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January 23, 2017 Shelf Discovery: The Girl in Green by Derek B. Miller

By Kristin Dreyer Kramer • Jan 23, 2017

On this week’s Shelf Discovery, Kristin journeys into the desert with a couple of haunted heroes in Derek B. Miller’s The Girl in Green.

Title: The Girl in Green

Author: Derek B. Miller

Pages: 336

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

ISBN: 978-0544706255

And read Kristin's full review on NightsAndWeekends.com.

4-Year-Old Girl Reads More Than 1,000 Books

By editor • Jan 17, 2017

KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:

January 16, 2017 Shelf Discovery: Mad Love by Nick Spalding

By Kristin Dreyer Kramer • Jan 16, 2017

On this week’s Shelf Discovery, Kristin follows a highly-publicized marriage between two feuding strangers in Nick Spalding’s Mad Love.

Title: Ma Love

Author: Nick Spalding

Pages: 301

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing

ISBN: 978-1503941113

And read Kristin's full review on NightsAndWeekends.com.

January 9, 2017 Shelf Discovery: Shivers!: The Pirate Who’s Afraid of Everything by Annabeth Bondor-

By Kristin Dreyer Kramer • Jan 9, 2017

On this week’s Shelf Discovery, Kristin sets said with a scaredy-pirate in Annabeth Bondor-Stone’s Shivers!: The Pirate Who’s Afraid of Everything.

Title: Shivers!: The Pirate Who’s Afraid of Everything

Author: Annabeth Bondor-Stone

Runtime: 2 hours, 20 minutes

Publisher: HarperAudio

AISN: B00S6QOCNQ

And read Kristin's full review on NightsAndWeekends.com.

January 2, 2017 Shelf Discovery: Above the Paw by Diane Kelly

By Kristin Dreyer Kramer • Jan 2, 2017

On this week’s Shelf Discovery, Kristin goes back to school with a cop and her K-9 in Diane Kelly’s Above the Paw.

Title: Above the Paw (Paw Enforcement #5)

Author: Diane Kelly

Pages: 370

Publisher: St. Martin’s Paperbacks

AISN: 978-1250094841

And read Kristin's full review on NightsAndWeekends.com.

December 26, 2016 Shelf Discovery: A Portrait of Emily Price by Katherine Reay

By Kristin Dreyer Kramer • Dec 26, 2016

On this week’s Shelf Discovery, Kristin finds art and love in Italy with Katherine Reay’s A Portrait of Emily Price.

Title: A Portrait of Emily Price

Author: Katherine Reay

Pages: 335

Publisher: Thomas Nelson

AISN: 978-0718077914

And read Kristin's full review on NightsAndWeekends.com.

December 19, 2016 Shelf Discovery: Bad Hair Day by Sarah Mlynowski

By Kristin Dreyer Kramer • Dec 19, 2016

On this week’s Shelf Discovery, Kristin climbs Rapunzel’s tower with two lovable young heroes in Sarah Mlynowski’s Bad Hair Day.

Title: Bad Hair Day (Whatever After #5)

Author: Sarah Mlynowski

Runtime: 3 hours, 21 minutes

Publisher: Scholastic Audio

AISN: B00PYM2K2U

And read Kristin's full review on NightsAndWeekends.com.

December 12, 2016 Shelf Discovery: A Very Merry Hockey Holiday by Toni Aleo

By Kristin Dreyer Kramer • Dec 12, 2016

On this week’s Shelf Discovery, Kristin takes to the ice for author Toni Aleo’s A Very Merry Hockey Holiday

Title: A Very Merry Hockey Holiday

Author: Toni Aleo

Runtime: 3 hours, 16 minutes

Publisher: Tantor Audio

AISN: B00REO6PYA

And read Kristin's full review on NightsAndWeekends.com.

December 5, 2016 Shelf Discovery: The Fat Man by Ken Harmon

By Kristin Dreyer Kramer • Dec 5, 2016

On this week’s Shelf Discovery, Kristin travels to Kringle Town for a hard-boiled holiday whodunit, Ken Harmon’s The Fat Man.

Title: The Fat Man

Author: Ken Harmon

Runtime: 5 hours, 29 minutes

Publisher: Tantor Audio

AISN: B004995EGS

And read Kristin's full review on NightsAndWeekends.com.

In 'ODY-C,' A Greek Hero Worthy Of Women

By Annalisa Quinn • Nov 30, 2016

Odysseus was the man of many minds and many ways, according to his Homeric epithets. And among the many minds of Odysseus, there's room for a space queen.

Odyssia is warlike, merciless, "witchjack and wanderer," "starminded," '"wolfclever," "lightspeed," a "wolfwitch." Written by Matt Fraction and illustrated by Christian Ward, ODY-C is a beautifully colored space Odyssey, both graphic and novel, which makes Homer new.

November 28, 2016 Shelf Discovery: Fat Fridays by Judith Keim

By Kristin Dreyer Kramer • Nov 28, 2016

On this week’s Shelf Discovery, Kristin dines with the girls in Judith Keim’s Fat Fridays.

