The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley

A special thank you to Goodreads First Reads for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

3.75 stars! I forgot how delightful this series is. After reading Bradley's The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie I remembered thinking that I needed to get my hands on the next book as I was so enchanted by the 11-year-old sleuth Flavia de Luce. Flavia is a brilliant and unique child, absolutely charming—Bradley does a great job with her voice.

Flavia is quite the detective, and Bradley brings a fresh approach to the classic mystery—again, this is done through Flavia's narrative and his spot-on writing.

The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag works as a sequel to the earlier book rather than as a stand-alone novel; readers may not get the family dynamics and Flavia's quirky love of all things poisonous. Bradley walks a fine line with Flavia's precocity and childishness. She seems to be so intellectually advanced, yet stunted emotionally. I think this is what makes her such a successful sleuth and I cannot wait to see where Bradley takes her in the next installment.

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ALAN BRADLEY is a New York Times bestselling author. His first Flavia de Luce novel, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, received the Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger Award, the Dilys Winn Award, the Arthur Ellis Award, the Agatha Award, the Macavity Award, and the Barry Award, and was nominated for the Anthony Award. 

Bradley was born in Toronto and lives in Vancouver.

Columbine by Dave Cullen

Heartbreaking. 

I could only skim this book and am at a loss at how to rate it given the disturbing subject matter.  Therefore, I will score based on the writing versus the content. 4/5 stars as the author was compelling, articulate, and well-researched.

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DAVE CULLEN is the author of the New York Times bestseller Columbine, a haunting portrait of two killers and their victims. He has written for New York Times, Newsweek, Times of London, Washington Post, Slate, Salon, Daily Beast, and Guardian. Cullen spent ten years writing and researching Columbine.

A Gift for My Sister: A Novel by Ann Pearlman

I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.

Ann Pearlman writes about female friendships and relationships.

A Gift for My Sister is the second book in the Christmas Cookie Club series. In this book she explores the depth of the human heart through a sister relationship.  Tara and Sky share a mother, but other than that, they seem to have little else in common.

When a series of tragic events take place, the sisters must come together and face heartbreak and past demons. The journey they embark on forces each woman to walk in the other’s shoes and examine what sisterhood actually means to them.  The two women must navigate through tragedy and chart a course for their relationship since it is unknown territory for both.

Although the book was an easy read, it still manages to keep the reader's interest. Pearlman tells the story through both sister's perspective and creates a unique voice for each character. At first, Tara seems to cry out for attention and almost becomes a stereotype while Sky, unlikable at times, is Tara's opposite. Pearlman's character juxtaposition is interesting in that it creates a whole—there is almost a yin and yang effect—while examining another kind of female relationship, the one between sisters.

The recipes at the end were a nice touch.

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ANN PEARLMAN is a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award Nominee and bestselling international writer.  She is the author of fiction, nonfiction, memoir, cookbook and illustrated short stories.

She lives in a forest near Ann Arbor, Michigan. 

The Lion Seeker by Kenneth Bonert

A special thank you to Goodreads First Reads for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Kenneth Bonert’s debut is fresh, exciting, and confident. Gitelle's fierce with love for her children is juxtaposed against the fierce disfiguring facial scar that drives the plot's backstory. Her son, Isaac, with hair "gleaming like fresh-skinned carrots" is every bit the spirited red head. Isaac is likeable at times, but can be tiring and his schemes naive—if anything, he is interesting. 

Bonert fleshes out his story in rolling scenes, dialect, and sharp prose. With its sweeping scenes I could easily see this book being adapted for the big screen. 

My only complaint is that I felt the book to be a bit long and that Bonert was trying to hard to prove himself. The writing speaks for itself—Bonert has arrived.

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KENNETH BONERT is a South African-Canadian writer. His debut novel The Lion Seeker won both the 2013 National Jewish Book Award for Outstanding Debut Fiction and the 2013 Edward Lewis Wallant Award. The Lion Seeker was also a shortlisted nominee for the 2013 Governor General's Award for English-language Fiction, and the 2013 Amazon.ca First Novel Award.

Originally from Johannesburg, Bonert moved to Toronto, Ontario in 1989.