shrouded skeleton statue

Daryl M.

Librarian


Posts by Daryl M.

  • Author Aimee Pokwatka and her latest novel, The Parliament

    Interview With an Author: Aimee Pokwatka

    Aimee Pokwatka grew up in Wheeling, West Virginia. She studied anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and received her MFA in creative writing from Syracuse University. She…

  • Author Jess Armstrong and her debut novel, The Curse of Penryth Hall

    Interview With an Author: Jess Armstrong

    Jess Armstrong's debut novel, The Curse of Penryth Hall, won the Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Competition. She has a master's degree in American History but prefers…

  • Author James Patterson and his latest novel, Holmes, Marple & Poe

    Interview With an Author: James Patterson

    James Patterson is the world’s bestselling author. Among his creations are Alex Cross, the Women’s Murder Club, Michael Bennett, and Maximum Ride. His #1 bestselling nonfiction includes Walk in My…

  • Author Tobias Buckell and his latest novel, A Stranger in the Citadel

    Interview With an Author: Tobias S. Buckell

    Called "violent, poetic and compulsively readable" by Maclean’s, science fiction author Tobias S. Buckell is a New York Times bestselling writer and World Fantasy Award winner. He is biracial and was…

  • Author Emily Critchley and her debut novel, One Puzzling Afternoon

    Interview With an Author: Emily Critchley

    Emily Critchley has lived in Essex, Brighton, and London and now lives in Hertfordshire where she works as a librarian. She has a first-class BA in Creative Writing from London Metropolitan University…

  • Editor John Joseph Adams and his latest anthology, Out There Screaming

    Interview With an Editor: John Joseph Adams

    John Joseph Adams is the series editor of Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy and is the editor of more than forty anthologies, such as Wastelands, The Living Dead, and A People’s Future of the…

  • Collage of favorite books

    My Favorite Books of 2023

    Season’s Readings everyone! As is generally true, there have been some marvelous books published in 2023, and I’m thrilled to share my favorites with you. As I’ve done the last few years, I’ve listed…

  • Author Delilah S. Dawson and her latest novel, Midnight at the Houdini

    Interview With an Author: Delilah S. Dawson

    Delilah S. Dawson is the New York Times bestselling writer of Star Wars: Phasma, Galaxy’s Edge: Black Spire, Inquisitor: Rise of the Red Blade, The Disney Mirrorverse: Pure of Heart, Bloom, The…

  • Author Daniel Sweren-Becker and his latest novel, Kill Show: A True Crime Novel

    Interview With an Author: Daniel Sweren-Becker

    Daniel Sweren-Becker is an author, television writer, and playwright living in Los Angeles. His play Stress Positions premiered in New York City at the SoHo Playhouse. He grew up in Manhattan. He is…

  • Author Connie Willis and her latest novel, The Road to Roswell

    Interview With an Author: Connie Willis

    Connie Willis is a member of the Science Fiction Hall of Fame and a Grand Master of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. She has received seven Nebula awards and eleven Hugo awards for…


Reviews by Daryl M.

  • 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”...
  • Cover image for Secret Identity

    Secret Identity

    • By: Segura, Alex
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    In 1975, the comic book industry is struggling. It has survived, mostly, Frederic Wertham’s criticisms and claims regarding a causal relationship between reading comics and becoming a juvenile delinquent in Seduction of the Innocent. But there have been casualties. Readership is down. Publishers are closing. Writers and artists are left...
  • The City We Became

    The City We Became

    • By: N. K. Jemisin
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    N.K. Jemisin is a multiple award-winning, speculative fiction writer. Currently, she resides in Brooklyn, New York and, as evidenced by her novel, The City We Became, she LOVES the “Big Apple”.Every century or so, a city will “manifest”, it becomes a living thing, an entity of its own. This has...