Book Review: The Forgotten Room
The Forgotten Room is a novel by Karen White, Beatriz Williams, and Lauren Willig.
I really enjoyed the book and wouldn’t have known it was written by three different women. It’s the story of a love that spans three generations, the stories of Olive, Lucy, and Kate. Olive and Lucy’s stories are told third-person and Kate’s, the latest generation, is told first person.
What connects them all is a townhouse in Manhattan built in the early 1890s. With a five story central staircase topped with a domed skylight, kitchens in the basement, servants’ quarters on the sixth floor, and a room on the seventh floor perfect for an artist. A square room with a fireplace, large windows, and a skylight.
Stories of love found, and lost. Stories with a bit of mystery.
Disclaimer: I was provided with a review copy of this book.
1001 + Housewife How-to’s BOOK!
Katie Berry, author of Housewife How-To’s, brings us a useful book of tips that are arranged in categories: cooking, cleaning, laundry and clothing, organizing, saving money, and more! Each category has subcategories to make finding a tip to suit your need easy. I found myself wanting to click a “like” button on many of these.
Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book.
In the Mail
Down Solo, a novel of suspense by Earl Javorsky
The Mark of the Dragonfly
I just finished reading The Mark of the Dragonfly by Jaleigh Johnson.
Mark of the Dragonfly
Piper lives in one of many scrapping towns that skirt the edge of a meteor field. Once a month or so the barrier between worlds thins a bit and the meteors hit. These meteors aren’t your standard meteors, made up of space rocks and metals, these contain items from other worlds. The people in the towns go out to salvage what they can from the fields after each fall.
Piper’s mother died when she was younger, and her father died more recently leaving Piper to fend for herself. She has a knack for mechanical things and is able to fix things.
Piper goes out to save a friend and finds another as well. Anna has the Dragonfly mark tattooed on her arm, she is a relative to, or protected by, the King of the Dragonfly Territories. When a strange man that Piper doesn’t trust comes after Anna, Piper decides to take Anna to the Territories to get her back where she belongs.
The only way out of town is on the 401, a steam train taking cargo from the Merrow Kingdom to the Dragonfly Territories.
Much of the story takes place on the journey. Piper learns things about Anna and herself and the crew of the 401.
I very much liked the story and the characters, and I’d like to read more about them.
Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy
By Karen Foxlee
Published by Knopf Books for Young Readers
Eleven year old Ophelia Jane Worthington-Whittard lost her mother exactly three months, seven days, and nine hours ago. Her father has brought Ophelia and her older sister Alice with him while he prepares an exhibit of swords in a museum in a town where it always snows.
There are only three days to prepare the exhibit for its opening on Christmas Eve.
Wandering through the museum, Ophelia finds The Marvelous Boy and finds out that she only has three days to save him, and the world!
This is a really fun read. It would be fun to read with your child, discussing as you go.
Mister Max: Book of Lost Things
By Cynthia Voigt; illustrated by Iacopo Bruno
The first in a series.
A great little read. We are interested in Max and how he can overcome his difficulties. The time period is when automobiles were becoming more popular, but many deliveries were still by horse-drawn wagons. Many people moved about the city on bicycles or their own two feet. The place could be anywhere, money is mentioned as just numbers, no particular currency.
Twelve-year-old Max’s actor parents are invited to set sail for India and Max is supposed to meet them just before sailing. When he gets to the docks, the ship is gone. Max’s Grammie lives in the house behind Max’s so he’s not completely alone, but he does need to find ways to take care of himself.
Max is a clever boy and finds ways to earn money by finding things and solving problems for people, some problems people didn’t even know that they had.
All the while, Max and Grammie (the town Librarian) are trying to solve the mystery of where Max’s parents have gone, and why.
