shrouded skeleton statue

Daryl M.

Librarian


Posts by Daryl M.

  • Author Terence Kell and his latest book, The Coroner's Silence: Death Records and the Hidden Victims of Police Violence

    Interview With an Author: Terence Keel

    Terence Keel is a professor of human biology, society, and African American studies at UCLA. His latest book is The Coroner's Silence: Death Records and the Hidden Victims of Police Violence and he…

  • Author Christopher Huang and his latest book, A Pretender’s Murder

    Interview With an Author: Christopher Huang

    Christopher Huang grew up in Singapore, an only child in a family tree that expands dramatically sideways at his parents' generation. He moved to Canada after his National Service, studied…

  • Author Ryan Douglass and his latest novel, The Great Disillusionment of Nick and Jay

    Interview With an Author: Ryan Douglass

    Ryan Douglass is a queer author and poet from Atlanta, Georgia. He is the New York Times bestselling author of The Taking of Jake Livingston, and his short fiction appears in All These Sunken Souls…

  • Author Tom Lutz and his latest book, Chagos Archipelago

    Interview With an Author: Tom Lutz

    Tom Lutz is the author of many books on literature and culture, as well as several books of travel writing and two novels. He taught, formerly, at UC Riverside, the University of Iowa, CalArts, the…

  • Author Rosie Grant and her book, To Die For

    Interview With an Author: Rosie Grant

    Rosie Grant is the creator behind @GhostlyArchive on TikTok and Instagram, where she researches and re-creates recipes found on gravestones. She works at the Center for the Study of Women at UCLA and…

  • Author Kamilah Cole and his latest novel, An Arcane Inheritance

    Interview With an Author: Kamilah Cole

    Kamilah Cole is the bestselling author of So Let Them Burn and This Ends in Embers. A graduate of New York University, Kamilah is usually playing Kingdom Hearts for the hundredth time, quoting early…

  • Author Brad Meltzer and his latest novel, The Viper

    Interview With an Author: Brad Meltzer

    Brad Meltzer is the Emmy-nominated, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Lightning Rod and twelve other bestselling thrillers. He also writes nonfiction books like The JFK Conspiracy, and the…

  • Author Tod Goldberg and his latest book, Only Way Out

    Interview With an Author: Tod Goldberg

    Tod Goldberg is the New York Times bestselling author of sixteen novels, including the Gangsterland quartet: Gangsterland, a finalist for the Hammett Prize; Gangster Nation; The Low Desert, a…

  • Author Theodora Goss and her latest book, Letters From an Imaginary Country

    Interview With an Author: Theodora Goss

    World Fantasy, Locus, and Mythopoeic Award–winning author and poet Theodora Goss was born in Hungary and spent her childhood in various European countries before her family moved to the United States…

  • Collage of favorite books

    Daryl's Favorite Books of 2025

    Season’s Readings everyone! As is generally true, there have been some marvelous books published in 2025, and I’m thrilled to share my favorites with you. I’ve listed these books in alphabetical order…


Reviews by Daryl M.

  • Cover image for Another Fine Mess

    Another Fine Mess

    The Evans Funeral Parlor has existed for almost as long as the Southeastern Texas town in which it's located. It is a generational business, overseen and passed down through the Evans women. There's Ducy, the family's current matriarch, who is the daughter of Pie, who mysteriously disappeared eighteen years ago...
  • Cover image for Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil

    Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil

    • By: Schwab, Victoria
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    In 2020, V.E. Schwab introduced readers to Addie LaRue, a young woman who makes a Faustian bargain to avoid an unwanted marriage in early 18th-century France. In The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, Schwab follows Addie through the centuries as Addie, through her own cunning and strength of will, molds...
  • Cover image for Good Dirt

    Good Dirt

    • By: Wilkerson, Charmaine
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    When Ebony "Ebby" Freeman was ten years old, she was the sole witness of a botched home invasion robbery that resulted in the shooting death of her fifteen-year-old brother, Baz, and the destruction of a priceless family heirloom. The fact that Ebby is the daughter of a prominent Black family...
  • Cover image for But Not Too Bold

    But Not Too Bold

    Dália's life changed the morning the maid found the typewritten note that said: "HIRE A NEW KEEPER OF THE KEYS; URGENT; BEFORE DAWN" Everyone in Capricious House knew what the note meant and who had written it. Its author was the Lady of Capricious House, Lady Anatema, a gargantuan spider/human...
  • Cover image for The Murder of Mr. Ma

    The Murder of Mr. Ma

    • By: Nee, John Shen Yen, Rozan, SJ
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    In 1924 London, Lao She, a shy young academic, is summoned to the home of mathematician Bertrand Russell. When he arrives, Russell explains that a friend and colleague, Judge Dee Ren Jie, has been mistakenly arrested with a group of Chinese agitators. Russell is afraid that if Dee’s identity is...
  • Cover image for The Lost Story

    The Lost Story

    • By: Shaffer, Meg
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    Fifteen years ago, Jeremy and Ralph disappeared while on an end of the school year field trip to Red Crow State Forest in West Virginia. One moment, they were there, and then they were gone. The forest was repeatedly searched, but no signs of the boys were ever found. And...
  • Cover image for Arthur and Teddy are Coming Out

    Arthur and Teddy are Coming Out

    Arthur Edwards has lived his entire life in the small town of Northbridge in northern England. He grew up there. And he met and married his wife, Madeleine, in Northbridge. Northbridge is where Madeleine and he raised their two children, Elizabeth and Patrick. As with most small towns, regardless of...
  • Cover image for Star Struck

    Star Struck

    • By: McCown, Marjorie
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    When readers left Joey Jessup at the end of Marjorie McCown’s Final Cut, she had discovered the identity of the murderer who had killed Assistant Director Courtney Lisle on the set of a big-budget superhero movie. She had survived an attempt on her own life when the murderer had set...