Kathryn's Inbox

The word hipster was first used in the 1930s.

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  “My soul is in the sky.” ~ William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream

There's something absolutely lovely about this collection of three interconnected novellas, written by three different authors. A snowstorm proves to be a recipe for love for three very different teenagers.  First off in The Jubilee Express , we meet Jubilee who is being shuffled off on a train at the last minute on Christmas Eve to stay with her grandparents. Her quirky, though otherwise respectable parents have been arrested under some pretty bizarre circumstances. Then the train breaks down in a snowstorm. And the worst bit? Her boyfriend, who she misses dearly, doesn't even seem to care. Luckily for Jubilee, she soon meets Stuart who has a similar story about a girl who doesn't seem to care ... and then it turns out the pair have far more in common than matching broken hearts. Then along comes A Cheertastic Christmas Miracle  where groups of rival boys race to be the first to get to a local cafe on Christmas Evve, where a group of cheerleaders from the broken down train...

  The original Star Wars film, A New Hope, had a budget of 8 million USD. 

The Minute I Saw You is a beautiful and emotional story about two very different people, with very different but equally tragic pasts. Hannah is an optical dispenser, currently living in a small town in the UK. She likes to travel a lot and knows that she'll only be in her current job and her current home for a short while. For that reason, she's not too disturbed when she finds herself attracted to Sonny, a gorgeous photographer who lives a very cosmopolitan lifestyle in Europe. She knows there isn't a long term relationship in it. Then Sonny surprises her by--genuinely--wanting to be friends. As their friendship develops it becomes clear that both Hannah and Sonny have tragic life stories that they need to confront head on. But what happens when the walls that both have put up around themselves comes tumbling down. There is no denying it. This book was one heck of an emotional rollercoaster. Author Paige Toon is a master at allowing her readers to feel a range of emotion...

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  “We all live with the objective of being happy; our lives are all different and yet the same.” ~ Anne Frank

  It takes 248 earth years for Pluto to complete one rotation around the sun.

HO. HO. HO.  Hogfather  invites readers to enjoy a Christmas on Discworld. Or, rather, Hogswatch, which takes place each year on the 32nd of December, and is celebrated with feasts and by the appearance of the Hogfather, a jolly fat man who drives a sleigh pulled by large hogs and who climbs down chimneys to deliver presents to children. Only this year, something is a little amiss. Why is Death driving the sleigh and creeping down chimneys? His exceptionally sensible granddaughter, Susan, doesn't want to know, but finds herself on an adventure to find out anyway. And what's going on with the tooth fairy? And the group of assassins? And why are there suddenly lots and lots of different creatures--from the God of Hangovers to the Cheerful Fairy turning up at Unseen University in droves?  A little darker than some of the previous Discworld novels, Hogfather is a clever satire on Christmas time, traditions and various festivities. As always, Sir Terry Pratchett is at his best...

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  “In the end, you have to choose whether or not to trust someone.”  ~ Sophie Kinsella, Shopaholic & Baby

  John Lennon's middle name is Winston.

It had to happen eventually. What started as a soap-like series of paperbacks about a pair of sixteen year old high schoolers, genetically blessed Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield, and their friends in 1983, soon became a massive franchise. By the time the series ended in 2003 there were books covering the lives of the twins and their friends from age seven (Sweet Valley Kids) all the way up to when they were on the cusp of their twenties (Elizabeth.)  From birthday parties that ended in tragedy to having their very old roller coaster installed in their backyard, to being seduced by vampires and solving mysteries whilst staring in Hollywood movies, there was very little that hadn't happened to Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield.  And then in 2011 Sweet Valley Confidential came along. It went where none of the other series had ever dared to. It featured Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield as adults. It's a great idea. However, what could have been a great nostalgia trip for old fans, ...

