"Join Dr. Ribero's Agency of the Supernatural for

The Case of the Deadly Doppelgänger, the second book in a series that follows Kester Lanner, a twenty-two-year-old nerd, avid indoorsman, and newly minted "spirit door-opener." Also, he's just discovered that he's the son of Dr. Julio Ribero, the head of a clandestine supernatural agency on the skids. Welcome to the unglamorous, low-paying, low-profile world of the supernatural.

"Desperate for work, the agency bids on a government assignment trapping a rogue doppelgänger spirit in Lyme Regis. However, their celebration soon turns sour as they learn that they're sharing the job with Ribero's nemesis-plus there's an impossible deadline, a series of uncooperative locals, and a spirit that's not exactly what it seems.

"Working for his father the past four months, Kester's still figuring out what kind of relationship he wants-to his parent and the supernatural. Unfortunately, circumstances are pushing him into a more active role; his father is diagnosed with Parkinson's. Now Kester not only needs to contribute, he must figure out how to lead.

"Despite his insecurities, something about the way this doppelgänger spirit is picking off the tight-knit group of pensioners is niggling at Kester. If he's even going to figure it out-not to mention get some time off for a second date with his crush-he'll have to muck about in ancient graves, internet dark sites, and moldy discount hotels, hoping and praying he'll get lucky.

"Banks blends supernatural mystery with workplace comedy in a ribald romp that threatens to run roughshod over shy, beta-hero Kester. Yet, Kester's gawkish naiveté is endearing. After all, growing up is hard to do, and never more so than when there are spirits out to get you."

Reviewed by  Letitia Montgomery-Rodgers  

"Join Dr. Ribero's Agency of the Supernatural for

The Case of the Deadly Doppelgänger, the second book in a series that follows Kester Lanner, a twenty-two-year-old nerd, avid indoorsman, and newly minted "spirit door-opener." Also, he's just discovered that he's the son of Dr. Julio Ribero, the head of a clandestine supernatural agency on the skids. Welcome to the unglamorous, low-paying, low-profile world of the supernatural.

"Desperate for work, the agency bids on a government assignment trapping a rogue doppelgänger spirit in Lyme Regis. However, their celebration soon turns sour as they learn that they're sharing the job with Ribero's nemesis-plus there's an impossible deadline, a series of uncooperative locals, and a spirit that's not exactly what it seems.

"Working for his father the past four months, Kester's still figuring out what kind of relationship he wants-to his parent and the supernatural. Unfortunately, circumstances are pushing him into a more active role; his father is diagnosed with Parkinson's. Now Kester not only needs to contribute, he must figure out how to lead.

"Despite his insecurities, something about the way this doppelgänger spirit is picking off the tight-knit group of pensioners is niggling at Kester. If he's even going to figure it out-not to mention get some time off for a second date with his crush-he'll have to muck about in ancient graves, internet dark sites, and moldy discount hotels, hoping and praying he'll get lucky.

"Banks blends supernatural mystery with workplace comedy in a ribald romp that threatens to run roughshod over shy, beta-hero Kester. Yet, Kester's gawkish naiveté is endearing. After all, growing up is hard to do, and never more so than when there are spirits out to get you."

Reviewed by  Letitia Montgomery-Rodgers  

" Another wacky adventure with Waldo Baron, better know as W.B., arrives with The Wonderful Baron Doppelgänger Device, in which someone has used W.B.'s parents' latest invention to assume his identity.

"It's an exciting time for W.B. An old friend, Shorty, is visiting. W.B. has a new friend, B.W., and his favorite day of the year, the annual Pitchfork Fair, is at hand. His aunt Dorcas has been busy baking delicious pies and tarts to enter the fair competition, and his parents' assistant Rose Blackwood is trying to bake her own entries, but is failing spectacularly.

Things can never just go smoothly for this clumsy, awkward young hero. Rose's pie explodes at the fair. She is quickly arrested and imprisoned. When W.B. returns home after being kidnapped, his parents chase him off the estate. Now he must prove Rose's innocence and reclaim his identity.

"This is a wonderful installment in a truly delightful series. Charming characters are full of quirks and oddities, including a father who is far more affectionate to animals than he is to people, an aunt who seems to do nothing but bake and complain, and a friend who is the size of a baby, but who possesses incredible strength.

"W.B. is completely endearing as he stumbles through his latest adventure, coming up with new ideas ("brain sneezes," as he calls them). The story is full of clever twists and turns, and W.B.'s antics are always funny.

