RIDE ON by Faith Erin Hicks and DRAGON BONES illustrated by Maris Wicks - School Library Journal ‘Announcing the 101 Great Books for Kids List from Evanston Public Library (2022 Edition)!’

SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL | OCTOBER 21, 2022

Ride On by Faith Erin Hicks

Who is the mysterious new girl at Edgewood Stables? When Victoria shows up one day to ride the horses she tells the others there that she does not need new friends. But why is she here? And what happened at her stable before?

Dragon Bones: The Fantastic Fossil Discoveries of Mary Anning by Sarah Glenn Marsh, ill. Maris Wicks

Born in 1799, no one would have expected Mary Anning to be remembered as the mother of paleontology. The story of a scientist that couldn’t stop digging up impressive, ancient sea creatures.

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BookDeena Warner
VITAL LIES by Daniel Pyne

LIBRARY JOURNAL | SEPTEMBER 1, 2022

Vital Lies by Daniel Pyne. Brilliance Audio. (Sentro, Bk. 2). Feb. 2022. 11:57 hrs. ISBN 9781713594390. $34.99. THRILLER

In Cold War Germany in the 1980s, teenager Aubrey Sentro is an entry-level intelligence operative for the CIA. When she discovers that an entire CIA unit’s cover is about to be blown, she sacrifices herself to give them time to escape. She is captured and handed over to former Stasi agent Günter Witt, who beats, rapes, and impregnates her. Often drugged, she is told by her captors that the baby was stillborn. Then the Berlin Wall falls, and the Cold War is over. Sentro returns home to her family but with memory loss and ongoing PTSD. Thirty years later, Witt reappears in connection with a series of bombings in Europe. Meanwhile, a woman claiming to be Aubrey’s daughter also surfaces with deadly intent. When Aubrey and her daughter are drawn into the search for answers and put in peril, Aubrey must recover the long-buried truth about her past. This is Pyne’s second book (after Water Memory) in the “Sentro” series. Narrator Christina Traister skillfully presents the many voices and accents necessary to make the story come alive.

VERDICT Listeners of spy thrillers will enjoy this book. Recommended.

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BookDeena Warner
MY SUMMER DARLINGS by May Cobb - Washington Independent Review of Books 'Women Writing Women in Crime Fiction'

WASHINGTON INDEPENDENT REVIEW OF BOOKS | August 18, 2022

May Cobb is the author of three novels, the latest of which is My Summer Darlings, which was recommended by “The Today Show,” CrimeReads, Booklist, Shelf Awareness, and many more, and follows the critical and public enthusiasm her prior novel (The Hunting Wives) received. Her essays and interviews have appeared in the Washington Post, the Rumpus, Edible Austin, and Austin Monthly.

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BookDeena Warner
THE FORCE OF SUCH BEAUTY by Barbara Bourland - The Millions 'Regimented Bodies: The Millions Interviews Barbara Bourland'

THE MILLIONS | AUGUST 18, 2022

Barbara Bourland’s riveting new novel, The Force of Such Beauty, opens with the breathless escape attempt of a modern-day princess named Caroline as she endeavors to leave her marble prison once and for all. . . .

I spoke with Bourland over Zoom about the princess trap, the inescapable pervasion of the monarchy, and fiction as catharsis.

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BookDeena Warner
RIDE ON by Faith Erin Hicks - Publishers Weekly 'New Kids' and YA Books: Week of August 15, 2022'

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY | August 11, 2022

Ride On by Faith Erin Hicks. First Second, $24.99; ISBN 978-1-250-77281-7; $14.99 paper; ISBN 978-1-250-77282-4.

A group of riding camp veterans are surprised to find a former rival camp’s student at their camp for the summer, and despite their initial first impressions of one another, they bond over their love of horses and competing. The middle grade graphic novel earned a starred review from PW.

