River Readers

When Chris joins the staff at her local record store, she’s surprised to find out that her co-workers share a secret: they’re all members of a secret fight club that take on the patriarchy and fight crime!

Lily is biologically a boy but has always felt like she was a girl in a boy's body. She was born Tim McGrother but dreams of the day when she can be Lily. Her mom and sister are very supportive as is her friend Dare but her dad is not.

Norbert has recently moved into the area with his mom to live with his grandmother. Nicknamed Dunkin for his love of Dunkin Donuts, he longs to fit in. His first friend is Lily but when school starts, he becomes friends with the jocks who bully Lily terribly, straining his friendship with Lily and Dare.

Laura Brooks returns to her hometown of Hannibal, Missouri ten years after the 1993 flood that devastated towns all up and down the Mississippi River including Hannibal. Integrating the small river town's history and devotion to Mark Twain with Laura's own life, Melissa Scholes Young writes a captivating story of what home means to most of us and full of energetic characters.

In this short book of poems all bearing the same title Terrance Hayes wrote poems within the first one hundred days of the Trump presidency. He speaks to us of our country's past and future errors.

The look on Rose’s face had screamed that she was hiding something. Hell, she’d practically run away from me. There was something to that. I knew there was...

Violet Winters once had it all but lost it when her husband was murdered by a criminal madman. During a cold winter night Violet has to leave her warm bed to tell her neighbor to turn the music down. And that’s when she meets sinister, scarred, scarily attractive security specialist, Joe Callahan.

She wants to deny it, but Violet can’t beat back the hunger she feels for Joe so she gives in again and again. Feeling it himself, Joe feeds Vi’s hunger, breaking his own rules to keep her in his bed.

For twenty-one-year-old Sydney, being in love with Kyler isn't anything new. They'd been best friends ever since he pushed her down on the playground and she made him eat a mud pie. Somewhere over the years, she fell for him and fell hard. The big problem with that? Kyler puts the 'man' in man-whore. He's never stayed with a girl longer than a few nights, and with it being their last year in college, Syd doesn't want to risk their friendship by declaring her love.

Gorey's creepy-cozy drawings accurately project the ambience of the big old house in tiny New Zebedee, Michigan, where ten year-old Lewis, newly orphaned by an auto accident, goes to live with his benign and rather seedy warlock uncle Jonathan. With the help of gray-haired Mrs. Zimmerman, the cookie-baking witch next door, Jonathan amuses his nephew with an eclipse of the moon and other frivolous pastimes -- but the uncanny happenings become more sinister when Lewis himself, to impress a friend, manages to summon malignant Mrs. Izard, the house's former occupant, from her tomb.

Heathen tells the story of Aydis, a Viking warrior banished from her clan for kissing a girl. She goes on a quest to free Brynhild, a Valkyrie imprisoned by Odin. Only the warrior worthy of her can cross the flames and free her. Aydis is a worthy warrior, but freeing Brynhild is not the end of her adventures. This was a fantastic adventure story set in the Viking world. Aydis is an awesome hero and I can't wait to read more of her adventures.

Dimple has her life planned out. She is going to attend Insomniacom for the summer, have her app developed, meet her idol Jenny Lin and go on to Stanford in the fall. There are no plans for romance or boys in this equation. Rishi is at Insomniacom for one reason...to meet Dimple. Their parents have arranged for them to be married and Rishi is very excited to meet his future wife and is already half way in love with her. Of course things do not go as planned when they are introduced, but because they are paired for the competition they are given the chance to get to know each other.

The yetis have been kicked out of their treehouse by the sasquatch. The Lumberjanes decide the best way to settle the issue is with roller derby of course! And isn't it convenient that there just happens to be a course in the woods. So it is Lumberjanes vs. Sasquatch!

Hazel and Mari meet in school in 1963. From the very beginning Hazel knows she loves Mari, but she doesn't act on it. Hazel and Mari are best friends throughout middle and high school until one day in they act on their attraction. Of course there are disastrous consequences and Mari is sent away. Both marry and have families and it is not until 30 years later that they are reunited. This time they are not going to let anything stand in their way. It takes time for their families to accept them, but love does find a way. 

Gertrude is in Hell. Yep it finally happened. And of course normal hell won't do for our lovely Gert. Her hell is being back home with her parents in a twisted version of reality. When that doesn't work out things get even more twisted and Gert is forced to relive all her adventures in Fairlyand. But back in actual Fairyland, a witch has brought Cloudia back from the dead as Dark Cloudia whose mission is to destroy Fairyland for good. Only Gertrude can save Fairyland, but will Fairyland take her back? 

The last thing Carol wanted to do was spend the summer at her Grandpa's ranch in the desert. However, her grandpa was in failing health and she and her family needed to go get the ranch ready to sell. When they arrive, they find Grandpa Serge in worse shape than they thought. He was rambling about bees, a magic tree and a green glass lake. Carol learned to listen to Grandpa Serge and form a bond with him she did not think possible.

I wanted to love this book. It isn't often an indigenious woman gets a voice and there was so much buzz about it that I couldn't wait to read it. Then as I read it, I couldn't wait to finish it. There were incredible moments, glimpses of brilliance but the lack of cohesion throughout the book just ruined it for me. I often felt like I didn't know what was going on with all the jumping between past and present. I read in another review that Mailhot shifted five times in one page between past and present.