"Amid its enormous fun, the book sneaks in some important life lessons, such as appreciating what you have and taking care of family. It is memorable and appealing, ensuring it a place of honor on any bookshelf."

Reviewed by  Catherine Thureson 

Excerpt: "These adventures have it all: history, family, education, excitement, and fun." 

Address: 235 Union St, Waterbury, CT 06706

 

"Aromatic and heady, fearless and far-reaching, this complicated novel imagines Florida fifty years ago, with all the beauty and all the threat of the era concentrated in a fine story of courage and place. The setting is mythic Florida, in an orange grove, in the middle of social transformation. Kudos to Furman for recreating this rich and unbelievable world. What I loved most was the book's feast of language, its flavor and sensuality. And of course I loved Janisse." 

"There was something glorious about an examination with a stethoscope," muses Isaac Golden, the searching, hopeful patriarch in Andrew Furman's novel, Goldens Are Here. "This laying on of hands. This reverent silence....Here was the real, Isaac thought." Readers looking for the real will find it in Furman's careful attunement to place (tamarind, lantana, wax myrtle; Parson Brown, Hamlin, Valencia) and time (the Space Age and the Civil Rights struggle.) Furman gives this moment in our collective history its due with nuance, warmth, and a palpable sense of family grief and love."

"The secret life of the spotted salamander unfolds as April anticipates her special role in their yearly migration from underground habitats beneath the forest floor to nearby ponds and wetlands. Hushed and reverent with flashlights and raincoats, mother and daughter venture out at night to carefully help the slowly creeping travelers safely across the roadway. Share in their joy, found through the care and conservation of the shrinking salamander populations of eastern North America."

Reviewed by  Pallas Gates McCorquodale 

Address:  713 Elm St, Montpelier, Vermont 05602

"Conservationist, former professor (American Indian studies, Univ. of Minnesota), and author Carlson (Home Is the Hunter: The James Bay Cree and Their Land) showcases a wide sweep of knowledge throughout this hybrid travel memoir/land philosophy text. A largely pessimistic view of all the ways Americans have destroyed the earth, Carlson's writings are heady and full of history. The philosophical text contrasts greatly with his travel writing about three summers he hiked toward Mount Moosalamoo in Vermont, which is lyrical and appreciative of the land. Carlson delves into such topics as colonial domination, storytelling, fossil fuel, the Western inability to understand Native beliefs, competition among businesses, and the failures of the civil rights movement. His many arguments on how man has neglected the earth are persuasive and depressing. He writes of the earth and the animals that populate it as entities humans must speak with and cease wounding. Many ideas are explored, but they often don't connect to the book's travel narrative segments. Few solutions or suggestions for improvement are offered until the final pages, and even then few practical options are given aside from returning to gardening, local manufacturing, and finding ways to combine private ownership with common lands.

"Verdict For readers interested in nature-related philosophy.-Katie Lawrence, Grand Rapids"

Excerpt: "A surreal journey across the ages: In Smoke City, Keith Rosson delivers a mind-bending road trip."

Excerpt: " This is a story about being vulnerable, breaking through isolation, and finding places (times, songs, friends) that make you feel you can belong . In a heightened landscape it invites you to float away with it, but it's a very human experience at heart."

"In an intoxicating swirl of futuristic imagery and existential inner reflection, Meet Me in the Strange treats music and spirituality as one and the same.

"Davi lives in a wondrous hotel in a city filled with oddities and beauties. In this future world, culture has been infused with alien yet lovely customs. A museum includes a simultaneously fantastical and ordinary space exhibit; a record shop houses the most unique popular music. Exhilarating prose describes a world that is bright and brilliant, with spots that are dark and utterly ordinary.

"Characters are also all about contradictions, including Anna Z-maybe special; maybe crazy-whom Davi befriends because of their mutual love of musician Django Conn, is enamored with, and attempts to save. She delivers long-winded speeches that could be received as either rants or sermons. To protect her, Davi hides her away in the family hotel, using hidden rooms and tunnels. Though this is done in the name of Anna's protection, it's also done to keep her.

"The story is told through Davi's eyes, though Davi is not broadly described; only minor details are included to flesh them out, like Davi's taste in music. Davi's gender is never revealed; they assume a sort of implicit androgyny. This mysteriousness is mirrored in the turns of the prose, as the reader is allowed to belong to an enigmatic world and observe it with awe.

" Meet Me in the Strange is a wondrous, alien tale, not quite like any other story out there."

Reviewed by Hannah Hohman