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BookDeena Warner
WILL TRENT SERIES by Karin Slaughter - Deadline ‘Will Trent Drama Starring Ramon Rodriguez Gets ABC Series Order'

DEADLINE | AUGUST 8, 2022

ABC has picked up drama pilot Will Trent (working title) to series for a midseason launch.

Based on Karin Slaughter’s bestselling “Will Trent” series, the series stars Rodriguez as Special Agent Will Trent of the Georgia Bureau of Investigations (GBI), who was abandoned at birth and endured a harsh coming-of-age in Atlanta’s overwhelmed foster care system. But now, determined to use his unique point of view to make sure no one is abandoned like he was, Will Trent has the highest clearance rate in the GBI.

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FilmDeena Warner
RIDE ON by Faith Erin Hicks - '12 Must-Read August Children's Book Releases"

BOOK RIOT | AUGUST 5, 2022

Ride On by Faith Erin Hicks

This graphic novel is a must-read for horse lovers. Victoria loves riding horses, but she’s tired of the competitions and especially tired of the elitist attitudes at the stable where she rides. When she and her wealthy best friend Taylor have a falling out, Victoria decides it’s time to change stables and searches for a less expensive and less stressful stable. This time, she’s not going to try to make friends or compete. With that in mind, Victoria rebuffs the friendly overtures from Norrie when she starts riding at Edgewood Stables. Frustrated, Norrie immediately decides she doesn’t like Victoria, but when Victoria discovers Norrie is a fan of the sci-fi TV show Beyond the Galaxy like her, she realizes she might have been hasty. By becoming friends with Norrie and two other kids, Victoria realizes she doesn’t have to define herself by her riding and can have other interests.

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BookDeena Warner
BOLDLY GO: REFLECTIONS ON A LIFE OF AWE AND WONDER by William Shatner - Publishers Weekly ' There Is No Final Frontier: PW Talks with William Shatner'

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY | JULY 22, 2022

You write that when you went to space, “there was no mystery, no majestic awe to behold... all I saw was death. I saw a cold, dark, black emptiness.” How surprised were you by that?

William Shatner: I was struck dumb. I was absolutely gobsmacked because I’ve been amazed by the miracles of space for a long time. And I saw none of that in that blackness. All I saw was what I described in that quote. And it came as a shock because I had just been looking at Earth as we were leaving it, and I was thinking, my God, look how beautiful it is.

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BookDeena Warner
BOLDLY GO: REFLECTIONS ON A LIFE OF AWE AND WONDER by William Shatner - Publishers Weekly 'Review'

Publishers Weekly | July 22, 2022

Boldly Go: Reflections on a Life of Awe and Wonder by William Shatner, with Joshua Brandon. Atria, $28 (256p) ISBN 978-1-66800-732-7

Shatner’s curiosity shines through as he leavens the seriousness of his lifelong quest for meaning with his signature self-effacing humor…The result is a refreshingly self-aware portrait of a man determined to live every moment to the fullest.

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BookDeena Warner
THE FORCE OF SUCH BEAUTY by Barbara Bourland - CrimeReads 'Best Books of the Year So Far'

CrimeReads | July 21, 2022

Barbara Bourland, The Force of Such Beauty (Dutton)

This is a fascinating novel about bodies, the way we use them, and the way we break them. It’s one of several works to come out this year concerned with the appropriation of female beauty by powerful men, and examines a harsh choice in the lives of women dubbed desirable by the patriarchal state: do you participate, or do you say no? But let’s backtrack here: what’s this book actually about? It’s about an olympic athlete failed by the same body that propelled her to success, who finds herself falling in love with the heir apparent of a small kingdom suspiciously similar to Monaco or Luxembourg, then falling under the sway of his powerful mother and ministers. She soon realizes her new life is just as regimented, and affords just as few choices, as her time training as an elite runner. Barbara Bourland is skilled at finding the noir in the everyday, and illustrating the mechanisms of control that keep us in our place.

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BookDeena Warner