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Picture Book Review: Ball by Mary Sullivan

Dog just wants to play with his favorite toy: a bright, red ball. This near-wordless tale unfolds in comic-like panels, featuring expressive illustrations that charm and amuse. Readers who wonder what their pets do while they're at school will...

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Fiction Book Review: Someday, Someday, Maybe by Lauren Graham

Based on her own experiences as a struggling actress in NYC in the mid-1990s, Lauren Graham has written a fun book with a sympathetic heroine. Franny Banks lives in Brooklyn with her best friend Jane and is trying to make it in show business. She...

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Poetry Review: A Thousand Mornings by Mary Oliver

Mary Oliver, recipent of both a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award, returns with a new collection of poetry that celebrates the quiet beauty of the world. Oliver, who published her first book in 1963 at the age of 28, is primarily known for...

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Fiction Book Review: The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout

“Well, you don’t know them. Nobody ever knows anyone.” Starting out with this thought, Elizabeth Strout goes on to tell an emotional tale of a New England family: Successful older brother Jim and his wife Helen and the twins Bob and Susan (Bob a Sad...

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Fiction Book Review: The Smart One by Jennifer Close

The Smart One is an insightful and funny book about family. The three adult Coffey children are all forced to move in with their parents in suburban Philadelphia. Martha suffers a nervous breakdown after she embarks on a short and ill-fated nursing...

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Fiction Review: The House at the End of Hope Street by Menna van Praag

A magical story of life and love, loss and renewal. Three desperate women find refuge in an old house where they learn to face their failures and embrace the possibility of living their dearest dreams. Visit the author's website to enjoy the story...

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Fiction Book Review: The Dinner by Herman Koch

This unsettling novel is not for everyone. The plot revolves around a fancy dinner shared by two brothers and their wives and their sons’ secret crime. This book can be explored on many levels—relationships between brothers, cousins and between...

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Fiction Book Review: Z by Therese Anne Fowler

When southern belle Zelda Sayre meets a young army lieutenant stationed in her hometown of Mobile, Alabama an epic love story begins. Scott Fitzgerald is reckless and charming and convinced that his writing will bring him fortune and fame....

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Cookbook Review: Wheat Belly Cookbook by William Davis, M.D.

Milwaukee cardiologist William Davis follows up on his 2011 book, Wheat Belly, with a cookbook that provides "150 Recipes to Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back to Health." His research and principles for the wheat-free diet...

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Non-Fiction Book Review: Once Upon A Flock: Life with My Soulful Chickens by Lauren Scheuer

Lauren Scheuer's tiny flock consists of three very different chickens: Hatsy, the egg-laying super chicken, Lil' White, the feisty beauty, and Lucy, a gentle, special needs chicken. Each one of them steals her heart as they may steal yours. Want...

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