghosts! If we ever truly believed Jane Austen to be a quiet spinster, scholar Devoney Looser puts that myth to rest at last in Wild for Austen. These, and many other events and characters, come to life throughout this rollicking book. Austen, we learn, was far wilder in her time than we’ve given her credit for, and Looser traces the fascinating and fantastical journey her legacy has taken over the past 250 years.

All six of Austen’s completed novels are examined here, and Looser uncovers striking new gems therein, as well as in Austen’s juvenilia, unfinished fiction, and even essays and poetry. Looser also takes on entirely new scholarship, writing about Austen’s relationship to the abolitionist movement and women’s suffrage. In examining the legacy of Austen’s works, Looser reveals the film adaptations that might have changed Hollywood history had they come to fruition, and tells extraordinary stories of ghost-sightings, Austen novels cited in courts of law, and the eclectic members of the Austen extended family whose own outrageous lives seem wilder than fiction.

Written with warmth, humor, and remarkable details never before published, Wild for Austen is the ultimate tribute to Jane Austen.

About the author:

From Amazon:

Devoney Looser, Regents Professor of English at Arizona State University, is author or editor of twelve books, most recently Wild for Austen: A Rebellious, Subversive, and Untamed Jane (2025). Her previous books include Sister Novelists (2022) and The Making of Jane Austen (2017). Looser has published essays in The Atlantic, New York Times, Salon, Slate, The TLS, and the Washington Post, and her series of 24 30-minute lectures on Austen is available through The Great Courses and Audible. In addition to being a quirky Janeite book nerd, Looser has played roller derby under the name Stone Cold Jane Austen.

More From the Publisher

Editorial Reviews:

Review

“Jane the prim and proper is laid to rest here, so that Jane the satirist, Jane the subversive, Jane the wild can rise and make her trouble. This reading of all her work, some of her biography and family history, and many of the reactions―as criticism, as movies, as fandom―gallops along, as exhilarating as it is illuminating. Devoney Looser is a superb interpreter and astonishingly erudite scholar of all things Austen, and she brings her expertise to bear deftly, amusingly, informatively, leaving us with an Austen who’s ready to roll.” – Rebecca Solnit, author of Men Explain Things to Me

“Wild for Austen is the ultimate collection of essays about the beloved Jane and her place in history, literature, and even Hollywood. Devoney Looser places Jane in the pantheon, with her canon of novels, poems, stories, and unfinished works. Looser expertly chronicles how Jane Austen influences the adaptations of her own work after her death and inspires new storytelling through her characters, settings and style. Surprising and new facts unveiled and secrets revealed. I couldn’t put it down!” – Adriana Trigiani, New York Times bestselling author of The Shoemaker’s Wife and The View From Lake Como

“By examining the people and events around Jane Austen, Looser makes a vivid and inviting case in Wild for Austen as to why Austen matters in ways both unconventional and challenging. From controversial relatives and acquaintances (accused shoplifters! International spies!) to Austen’s brothers’ abolitionist efforts, Looser unearths, sometimes single-handedly, enough fascinating personal histories to prove the famous line from Pride and Prejudice: ‘people themselves alter so much, that there is something new to be observed in them forever.’ The very same can be said about Austen’s legacy over the centuries, and the essays collected here are a joyful, thought-provoking exploration of why we continue to debate, defend, or debunk the Victorian-era persona of a sheltered spinster who lived behind her quill pen. The reader will come away from this collection not only with new and enriching ways of looking at Austen and her books, but with an appreciation for the limits of biography, the histories that still remain hidden, and the compass that great writing can provide to move forward through it all.” – Natalie Jenner, internationally bestselling author of The Jane Austen Society, The Bloomsbury Girls, and Austen at Sea

“I’m wild about Devoney Looser. No one else wears such deep Austen scholarship so lightly. A brilliant book!” – Lucy Worsley, internationally bestselling author of Jane

I read and enjoyed this author’s earlier book about Carrie Soto but loved this one even more! I underlined a number of passages as I read, something that I don’t always do, because there were some very moving paragraphs (for example when Joan talks about god and the universe).

This is a story about a group of astronauts in the 1980s. Some women are in the group but they are still a rarity. The training of all is well depicted with attention paid to what was at stake for the early classes of females in the field.

Readers also get to know those around these astronauts. Many have families who come into the story.

Three characters in this book kind of melted my heart. They are Joan, Vanessa and Frances. Joan and Vanessa are astronauts while Frances is Joan’s niece.

SPOILER:

Joan and Vanessa are in a relationship. This occurs at a time when it was not considered acceptable. Joan’s awakening to her orientation and sexuality are beautifully evoked.

BACK FROM SPOILER:

Early in the book, readers learn about something that is going on with one of the missions. The suspense of this was so convincingly described that I could hardly bear it. Readers will understand this if they read the book, I think.

All in all, kudos to TJR for a masterful work. Five stars from me.

An e book bargain-What will happen when:Carrie Soto Is Back

About the book:

From the publisher

The new cozy crime novel from the bestselling author of The Marlow Murder Club, soon to be a major TV series on PBS Masterpiece

Verity Beresford is worried about her husband. Oliver didn’t come home last night, so of course Verity goes straight to Judith Potts, Marlow’s resident amateur sleuth, for help. Oliver, founder of the Marlow Amateur Dramatic Society, had rented The Marlow Belle, a private pleasure cruiser, to host an exclusive party for the society, but no one remembers seeing him disembark. And when Oliver’s body washes up on the Thames with two bullet holes in him, it’s time for the Marlow Murder Club to leap into action.

Oliver was, by all accounts, a rather complicated fellow, with a reputation for bullying children during nativity play rehearsals, and he wasn’t short of enemies. Judith, Suzie, and Becks are convinced they’ll find his killer in no time. But things are not as they seem in the Marlow Amateur Dramatic Society, and this case is not so clear-cut after all. The gang will need to keep their wits about them to solve this case… otherwise a killer will walk free.

My thoughts:

I was absolutely delighted to spend time with the gang in this newest entry in the Marlow series. This, like the others, is a traditional mystery with good characters and an interesting plot. Readers will want to see if they can solve the case before the three amateurs and the police.

Anyone who has read others in the series, or who has seen the television adaptations, will I think be happy to pick this one up. It was enjoyable.

Those who are new to the residents of Marlow may want to read this too. They will then pick up all of the others, I think.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for this title. All thoughts are my own.

Pub date: 16 September 2025

Others in the series:

Now out: Death Comes to Marlow

Would you join: The Marlow Murder Club

Beware: The Queen of Poisons (Robert Thorogood)

He wrote them:

Robert Thorogood

About the author

I’m the author of THE MARLOW MURDER CLUB books, set in my hometown of Marlow in Buckinghamshire.

The first book in the series has been made into a TV show and can be watched in the UK on the Freeview channel U&Drama and in the USA on PBS/Masterpiece. A second TV series is coming out in 2025 and is based on Death Comes to Marlow, but also includes some brand new murders as well.

Before all of this, I created DEATH IN PARADISE for the BBC and have also written four standalone Richard Poole murder mystery novels. I’m really proud of them, and if you like Death in Paradise, I hope you’ll love the books as well.