Animal Madness: How Anxious Dogs, Compulsive Parrots, and Elephants in Recovery Help Us Understand Ourselves by Laurel Braitman

I couldn’t resist picking up this book to read after seeing the title. It did not disappoint. The author has spent her life studying animals as a biologist and MIT doctoral student, but it was her personal story of loving Oliver, a Bernese Mountain dog with debilitating separation anxiety and huge behavioral issues, which led... Continue Reading →

Yesterday’s Dead By Pat Bourke

“If all the adults are all sick, who’s in charge?” This is the tag-line for an absorbing children’s novel by Canadian author Pat Bourke.It is set in Toronto in 1918 just as the first world war is ending and the deadly Spanish Flu hits the city. The first half depicts the challenges faced by Meredith,... Continue Reading →

The Sano Ichiro Mystery Series

This mystery series set in medieval Japan features Samurai detective Sano Ichiro. Together with his wife and best friend they delve into both the brutal world of the Imperial court, gangs and villages where evil have many guises. Although it is exotic in setting, the emotions and motivations are all too recognizable, whether it is the jealousy of the rivals for the Emperor's attention, the machinations of the thwarted concubine or the meglomania of the the cult leader and his single-minded followers. Addictive.

Fred Vargas French detective series

You can tell by the titles that this is no ordinary mystery series. Travel to France with these books and meet the most extraordinary characters to populate a contempory mystery. Vargas deserves her many awards (and more).

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