Recently received

A City of Broken Glass (Hannah Vogel # 4) by Rebecca Cantrell (Forge hardcover, 17 July 2012).

Hannah Vogel is in Poland with her son Anton to cover the 1938 St. Martin festival when she hears that 12,000 Polish Jews have been deported from Germany. Hannah drops everything to get the story on the refugees, and walks directly into danger.

Kidnapped by the SS, and driven across the German border, Hannah is rescued by Anton and her lover, Lars Lang, who she had presumed dead two years before. Injured in the escape attempt and wanted by the Gestapo, Hannah and Anton are trapped with Lars in Berlin. While Hannah works on an exit strategy, she helps to search for Ruth, the missing toddler of her Jewish friend Paul, who was disappeared during the deportation.
Trapped in Nazi Germany with her son just days before Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, Hannah knows the dangers of staying any longer than needed. But she can’t turn her back on this one little girl, even if it plunges her and her family into danger.


Audition and Subtraction by Amy Fellner Dominy (Walker Childrens hardcover, 18 September 2012).

Best friends Tatum and Lori are used to doing everything together—including a clarinet/flute duet for District Honor Band auditions. But all that changes when Michael transfers to their middle school, and into their band. Suddenly, not only is he competition for Tatum’s spot on stage, but he’s stealing Lori, too. Tatum is determined to stop him, and hold on to what she’s got. 

She enlists the help of her good friend, Aaron, but now he seems to believe her fib that they’re boyfriend and girlfriend.  And her mom, to cope with a separation from her dad, is performing in community theater, of all things!



 Middle School:  Get Me Out of Here by James Patterson and Chris Tebbetts (Little Brown hardcover, 7 May 2012).

After sixth grade, the very worst year of his life, Rafe Khatchadorian thinks he has it made in seventh grade. He's been accepted to art school in the big city and imagines a math-and-history-free fun zone.Wrong! It's more competitive than Rafe ever expected, and to score big in class, he needs to find a way to turn his boring life into the inspiration for a work of art.

His method? Operation: Get a Life! Anything he's never done before, he's going to do it, from learning to play poker to going to a modern art museum. But when his newest mission uncovers secrets about the family Rafe's never known, he has to decide if he's ready to have his world turned upside down.



The Other Woman by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Forge hardcover, 4 September 2012).

Jane Ryland was a rising star in television news…until she refused to reveal a source and lost everything. Now a disgraced newspaper reporter, Jane isn’t content to work on her assigned puff pieces, and finds herself tracking down a candidate’s secret mistress just days before a pivotal Senate election.

Detective Jake Brogan is investigating a possible serial killer. Twice, bodies of unidentified women have been found by a bridge, and Jake is plagued by a media swarm beginning to buzz about a “bridge killer” hunting the young women of Boston.

As the body count rises and election looms closer, it becomes clear to Jane and Jake that their cases are connected…and that they may be facing a ruthless killer who will stop at nothing to silence a scandal.

Teen Tuesday

Many of you know that I used to be a young adult librarian before I switched to working part-time.  I love YA books, and still review for VOYA.   Thus, I've decided Tuesdays on Stuff and Nonsense will be devoted to Young Adult literature.
I just moderated a panel on children's and young adult mysteries at Left Coast Crime in Sacramento the last weekend of March.  In preparation, I read books by the four authors on the panel:  Bonnie Hearn Hill, Sophie Littlefield, Linda Joy Singleton and Penny Warner. 

Bonnie Hearn Hill writes a series called Starcrossed, with protagonist Logan McRae, who is a high school sophomore in the fictional town of Terra Bella Beach, California.  In the first book, Aries Rising, the aspiring writer has been working hard to convince her teachers to recommend her for a summer writing camp.  When she stumbles across a book called Fearless Astrology, she learns how to create and read astrological charts, a skill she uses on her classmates, family and teachers to try to understand them.  This is a quick, enjoyable read for grades 6 and up.

The prolific Sophie Littlefield's young adult series consists of two books, entitled Banished and Unforsaken, about sixteen-year-old Hailey Tarbell, who can't wait for the day she'll leave Gypsum, Missouri, far behind, taking only her four-year-old foster brother Chub. But when a freak accident in gym class leaves a girl in critical condition, Hailey feels drawn to lay her hands on the injured girl and an astonishing healing takes place. Before Hailey can understand her new powers, a beautiful stranger shows up and saves her and Chub from a group who will stop at nothing to harness her gifts to create an undefeatable army of the undead. Hailey and a small but determined family of healers are forced to face this company and stop them.

Linda Joy Singleton has been writing for young people for years.  Her most recent book is Buried, the first of The Goth Girl mysteries, spun-off from the six-book Seer series.  The first book in The Seer is Don't Die Dragonfly, which introduces us to Sabine Rose, who, after being kicked out of school and sent to live with her grandmother, is determined to become a "normal" teenage girl. She hides her psychic powers from everyone, even from her grandmother Nona, who also has "the gift." Having a job at the school newspaper and friends like Penny-Love, a popular cheerleader, have helped Sabine fit in at her new school. Yet, Sabine can't seem to get the bossy voice of Opal, her spirit guide, out of her head . . . or the disturbing images of a girl with a dragonfly tattoo. Suspected of a crime she didn't commit, Sabine must find the strength to defend herself and, later, save a friend from certain danger.

 Another prolific author who writes for both adults and young people is Penny Warner, whose most recent series is called The Code Busters Club.  The first book, The Skeleton Key, tells the story of four middle school kids.  Cody Jones, Quinn Kee, M.E. Esperanto and Luke LaVeau are four middle-school kids who, though very different from each other, have in common the love of codes and ciphers.  They even have a clubhouse, for which the entry password changes daily.  When Cody notices what appears to be a code scratched in a window of the house across the street, the conclude that the strange old man who lives there is in trouble and set out to learn what it is and what they can do to help.

It was a fantastic panel. There was a good-sized crowd, and I didn't say anything too stupid.  If, for some reason, you'd like a recording of the panel, you can order one here.