Blog Entries

The Joy Luck Club is a group of Chinese women who banded together as they navigated a new country, coming together to share their life experiences and help one another through new ones. After one of the members passes away, her daughter June is invited to be a member in her mother’s spot. Upon her first meeting, June is greeted with a truth from her mother’s friends that she wasn’t prepared for: she must go to China to meet her twin half-sisters, the very sisters her mother believed had died long ago before she fled the country.

One evening, Sarah, a midwife in late 19th century New York, is called to a boardinghouse to deliver the owner’s baby. A guest walks in during the delivery, and for an instant, Sarah thinks she recognizes her and calls out a name, startling the young woman. The guest leaves, and Sarah spends the next several hours delivering the baby. When she returns later to check on mother and child, she is surprised to learn that the young female guest has been murdered.

Our story begins with Dr. Barry Laverty sitting on a train headed to Ballybucklebo, an Irish village populated with an interesting and quirky cast of characters. It is in this town that he will begin his medical career, working with Dr. Fingal O’Reilly as a general practitioner. Having the story set in the 1960s affords the reader a relatability with its references to the Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and other very recognizable people and events. Each interaction with a new patient propels the story along, bringing the reader on a journey through this quaint town and its inhabitants.

Thirteen-year-old Lenora (Leni) Allbright has never really had a place she can call home. Her father, Ernt Allbright, a Vietnam POW, is always convinced that the next place they move to will return him to the man he was before the war changed him. After losing yet another job, he makes an impulsive decision to move his family to Alaska, despite Leni and her mother's reluctance to leave behind everything they know to venture into America's last true frontier.

Ironfoot is the first book in the Enchanter General series by Dave Duncan. It takes place in 12th century Norman-ruled England, an especially bad time to be a a poor, crippled, Saxon youth. But such is the lot of our hero, Durwin, nicknamed Ironfoot for the metal boot he wears to support an injured leg. By chance, his cleverness and competency with horses earns him a place as a student at a university which teaches the art of magic along with the sciences. When catastrophe befalls a professor’s noble family, Durwin is called upon to accompany him home.