Robot

Daryl M.

Librarian


Posts by Daryl M.

  • Authors Nathan Marsak and Arnold Hylen and book, Los Angeles Before the Freeways

    Interview With an Author: Nathan Marsak

    Arnold Hylen (1908–1987) trained at the Chouinard Art Institute, and found work as a photographer for the Fluor Corporation, where he worked from the early 1940s into the 1970s. During that period, he…

  • Author T.J. Klune and his latest novel, The Bones Beneath My Skin

    Interview With an Author: T.J. Klune

    T.J. Klune is the #1 New York Times and #1 USA Today bestselling, Lambda Literary Award-winning author of The House in the Cerulean Sea, Under the Whispering Door, In the Lives of Puppets, the Green…

  • Author Margarita Montimore and her latest novel, The Dollhouse Academy

    Interview With an Author: Margarita Montimore

    Margarita Montimore is the author of Acts of Violet, Asleep From Day, and Oona Out of Order, which was a USA Today bestseller and Good Morning America Book Club pick. After receiving a BFA in creative…

  • Author Kemper Donovan and his two novels, The Busy Body and Loose Lips

    Interview With an Author: Kemper Donovan

    Kemper Donovan is the host of the All About Agatha podcast. A graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Law School, he worked at the literary management company Circle of Confusion for a decade…

  • Author Chris Nichols and his latest book, Bowlarama!: The Architecture of Mid-Century Bowling

    Interview With an Author: Chris Nichols

    Chris Nichols is a longtime preservationist and senior editor at Los Angeles magazine. For many years, he worked with the Los Angeles Conservancy Modern Committee, serving a term as chairman of the…

  • Author Rebecca Serle and her latest novel, Good Dirt

    Interview With an Author: Charmaine Wilkerson

    Charmaine Wilkerson is the New York Times bestselling author of Black Cake, which was named a Read With Jenna Book Club Pick and adapted as a Hulu streaming series by Oprah Winfrey and Kapital…

  • Author Mallory O’Meara and her latest book, Daughter of Daring: The Trick-Riding, Train-Leaping, Road-Racing Life of Helen Gibson, Hollywood’s First Stuntwoman

    Interview With an Author: Mallory O’Meara

    Mallory O’Meara is the bestselling author of The Lady from the Black Lagoon, which won the 2019 SCIBA award for Biography and the 2019 Rondo award for Book of the Year, Girly Drinks, which won a 2022…

  • But Not Too Bold, a novella by Hache Pueyo

    Interview With an Author: Hache Pueyo

    Hache Pueyo is an Argentine-Brazilian writer and translator. She won an Otherwise Fellowship for her work with gender in speculative fiction, and her work has appeared as H. Pueyo in The Magazine of…

  • Author Edward Underhill and his latest book, The In-Between Bookstore

    Interview With an Author: Edward Underhill

    Edward Underhill grew up in the suburbs of Wisconsin, where he could not walk to anything, so he had to make up his own adventures. He studied music in college, spent several years living in very…

  • Author Jess Armstrong and her latest novel, The Secret of the Three Fates

    Interview With an Author: Jess Armstrong

    Jess Armstrong is the USA Today best selling author of the Ruby Vaughn Mysteries. Her debut novel, The Curse of Penryth Hall, won the Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel…


Reviews by Daryl M.

  • Cover image for The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea

    The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea

    • By: Maggie Tokuda-Hall
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    A young noblewoman is betrothed by her parents into an unwanted, arranged marriage. A young pirate struggles to survive and protect his brother from the dangers inherent in the life they have been forced to live. A mermaid is captured and threatened with death because her blood, when drunk, allows...
  • Cover image for Conventionally Yours

    Conventionally Yours

    • By: Annabeth Albert
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    A common theme in novels, motion pictures and television is the fine line between love and hate. One only has to look at William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew (or it’s modern reincarnation 1999’s Ten Things I Hate About You) for an example of supposed loathing turning to love...
  • Cover image for Under the Rainbow

    Under the Rainbow

    • By: Celia Laskey
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    In a recent survey, the small town of Big Burr, Kansas has earned the title of “most homophobic town in the U.S.”  The non-profit that conducted the survey, Acceptance Across America (AAA), determines that the appropriate response to their findings is to send a task force to Big Burr. They...
  • Cover image for Upright Women Wanted

    Upright Women Wanted

    • By: Gailey, Sarah
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    Esther just watched her best friend die. Beatriz was found to be in possession of “inappropriate” materials, and for that she was hanged in the town square. Esther’s father spoke from the podium about the dangers of “deviance” all the while keeping his eyes locked on Esther.  Beatriz’s death was a...
  • Cover image for Oona Out of Order

    Oona Out of Order

    • By: Montimore, Margarita
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    Imagine it is New Year’s Eve, 1982. Oona is 18 years old and will be 19 at midnight as the year changes to 1983. She has her whole life ahead of her, including the type of life altering “big decisions” that face everyone at that age. But, when Oona opens...
  • Cover image for Heart of Junk

    Heart of Junk

    • By: Geddes, Luke
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    Hmm, what could the following all have in common: an aging antique mall in Wichita, Kansas, where well established and novice sellers are struggling to keep the doors open in the age of online shopping; a child beauty pageant queen who has mysteriously vanished; and the hosts of a phenomenally...
  • Cover image for Eight Perfect Murders: A Novel

    Eight Perfect Murders: A Novel

    • By: Swanson, Peter
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    The owner of a Boston bookshop specializing in mysteries posts a list of books on the store’s blog. It is entitled “Eight Perfect Murders” and it lists the novels he feels have described unsolvable murders. These are murders in which the killers cannot be connected with their crimes. Years later...
  • Cover image for Ormeshadow

    Ormeshadow

    • By: Sharma, Priya
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    It is often stated that “The meek will inherit the earth.” While that is a nice sentiment, it is not affirmed by history. More often than not, those who hold their tongues and think before speaking, as well as those who avoid confrontation and violence to resolve conflict are the...
  • Cover image for Riot Baby

    Riot Baby

    • By: Onyebuchi, Tochi
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    Ella has what she refers to as her Thing. It allows her to see things that have not yet happened. As a young girl growing up in Compton, California, this is more of a curse than a blessing. Ella is rarely happy by the future she sees. And, as she...
  • Cover image for Made things

    Made things

    • By: Tchaikovsky, Adrian, 1972-
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    Coppelia is not quite a thief and not quite a con-artist. What she is, or could be if she were living a different life, is an artist. A builder who could create function and beauty from raw materials, but only in a different life. A life where her parents hadn’t...