Title: Fat Fridays

Author: Judith Keim

Pages: 310

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing

ISBN: 978-1503940666

And read Kristin's full review on NightsAndWeekends.com.

November 21, 2016 Shelf Discovery: Things I Want to Punch in the Face by Jennifer Worick

By Kristin Dreyer Kramer • Nov 21, 2016

On this week’s Shelf Discovery, Kristin looks for laughs in Jennifer Worick’s blog-turned-audiobook, Things I Want to Punch in the Face.

Title: Things I Want to Punch in the Face

Author: Jennifer Worick

Runtime: 2 hours, 53 minutes

Publisher: Blackstone Audio

AISN: B00A0WG0NE

And read Kristin's full review on NightsAndWeekends.com.

November 14, 2016 Shelf Discovery: First Light by Bill Rancic

By Kristin Dreyer Kramer • Nov 14, 2016

On this week’s Shelf Discovery, Kristin joins the quest for survival with the plane crash survivors in author Bill Rancic’s First Light.

Title: First Light

Author: Bill Rancic

Pages: 308

Publisher: G. P. Putnam’s Sons

ISBN: 978-1101982273

And read Kristin's full review on NightsAndWeekends.com.

Weird, Spirited 'Pieces Of Soap' Celebrates The Essays Of Stanley Elkin

By Maureen Corrigan • Nov 10, 2016

There's a tendency to approach a posthumous collection of work by an esteemed "writer's writer" with respectful courtesy, but Stanley Elkin's essays demand a rowdier response from readers. They're weird and spirited, full of literal piss and vinegar. Pieces of Soap is the name of this collection and writer Sam Lipsyte, in his introduction, rightly says that reading Elkin makes you realize "how lazy most writing is."

'Things From The Flood' Is Gorgeously Creepy And Strangely Human

By Jason Sheehan • Nov 10, 2016

This is how it begins.

Somewhere out there beyond the cordons, beyond the fields and marshes, abandoned machines roamed like stray dogs. They wandered about impatiently, restless in the new wind sweeping through the country. They smelled something in the air, something unfamiliar. Perhaps if we had listened closely, we would have heard it. We may have heard the sound rising from the forgotten and sealed caverns in the depths: the muffled pounding from something trying to get out.

November 7, 2016 Shelf Discovery: The Rains by Gregg Hurwitz

By Kristin Dreyer Kramer • Nov 7, 2016

On this week’s Shelf Discovery, Kristin goes into hiding with the daring kids in author Gregg Hurwitz’s The Rains.

Title: The Rains

Author: Gregg Hurwitz

Pages: 272

Publisher: Tor Teen

ISBN: 978-0765382672

And read Kristin's full review on NightsAndWeekends.com.

Faith, Sex And The South Intersect In 'Virgin'

By Heller McAlpin • Nov 2, 2016

Sex is a fraught subject in April Ayers Lawson's impressively polished debut collection of stories. The audacious but vulnerable young Southerners who populate these five tales live in a world where the ordinary uncertainties of relationships and physical intimacy are amplified and distorted by their devout, fundamentalist Christian upbringing, and in several cases, a history of childhood sexual abuse. Despite her limpid, supple prose, there's a creepy cast to Lawson's vision, with shades of Flannery O'Connor's dark humor and Southern Gothic sensibility.

October 31, 2016 Shelf Discovery: I Do...or Do I? by Karen King

By Kristin Dreyer Kramer • Oct 31, 2016

On this week’s Shelf Discovery, Kristin gets cold feet with the stressed-out bride in Karen King’s I Do...or Do I?

Title: I Do...or Do I?

Author: Karen King

Runtime: 8 hours, 5 minutes

Publisher: Dreamscape Media

AISN: B01JJ779U8

And read Kristin's full review on NightsAndWeekends.com.

October 24, 2016 Shelf Discovery: The Graveyard Apartment by Mariko Koike

By Kristin Dreyer Kramer • Oct 24, 2016

On this week’s Shelf Discovery, Kristin moves into an eerie apartment with the Japanese thriller The Graveyard Apartment by author Mariko Koike.

Title: The Graveyard Apartment

Author: Mariko Koike

Pages: 324

Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books

ISBN: 978-1250060549

And read Kristin's full review on NightsAndWeekends.com.

October 17, 2016 Shelf Discovery: Choose Your Own Misery: The Holidays by Mike MacDonald and Jilly G

By Kristin Dreyer Kramer • Oct 17, 2016

On this week’s Shelf Discovery, Kristin makes some difficult choices in Choose Your Own Misery: The Holidays.

Title: Choose Your Own Misery: The Holidays

Author: Mike MacDonald and Jilly Gagnon

Pages: 179

Publisher: Diversion Publishing

ISBN: 978-1682303191

And read Kristin's full review on NightsAndWeekends.com.