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  “Literature is my Utopia. Here I am not disenfranchised. No barrier of the senses shuts me out from the sweet, gracious discourses of my book friends. They talk to me without embarrassment or awkwardness.” ~ Helen Keller, The Story of My Life

  Kate Kerrigan is a pseudonym of author and journalist Morgan Prunty.

Growing up is never easy, and for some people it can be tougher than others. In Fun Home author and artist Alison Bechdel tells her memoirs of growing up in a dysfunctional family. The graphic novel takes its name from the family business, a funeral home that the kids rename fun home, even though, well, there's not that much fun happening in it. At the heart of Bechdel's dysfunctional home is her father, a man that uses a carefully constructed image to hide his true self from his children and the rest of the town. He is a perfectionist, and beneath that he is angry and cruel. However, Alison does not get a true glimpse of who her father is, until she comes out to her parents. Her father dies two weeks later, in what she strongly suspects (but ultimately cannot prove,) is a suicide. It's mucky, depraved stuff. What Alison learns is that her father had gone down a dark path, having affairs with his male students and the family baby-sitter, all of them teenagers on the cusp o...

The sixth novel in the Bridgerton series turns its focus to Francesca, the sixth Bridgerton child and the third daughter. Until now, Francesca has been a very minor part of the series and something of an enigma. We know that she is about a year younger than Eloise and that at some point that she married an Earl and moved to Scotland. When He Was Wicked Tells her story, which is a little different to that of her siblings. Although Francesca's marriage is a happy one, it ends in tragedy when her beloved husband, John, passes away suddenly. A few weeks later, Francesca miscarries. Meanwhile, John's much-loved cousin, the wicked and rakish Michael, has inherited the title. Fortunately, he and Francesca get along well, and she considers him a good friend and confident. What she doesn't realise is that Michael has been in love with her since they first met--thirty-six hours before her wedding to John. The difficulty with this one was that it had an interesting premise, and a lot...

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  “Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity.” ~ G.K. Chesterton

Vikings and alien fire come together in this rollicking adventure featuring the eleventh doctor. Penned by prolific British author Jenny T Colgan, this one starts slow, but gains momentum about halfway through and proves itself to be a Doctor Who adventure well worth sticking with. On a lonely northern island, the locals have little to worry about, except for a viking attack. That is, until a viking ship that is carrying a princess who is on her way to a very much unwanted wedding, catches fire just off the coast of the island and the vikings and princess Freydis find themselves at the mercy of the locals. Fortunately for them, the Eleventh Doctor arrives just in time to broker peace between the two groups, especially as it is clear that they have a mutual and far greater enemy--alien fire. This one travels down a typical Doctor Who path, combining history with an alien force who want only to find a new place to live, and a chance to exist, but that desire has a human cost. Added in ...

  There is a Fabuland minifigure named Wally Walrus. 

All Your Perfects starts off with a strong premise. Quinn and Graham are a couple who meet, in the hallway of the apartment that belongs to Quinn's fiancé. It's not quite love at first sight, but the attraction is strong. And that's all rather complicated, because Quinn's fiancé Ethan is inside his apartment, enjoying a well, romantic moment with Sasha, who is Graham's girlfriend. Quinn and Graham plan to bust the cheaters big time. The shared moment eventually leads them to falling in love, and then ... What would have made an excellent premise for a short story or a novella is stretched out into a domestic melodrama that runs across two parallel timelines. Timeline one shows how Quinn and Graham met, fell in love and the blissful, happy relationship that came out of what could have been the worst night of their lives. Timeline two tells the story of how their marriage falls apart, and the challenges the pair face--although they desperately want children, this hasn...

Bounty hunter Stephanie Plum is back in a brand new adventure as she tries to bring in the brilliant and very dangerous computer hacker Oswald Wednesday. Also searching for Oswald is the hunky Diesel whom she hasn't seen in more than two years, and who thinks nothing of taking up residence in Plum's apartment. Oh, and there is a bunch of amateur computer hackers who are calling themselves the Baked Potatoes who are getting killed off one by one, shortly after hacking in to Oswald's network, and now Plum needs to keep them safe.  I have to confess, it's been a very long time since I read a Stephanie Plum novel. I think the last one I read was Hot Six and even that was some time before I started keeping this blog. In any case, when I received a copy of this book in the post, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the series was still around and that Janet Evanovich had written and enjoyed so much success. And even though there had been a few plot developments, the st...

