Deal or Duel: An Alexander Hamilton Card Game

Deal or Duel: An Alexander Hamilton Card Game by Clarkson Potter. 2017 Recommended for older children, teens, and adults.




If you have older children or teach teens who love all things Alexander Hamilton, try this boxed card game. A large folded game board provides structure and places to put the "Debtors' Prison", card piles for action and discards, and money, "The Treasury", Around the edges are footsteps to pace the "Dueling Ground" as skirmishes happen.. A separate page identifies the personalities of the times; they are multicultural and diverse in careers.. You can win like a Democratic-Republican or a Federalist so players really learn a great deal about the people and the Constitution while playing. It takes awhile to get the rules right in your head, but perseverance pays for dedicated players!  The small box easily fits into a beach bag and parts are well constructed. I received this from Blogging for Books in exchange for an honest review.

Tangerine: A Novel by Christine Mangan

Tangerine: A Novel by Christine Mangan. ECC, an imprint of HarperCollins, 2018.
Adult fiction. Reviewed advanced readers' copy from American Library Association conference in Chicago, June, 2017.  Cover not finalized.

It's the 1950's. Alice Shipley left Bennington College after a mysterious incident. She has married and moved to Tangier with her new husband. Then her college roommate, Lucy Mason, arrives. Lucy is confident where Alice is shy. Lucy has a murky past while Alice has shared every detail of her wealthy upbringing with Lucy.  Lucy was always the one who made plans, took chances, and ventured fearlessly into the world. Now, Alice is back into the old patterns of following Lucy's lead. Last time, things didn't end so well. Has anything changed?


Mangan does a good job of making each woman a distinct personality. The setting is really a character as the heat and foreign streets and markets come alive in the detailed descriptions. Putting the book in the 1950's reinforces the few options available to women at the time. Readers may think the book is going one direction, but things change and keep readers on their toes...and on the edge of their seats!

House of Shadows by Nicola Cornick

 House of Shadows by Nicola Cornick. Graydon House, 2015. Adult fiction.


Part mystery, part romance, part historical fiction, House of Shadows combines them all! When modern-day Holly Ansell's brother disappears near the mill they knew as children, she returns to her roots to try and find him. The English countryside is home to gardens and forests where Elizabeth Stuart, the Winter Queen, spent her last years. Legends abound about a famous pearl and a diamond encrusted mirror that Elizabeth thought could see the future and bring disaster. In the early 1801's a woman named Lavinia Flyte wrote a diary that involves past, present, and future.


Cornick is a historian and docent for a seventeenth century house in Oxfordshire. Her research pays off as she describes details of Ashdown House quite realistically. She writes smoothly and makes it easy to keep the threads of the different stories from tangling.

The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine

      The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine. Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins) to be published October, 2017. Adult fiction.

Looking for your next psychological thriller? Join the moneyed world of Daphne and Jackson Parrish of Connecticut. Seemingly the perfect couple, the perfect life, the perfect family, the two suck readers right into their perfect world. The first third of the story is told through Daphne's view. The second third of the tale is told through the voice of Amber Patterson, a young woman who becomes Daphne's friend. Amber soon establishes herself as very jealous, and wants Daphne's life and her husband. The last third of the book puts a new spin on the traditional gold digger, second wife tale and will have readers hurrying to find out what happens to them all. Love, friendship, manipulation, intrigue, all  play into this twisty and well written novel by two sisters who write under the pen name of Liv Constantine.

Anne of Green Gables (graphic novel) by Marsden and Thummler

 Anne of Green Gables, A Graphic Novel. Adapted by Mariah Marsden and illustrated by Brenna Thummler. Andrews McMeel, to be published October, 2017.


If you know and love the Anne stories or are new to them, pick up a copy of this graphic novel. You will experience Anne in a whole new way. Thummler's colorful illustrations add to the classic tale of an orphan who comes to live on Prince Edward Island in Canada. Marsden's adaptation includes all of the key adventures and drama of the child as she matures into a young woman. This would make a great gift for cruise travelers or anyone who plans a trip to the area...a quick read with the flavor and sweetness of the original by Lucy M. Montgomery. Who wouldn't want to just move next door to Anne?

Caroline, Little House, Revisited.

Caroline, Little House, Revisited by Sarah Miller. William Morrow, to be published September, 2017. Adult historical fiction.


Readers who grew up loving the Laura Ingalls Wilder books and/or television show will love this adult version from Ma's point of view. The story begins with Mary and Laura as little girls and Ma pregnant with a new baby. They pack up in the Big Woods of Wisconsin and head for Kansas and the Indian Territory. All the familiar details are there: Pa's fiddle, Ma's china shepherdess on the mantel, Mr. Edwards, and the warm family times. Although their lives were filled with hardships of raging rivers, strange new tribes of Indians, storms, and other scary things, the deep love and friendships carry them through the tough times.  Sarah Miller has done an excellent job of making the old stories seem fresh and new for adult readers.

Carnegie's Maid by Marie Benedict.

Carnegie's Maid by Marie Benedict. Sourcebooks Landmark, to be published January, 2018. Adult historical fiction.


Clara Kelley, a poor Irish girl, manages to take the identity of another girl and becomes a maid in the household of Andrew Carnegie, his brother, and his mother in Pittsburgh. She is clever, but terrified of being discovered and sent away. Her family depends on her income and Clara is well acquainted with poor people, poverty, and the differences in her new lifestyle and her old one. The book is truly historical fiction and really does not shed much new about Andrew Carnegie, but those who like to think of "what might have been" may surmise that Clara's influence spurred Carnegie to become the great philanthropist that he was. Benedict excels at descriptions of people and places of the past and weaves an interesting tale. This advanced reader edition did not have backmatter that might have told the truth vs. the fiction about the story.  See also The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict for another historical fiction novel by the same author.