shrouded skeleton statue

Daryl M.

Librarian


Posts by Daryl M.

  • Book covers of favorite books

    My Favorite Books of 2024

    Season’s Readings, everyone! As is generally true, there have been some marvelous books published in 2024, and I’m thrilled to share my favorites with you. I’ve listed these books in alphabetical…

  • Genoveva Dimova and her 2 book covers

    Interview With an Author: Genoveva Dimova

    Genoveva Dimova is a fantasy author and archaeologist. Originally from Bulgaria, she now lives in Scotland with her partner and a small army of houseplants. She believes in writing what you know, so…

  • Michelle Chouinard and her book

    Interview With an Author: Michelle Chouinard

    Michelle Chouinard has written eight previous USA Today and Publishers Weekly bestselling mysteries under a different name. She has a Ph.D. in developmental psychology from Stanford University and was…

  • Author Alex Segura and his book Alter Ego

    Interview With an Author: Alex Segura

    Alex Segura is the bestselling and award-winning author of Secret Identity, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller and a New York Times Editor’s Choice and an NPR Best Mystery…

  • Author Marjorie McCown and her latest novel, Star Struck

    Interview With an Author: Marjorie McCown

    Marjorie McCown has spent her entire professional life in the story-telling business, though she started out on the visual side of the craft. She spent more than twenty-five years in Hollywood working…

  • Author Emily C. Hughes and her first book, Horror For Weenies: Everything You Need to Know About the Films You're Too Scared to Watch

    Interview With an Author: Emily C. Hughes

    Emily C. Hughes (she/her) wants to scare you. Formerly the editor of Unbound Worlds and TorNightfire.com, she writes about horror and curates a list of the year's new scary books. You can find her…

  • Author Tim Major and his latest novel, Jekyll & Hyde: Consulting Detectives

    Interview With an Author: Tim Major

    Tim Major is a writer and freelance editor from York, UK. His books include Snakeskins, Hope Island, three Sherlock Holmes novels, short story collection And the House Lights Dim and a monograph about…

  • Author Joe R. Lansdale and his latest short story collection, In the Mad Mountains

    Interview With an Author: Joe R. Lansdale

    Internationally bestselling author Joe R. Lansdale has received the Edgar, Raymond Chandler, Bram Stoker, British Fantasy, and Inkpot Awards. His work includes mysteries, Westerns, horror, thrillers…

  • Author Tod Goldberg and his latest anthology, Eight Very Bad Nights

    Interview With an Author: Tod Goldberg

    Tod Goldberg is the New York Times bestselling author of over a dozen books, including the award-winning Gangsterland trilogy and Living Dead Girl, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His…

  • Author M. L. Rio and her first novella, Graveyard Shift

    Interview With an Author: M. L. Rio

    M. L. Rio holds an MA in Shakespeare studies from King’s College London and Shakespeare’s Globe and a PhD in English from the University of Maryland, College Park. Her bestselling first novel If We…


Reviews by Daryl M.

  • Cover image for The Children on the Hill

    The Children on the Hill

    • By: McMahon, Jennifer
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    Monster. The word brings to mind ugly, misshapen creatures wreaking havoc wherever they go. Perhaps the most famous monster is Frankenstein’s monster from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. It’s been over 200 years since the teenaged Shelley created one of the most enduring tales of all time. And over the last two...
  • Cover image for Siren Queen

    Siren Queen

    On a whim, a young Chinese-American girl pays with an inch of her hair so that she and he sister can see Romeo and Juliet at the new nickelodeon in their neighborhood. From that moment on, she has a single desire: to be a motion picture star. Not simply an...
  • Cover image for Never Been Kissed

    Never Been Kissed

    • By: Janovsky, Timothy
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    As Wren Roland celebrates his 22nd birthday with his best friends and roommates, Mateo and Avery, he begins to lament the fact that he has never been kissed. He’s been close, but has yet to experience what his degree in film studies has convinced him will be a life-altering and...
  • Cover image for Only a Monster

    Only a Monster

    • By: Len, Vanessa
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    Joan believes herself to be a typical teenager. She spends her summers in London visiting her maternal grandmother, while her father visits his family in Malaysia. During this visit, she has been volunteering at Holland House, a historic home and museum in Kensington. Holland House is where she met Nick...
  • Cover image for The Book Woman's Daughter

    The Book Woman's Daughter

    • By: Richardson, Kim Michele
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    In 2019, Kim Michele Richardson told the story of Cussy Mary Carter and her work as a Pack Horse Librarian in The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek. Now, in 2022,  Richardson returns to tell the next chapter in Cussy Mary’s story, which actually belongs to her daughter, in The Book...
  • Cover image for One last stop

    One last stop

    • By: McQuiston, Casey
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    A young woman on her way to her first day of classes at Brooklyn College spills coffee on herself just prior to boarding the subway. Another young woman on the train comes to her rescue with a scarf and a kind word. The next time the student boards the train...
  • Cover image for The Quarter Storm

    The Quarter Storm

    • By: Henry, Veronica G.
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    Vodou priestess Mambo Reina Dumond learned the practices and customs of Vodou as a child from her father, while her family was living in Haiti. She is inhabited by the spirit of Erzulie, which makes her a gifted practitioner of water magic. Reina operates a small business behind her home...
  • Cover image for One-Shot Harry

    One-Shot Harry

    • By: Phillips, Gary
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    The year is 1963. Martin Luther King, Jr. is about to hold his Freedom Rally at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles; William H. Parker is Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department; John F. Kennedy is President of the United States; Pat Brown is the Governor of California; Gas is...
  • Cover image for The Fervor: A Novel

    The Fervor: A Novel

    Meiko is the Japanese wife of Jamie Briggs, a white US Air Force pilot fighting in World War II. Meiko, and her daughter Aiko, are “residents” of the Minidoka internment camp in Idaho. A few days ago, an unscheduled truck came to the camp. The residents are told to stay...
  • Cover image for Mickey7

    Mickey7

    • By: Ashton, Edward
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    Mickey Barnes NEEDS to get off Midgard, the colony planet on which he has lived his entire life. Because staying on Midgard is not an option, he takes the only avenue open to him: he volunteers to be the “expendable” on Midgard’s first outgoing colony ship, the Drakkar. An “expendable”...