Strawberry Shortcake Murder by Joanne Fluke

Hannah Swensen is back still baking cookies and stumbling across dead bodies. In this adventure Hannah as been chosen to be a judge in a national baking contest that is being held in their small town in Minnesota.  When one of the other judges is murdered, and Hannah's friend is the prime suspect, Hannah takes it upon herself to discover who the real killer is.

I was super stressed this week and listened to this book as a treat.  This series features the most cozy of the cozy mysteries.  Hannah has just the right amount of attitude, but is still super sweet to everyone.  The other characters in town have their own interesting and quirky personalities.  The tiny bit of romance between Hannah and her two beaus is also fun. This book is so old that cell phones with cameras are still a novelty, but that adds to the charm.  I am glad there are more in the series that I can call on for comfort during future rough weeks. (2001, 296 p.)

The Third Mushroom by Jennifer Holm

Ellie and her Grandfather-stuck-in-a-teenage-body are back.  In this sequel to The Fourteenth Goldfish, Ellie is struggling with the change in her relationship with her best friend, Raj, and wondering what she will do for the Science Fair when her teenage grandfather, Melvin, returns from traveling abroad.  He brings a sample of a jellyfish that turns out to have healing/restorative powers. Melvin doesn't hesitate to use the jellyfish serum on himself, but will his quest for scientific discovery lead to disaster?

Jennifer Holm has a spot-on middle school voice.  She handles the complexities of friendships and family relations with a light, but authentic touch.  Both this book and the first book are fun to read, and bring up interesting questions about life, death, taking risks and trying again. (2018, 217 p)

On a Beam of Light: a Story of Albert Einstein by Jennifer Berne

This is a simple picture book biography of Albert Einstein illustrated with child-like pen and watercolor drawings. Berne includes all the most familiar stories about Einstein, like the fact that he didn't start talking until he was three, and how his father gave him a compass that sparked his scientific interests.  The writing is probably on a k-2nd grade interest level as are the illustrations.  Although very simple, they have an engaging charm that will appeal to the young target audience.  Berne only touches on the concepts of relativity and the particle nature of matter in the most basic of terms.  The main take-away of the story is that Einstein was a cool scientist who was interested in studying how the universe works.  Still, it is a good entry level book on the topic, and might lead older readers to want to seek deeper.  (2013, 32 p.)

Crucial Conversations by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler

This is a mainstay title in the business/managerial self-help genre. Patterson et al begins by defining crucial conversations as those interactions that have high emotion and potential for high impact on life or business. Then they give steps to help people keep dialog open by creating a safe place for conversation, seeking commonality, avoiding common pitfalls, etc.

I didn't find this book as helpful as The Power of Moments, or Smart Trust. Really, the main message of this book is "Don't be a jerk".  If you were the kind of person who has trouble with your mouth running away from you when you are upset, this could be a useful resource, though, as the authors state in the end, it would take a lot of practice and focused effort for someone to truly internalize these principles.  If done on a more superficial level, some of the phrases and practices the authors suggest could come off sounding really insincere and condescending. The tone of the writing is kind of flippant.  I think that was meant to be amusing, and it is, but after a while it gets a little tiresome.  Still, the book is readable enough, and has enough good ideas that I would recommend this to certain kinds of people who have certain kinds of communication issues.(240 p. 2002)

A Dash of Trouble by Anna Meriano

Leonora is the youngest of 5 daughters in a Hispanic family that runs a bakery.  Leonora is frustrated that her mother won't let her help when the rest of the family is busy getting ready for Dia de los Muertos.  She also senses that her family is hiding something from her.  As she begins to snoop around to find out what it is, she discovers that the women in her family are "brujas" with cooking magic.  Eager to learn more of her magical heritage, her secret experiments cause more than a little trouble for her friends at school.

This has a very similar premise to Bliss by Katherine Littlewood, with a little of the Disney movie, Coco, thrown in.  It got starred reviews last year, and is an interesting look into Hispanic Bruja folklore, but I must admit I didn't like it nearly as well as Bliss. Leonora comes across as whiny and immature.  I also thought Meriano missed a chance to have a lot more fun with the magical mistakes.  I think she was trying to make them funny, but they were mostly embarrassing.  I am guessing kids will like it, but I am pretty sure I won't worry about reading the sequels.  (310 p. 2018)

Endurance: Young Reader's Edition by Scott Kelly

Scott Kelly is the American astronaut who has spent the most time in space.  This engaging and inspirational autobiography traces Kelly's life from the time that he was a high energy boy who struggled in school, through his stormy college experience, and on to his very successful career.  He then recounts in detail what his experience was like during his last-year long stay on the International Space Center. The tone of the narrative is informal and accessible.  Kids that are even a little fascinated by space travel will enjoy hearing what it was like to be on both the Space Shuttle and the Space Station.  Kids who currently struggle to sit still at school will be inspired by the fact that Kelly had similar struggles, but eventually learned how to study well and get good grades in college. This is a "young reader's edition" but it is only 70 or so pages shorter than the adult version. That said, it is clearly written with kids and teens in mind. (2018, 317 p.)

The Law of Finders Keepers by Sheila Turnage

In this fourth book in the series that started with Three Times Lucky, Mo, Dale, Harm, and the rest of Tupelo Landing are on the hunt for Blackbeard's treasure. The search brings some new people to town, including Harm's absentee mother.  Meanwhile Mo finds new clues to the identity of her "upstream mother" and that search kicks into high gear. As the desperadoes pursue both treasures of the world and treasures of the heart, they face some of their most harrowing and heart wrenching moments yet.

This book sounds like the final installment of a series that I have really enjoyed.  I thought Turnage wrapped things up pretty well though she left one thing open so she could do another book if she wants.  I think the reason why I have loved this series so much is the characterizations.  All the characters have wonderfully distinct and quirky voices.  After spending about 1400 pages with these people, I feel like they are old friends that I would recognize if I saw them walking down the street.  I think I will probably want to read anything Turnage turns out next. (2018, 356 p.)

Schomburg: The Man who Built a Library by Carole Weatherford

Here is another interesting children's biography.  Arturo Schomburg was born just a decade after the end of the civil war.  When he went to school his teachers told him the people of African descent had never done anything important or interesting in history.  Arturo made it his life's mission to prove them wrong.  He studied famous black people such as Phillis Wheatley, Frederick Douglas, and Benjamin Banneker.  He was also interested in famous people who has some black ancestry, but who had been portrayed as white by Western historians such as James Audubon and Ludwig Von Beethoven.  Since little had been written about African heroes, Arturo spent great time and effort collecting books and original documents about these famous people. When his collection got too big for his house, his wife convinced him to sell it to the New York Public Library where it became the basis of their remarkable African American history collection.  Schomburg worked for many years as the collection's curator.  The book is written in free verse poetry and illustrated with rich oil and watercolor semi-realistic artwork.  The poems are text dense, and though the book could be considered a "picture book biography" it would primarily be of interest to middle grade kids who like learning about diverse achievers. (actually, I listened to the book first on Overdrive, and didn't realize that it was written in "poetry" until I saw actual pages. It just goes to show that often the difference between good prose and good free verse is just the typesetting.) (2017, 48 p.)