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  “ So Matilda’s strong young mind continued to grow, nurtured by the voices of all those authors who had sent their books out into the world like ships on the sea. These books gave Matilda a hopeful and comforting message: You are not alone.”  ~ Roald Dahl, Matilda

Shannon Hale's third autobiography Friends Forever opens with young Shannon starting eighth grade. It is her second and final year at middle school. She's managed to break away from 'the group.' While she has a group of close friends, she's learned a valuable lesson about getting along with everyone and trying to include others as much as possible. That said, being in eighth grade comes with complications. Although she is a very talented writer, she wants to excel at other things, like drama, debating and even running for class president (against Jen, no less,) but she rarely succeeds at these things for reasons that are not always her fault. Meanwhile, her friends all have issues and insecurities of their own, and can be rather insensitive. This makes things very hard for Shannon, especially when her own issues with mental health come to the forefront. Written with a great deal of sensitivity, this one tackles just how hard life can be in middle school. Shannon is ...

Aeroplanes regularly fly over the Bermuda Triangle without incident.

PC Peter Grant has just served his two years probation as a constable on the beat in London, and is looking to advance his career in the police force. A surprise turning of events--a murder, the discovery of a ghost and a chance encounter with an Inspector who works in the area of paranormal crime, lead to Grant becoming a DC and a trainee Wizard in the Metropolitan Police Force. And then he finds himself on a adventure that takes him through the history of London in the most surprising of ways and leaves him desperately trying to plead his innocence while trying to save his dearest friend and possible love interest who is now in grave danger ... I was initially quite keen on this one. After all, what's not to love about a paranormal mystery, written by one of the scriptwriters from Doctor Who and with a little bit of police procedural added into the mix? A lot, unfortunately. While this one started strong, it was soon let down by the over-sexualisation of female characters that se...

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  “There is no surer foundation for a beautiful friendship than a mutual taste in literature.” ~ P.G. Wodehouse

  Sweet Valley High #29 Bitter Rivals Bitter Rivals was released shortly after the Sweet Valley Twins series debuted. It's main purpose is to create a link between the two series. In Sweet Valley High, Elizabeth's bestie is Enid Rollins a quiet nerdy kid with a dark past. Or dark for the saccharine world of Sweet Valley anyway, where things like recreational drug use always have fire and brimstone consequences. Anyway, Enid's life before moving to Sweet Valley was a little bit like that of the narrator in Go Ask Alice, but a tragic event that cost an innocent kid their life caused Enid to reform. At Sweet Valley High she meets Elizabeth in a creative writing class and the pair become firm friends, which annoys Jessica, who thinks her sister could do better socially. She's probably not wrong, given that Enid spent most of her junior year being the most boring character in the entire series, and then in every later series she jilts Elizabeth at every given opportunity. P...

  Apple Pie was not invented in North America. 

Beautifully illustrated and based on a true story, Welcome to the New World tells the story of a Syrian family who leave their old life behind to start anew in the United States. Life has not been easy for Naji or his family. War has devastated his home, and his father has spent time in jail. And now they are moving to a strange new land, where the people speak a different language and have different customs, but where they will be free to work and to get an education. Life in the United States comes with many challenges. There are rules that the family must follow if they want to stay, some of them petty and unfair. The family has also arrived on the eve of the 2016 election and the political landscape has just shifted considerably. In addition to that, starting school and getting along with their neighbours, in a country where--it turns out--families like theirs are not always wanted or welcome isn't easy. But there are some lighthearted moments too, and moments of real joy. Ini...