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All-American Cowboy: A Holiday, Texas Novel by Dylann Crush

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Image provided by Sourcebooks Casablanca.         Usually I leave romances for my mom to read first.   This time was different.   I didn’t have much to read, and I wanted to know about the pig.   Yes, there are pigs in this series.   It’s part of the reason I picked them up for my mom when I saw them at the library .   There are pigs and there is romance.   I was far more interested in the pigs, but the romance was good too.           Charlie Walker has been running the Rambling Rose honky-tonk ever since it’s owner, Sully, died.   She would love for it to be her own, having worked there for eight years, but she promised Sully she would help keep it in his family, as it has been for well over a hundred years.   This promise is really the only thing, other than how she was brought up, that helps keep her civil when Sully’s grandson and heir comes to town.       ...

A Deadly Judgement: A Murder, She Wrote Mystery by Jessica Fletcher & Donald Bain

               My favorite film of all time is 12Angry Men .   Yet, for some reason, I didn’t think of it once as I read A Deadly Judgement .   That might have been because this book was about the selection of a jury and the following trial.   In 12 Angry Men it’s all about the jury room.   That is a big difference.                 Best-selling mystery author Jessica Fletcher isn’t interested in writing a courtroom mystery, no matter how badly her publisher wants her to write one.   Then she receives a phone call.                 Jessica’s old friend, defense attorney Malcolm McLoon wants Jessica to come to Boston to help with the jury selection of a high-profile case.   Not being a lawyer herself, Jessica isn’t exactly sure how she can help.   Still, she...

Loving

        Even as this film sat in my house, it took me a long time to watch it.   I thought it was going to be really sad, especially since it’s based on real events, and I was not up for sad at that time.   But the disc was due back at the library , and I knew I had to just sit down and watch it.   So, I did.   I found this film was not nearly as sad as I thought.         All Richard Loving ( Joel Edgerton ) and Mildred Jeter (Ruth Negga) want to do is be together.   They are a young couple expecting a baby and they want to get married.   Because of their different races and the laws in Virginia, they go to Washington, D.C. to get married with Mildred’s father as their witness.   When they return to Virginia, Richard and Mildred expect to live a calm and peaceful life.         The law has other ideas.        One night, the police barge into the Jeter family home and...

A Likely Story: A Library Lover’s Mystery by Jenn McKinlay

               Well, I’m glad to say the two men in Lindsey’s life weren’t as combative in this book.   It did help that one of them was out of town for most of the story.   As aggravating as their behavior is when the are together, I hope this is a situation that gets resolved soon.                 One of the things library director Lindsey Norris likes to do is deliver books to a pair of brothers who live on one of the town’s nearby islands.   Peter and Stewart Rosen rarely, if ever, leave the island.   They stick to themselves, even calling in their library requests.                 Still, despite being on their own so much of the time, it is odd when Stewart does not meet Lindsey at the dock for the book exchange.   Concerned something is wrong, Lindsey and the b...

Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen

                   I read Garden Spells for the first time years ago.   In fact, I liked it so much I read it twice.   That is why I was so excited when I came across this book in one of the neighborhood Free Little Libraries .   I took the book home, able to read it again without any concern of a due date and it needing to go back to the library .   Now I have read it three times.   Any book I have read that many times is one I definitely want others to know about.                 It has been years since Sydney Waverly has been to her hometown of Bascom, North Carolina.   Growing up, she always felt different and out of place there because of her Waverly heritage.   It’s why she escaped from town as soon as she could.   Now it’s where she needs to go to protect her young daughter, Bay, from the abusive relationship sh...

Spare Parts

                  I have a thing for films about supportive teachers and teachers who have made a difference.   They give hope that no matter a person’s circumstances, things for them can improve.   That is why it is so important for these films to continue to be made.   With the way education and teachers have been bashed in the past few years, we need these films to show how important these teachers are, and how they really can make a difference.                    All Oscar Vazquez (Carlos PenaVega) wanted to do was join the U.S. military.   There was just one problem.   Oscar is an undocumented immigrant.   Distressed over not being allowed to achieve his dream, Oscar decides to enter a collegiate robot competition despite being in high school.   He wants to do everything on his own, but his advisor, Mr. Fredi Camer...

Internment by Samira Ahmed

                The story in this book is both terrifying and horrifying.   It is a book everyone should read.   I say this because every single day it is possible for these events to happen, with any group of people.   All anyone has to do is decide who the enemy should be.   Then, with enough power, the rest falls into place.   It is up to us to make sure that doesn’t happen.                 Persecuted for her religious beliefs.   Taken from her home in the middle of the night to live behind electrified fences with others of “her kind”.   This is what happens to Layla Amin.   From what I’ve written, one would think this is a historical novel, as these actions sound very familiar.   It is not.   This novel is set today, in California, the United States.   Only this time, the ones being taken away are Muslim. ...