October 10, 2016 Shelf Discovery: Power Tools in the Sacred Grove by Josef Matulich

By Kristin Dreyer Kramer • Oct 10, 2016

On this week’s Shelf Discovery, Kristin returns to Arcanum for more supernatural adventures in Josef Matulich’s Power Tools in the Sacred Grove.

Title: Power Tools in the Sacred Grove (Arcanum Faire #2)

Author: Josef Matulich

Pages: 204

Publisher: Post Mortem Press

ISBN: 978-0692399309

And read Kristin's full review on NightsAndWeekends.com.

With 'The Girl On The Train,' A Best-Selling Novel Jumps The Track

By Scott Tobias • Oct 6, 2016

Based on the Paula Hawkins' bestselling novel, The Girl on the Train is a whodunit constructed through an ornate latticework of multiple narrators, temporal jumps, blackouts, constant misdirection, and out-and-out red herrings. There are a good four or five possible suspects, each waved at the audience like a red cape in front of a bull, with the lance awaiting on the other side.

October 3, 2016 Shelf Discovery: Dream On by Sarah Mlynowski

By Kristin Dreyer Kramer • Oct 3, 2016

On this week’s Shelf Discovery, Kristin travels back through the magic mirror to visit with Sleeping Beauty in author Sarah Mlynowski’s Dream On.

Title: Dream On (Whatever After #4)

Author: Sarah Mlynowski

Runtime: 3 hours, 2 minutes

Publisher: Scholastic Audio

AISN: B00HZ6NCH0

And read Kristin's full review on NightsAndWeekends.com.

'Cloudbound' Is Stunning, But Doesn't Quite Soar

By Annalisa Quinn • Sep 28, 2016

From the ground, flying is a wonderfully loose metaphor — for freedom and speed and ambition, for superhuman ease and laborless achievement. But Fran Wilde's Bone Universe series makes flying a fatal and real technical science. It isn't magic, but a controlled harnessing of something terrifyingly strong: the wind. The taut violence of flight — catching gusts, snapping wings, shaving the air — is the best and most real part of the novels. Not a broomstick whoosh or the effortless flutter of a superhero's cape, but groaning joints, deadly winds, an awful void below.

'Death's End' Brings An Epic Trilogy To A Satisfying Close

By Jason Heller • Sep 27, 2016

When The Three-Body Problem, the first installment of Cixin Liu's Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy, won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2015, it drove home a big point: Science fiction from other countries has been overlooked too long here in the U.S., and it's to everyone's benefit to fix that.

September 26, 2016 Shelf Discovery: The Good Spy Dies Twice by Mark Hosack

By Kristin Dreyer Kramer • Sep 26, 2016

On this week’s Shelf Discovery, Kristin digs for answers with a disgraced journalist in author Mark Hosack’s The Good Spy Dies Twice.

Title: The Good Spy Dies Twice (Bullseye, #1)

Author: Mark Hosack

Pages: 301

Publisher: Wide Awake Books

ISBN: 978-0997850512

And read Kristin's full review on NightsAndWeekends.com.

September 19, 2016 Shelf Discovery: Pumpkin Picking with Murder by Auralee Wallace

By Kristin Dreyer Kramer • Sep 19, 2016

On this week’s Shelf Discovery, Kristin returns to Otter Lake for more murder and mayhem with Pumpkin Picking with Murder by Auralee Wallace.

Title: Pumpkin Picking with Murder (Otter Lake Mysteries #2)

Author: Auralee Wallace

Pages: 338

Publisher: St. Martin’s Paperbacks

ISBN: 978-1250077783

And read Kristin's full review on NightsAndWeekends.com.

September 12, 2016 Shelf Discovery: It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover

By Kristin Dreyer Kramer • Sep 12, 2016

On this week’s Shelf Discovery, Kristin joins a young woman on the rocky road to recovery in author Colleen Hoover’s It Ends with Us.

Title: It Ends with Us

Author: Colleen Hoover

Pages: 367

Publisher: Atria Paperback

ISBN: 978-1501110368

And read Kristin's full review on NightsAndWeekends.com.

'Where Am I Now?' Mara Wilson Explains What Happened When Matilda Grew Up

By NPR Staff • Sep 12, 2016

Mara Wilson says that the most complicated relationship she has ever had is with a fictional 6-year-old girl. That's because you probably know Wilson best as Matilda, from the 1996 film adaptation of Roald Dahl's classic.

"I wanted to be her so badly ... " Wilson tells NPR's Rachel Martin. "She's kind of like my big sister overshadowing me."

Wilson, now 29, was a successful child actress — you may also recognize her from her starring roles as Natalie Hillard in Mrs. Doubtfire, or as Susan Walker in Miracle on 34th Street.

Margaret Atwood Plays With The Superhero Genre In 'Angel Catbird'

By Etelka Lehoczky • Sep 11, 2016

As you open Angel Catbird, Margaret Atwood's new comic book, your mind may wander through her previous works in search of comparisons and common themes. In her case, that's quite a trip. Though best-known for more than 40 books of fiction, poetry and essays, she's also a creator of comics.