By Daniel G. Miller

Hazel Cho thinks of herself as a tough, no-nonsense private detective, and she is, to an extent. Having to deal with angry clients who refuse to acknowledge the brutal truth behind the reality Hazel uncovers, living paycheck to paycheck because of a lack of clients due to her gender, and navigating a sticky relationship with a roommate, a cherished friend that would like to be more than friends. One day, a gift seems to drop from thin air; a prospective client comes her way with an offer that is too irresistible to refuse. Madeline Hemsley graces Hazel’s detective agency with a job that requires Hazel to investigate the disappearance of a young girl from St. Agnes Orphanage. If Hazel takes the job, she will be paid an exorbitant amount of money, but along with payment comes a list of guidelines and deadlines Hazel must follow or not get paid. 
Of course, this offer is irresistible to refuse. But immediately, the roadblocks and morsels of truth that arise make this “gift from thin air” seem more like a curse. 
The plot is quick-paced, which definitely helps create suspense, with smidgens of romance interspersed. The author gives us little snippets of Hazel’s back story and her motivation for picking this peculiar line of work. The characters all seem to fulfil a purpose in developing the plot and serve as credible suspects in the mystery. 
The Orphanage by the Lake is a perfect summer mystery to put on your tbr list.
Thank you to Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the copy.

“The spirit of a man is constructed out of his choices.” ― Irvin D. Yalom, When Nietzsche Wept

The paths of life are varied.

All of us,

each and every one,

have several paths from which to choose a direction.

Our choice is our own.

To have someone dictate which path to take

or

to allow ourselves to be easily swayed by someone or some ideology

would be a crime against our spirit

and

we would not be living our truth.

Media, society, peers, politicians or even our family can attempt to carve a path they’d like us to take

but

if these paths are not divinely intended

if we do not participate in the carving of our own path

or

opt out of the carving of our own path because of fatigue or indifference,

then

we violate our own existence…

diminishing who we are –

a living, breathing gift to the universe.

“The world is mud-luscious and puddle wonderful” e.e. cummings.

Spring is here. Finally. After months and months the sun has come out in full force reminding me, every time I come home from work, how truly dirty my condo windows are.

But I don’t mind.

The warmth and the shine are worth the slight on my housekeeping skills.

It’s muddy and slushy and puddley in them thar streets outside my window. Spring is truly a gloriously messy month. No longer is the land hidden by feet of pure whiteness of the driven snow.

No,

there is a slow revealing that takes place in my neck of the woods. The marshmallow whiteness slowly sinks and turns to beige

then tan

then brown. (Yes there are subtle differences in the colour change).

Any refuse that has been hidden by the snow is now being slowly uncovered to show, for a few weeks anyway, the slovenliness of a society that has been rendered incapable of environmental citizenship

because of an inability to find their mittens.

But a spring cleanup will occur. The garbage bags come out when there begins to be a slight subtle tinge of green in the newly uncovered grass. I can already see it happening. I have spied a prophetic sign…small pussywillows have been spotted…a harbinger of warmer days

and lighter steps

and urges to muck about in the great outdoors.

I’ve noticed the same thing can happen to people. A stagnation of thought or an entrapment of a single stubborn idea can render an individual inert, trapped under a big

heavy

cold blanket.

And then, with the gentle yet persuasive introduction of a new idea, or a “self permission” to shift a paradigm once held fast, a slow melting can occur, uncovering that which is raw,

or basic

or simply brown…until it is allowed to be tended and encouraged to sprout and grow.

I love the potential of spring. I love the hope and promise it holds

even though it sometimes forces me to see the dust and water stains on my windows or cause me to wait in an endless lineup at the car wash.

Bill Browder

This is one of the BEST non-fiction books I’ve encountered in a long time. Honestly, I kept muttering “Holy S*#!” most of the time I was listening to it.
Freezing Order is a book that centres around the Magnitsky Act, an Act named after Browder’s Russian lawyer and friend, who was murdered by Putin’s henchmen to cover up a multimillion-dollar money-laundering scheme. To find justice for his friend Browder devotes his life to promoting the Magnitsky Act, which will enable a country to freeze the assets of any foreign country that violates human rights. Needless to say, many a Russian millionaires would do anything to protect their fortunes.
I listened to most of this book while running and it was so riveting I often found myself extending my distance.

Browder’s experiences are fascinating and frightening. He lives a cat-and-mouse game with one of the most ruthless men in history, Vladimir Putin. Freezing Order is a perfect Christmas Gift for the reader in your life.

by Julian Barnes

This novel is about a man named Neil who is obsessed with his university professor Elizabeth Fitch. The novel serves as a homage to this woman who inspired our narrator to, well, to think. Although Neil loves Elizabeth’s class (Culture and Civilization), he does not write his final essay and instead invites Elizabeth to lunch. Lunch becomes biannual event where Neil and Elizabeth meet and talk, with Elizabeth always giving Neil something to think about and paying for lunch.
When Elizabeth dies, she leaves her academic journals, and Neil has to decide what to do with them.
Along the way, Neil decides to write that final essay he never got around to writing all those years ago. The author includes this lengthy essay about Roman Emporer Julian Apostate within the pages of the novel itself.
I found this short novel somewhat interesting. It definitely was a deviation from the summer reads I have been consuming. There is no real suspense or intricate plot to speak of; rather, it is more a novel about a man’s relationship with a woman he found fascinating.
The character Elizabeth Fitch compelling; I would have loved to have read HER story. This novel isn’t for everyone. It seemed to me that Barnes wrote this story more for himself rather than to entertain the reader, which is perfectly fine with me.

Thank you to Netgalley for the free copy.

By Jennifer Coburn

Jennifer Coburn has exposed me to an atrocity in history of which I knew little. Before and during the Second World War, Germany established Lebensborn societies, homes for extraordinary German women of a certain Aryan pedigree who would be housed and nurtured with the hope of breeding strong, beautiful, “perfect” Germans. These homes would also accommodate children kidnapped from German-occupied countries because they looked exceptionally Aryan to be adopted and raised by German families.

Jennifer Coburn writes her story around three women who each experience Lebensborn in different roles. Gundi, unmarried and pregnant, is pressured to enter Lebensborn house because she is proportionally the “perfect “ German woman with perfect colouring and stature and body shape and exemplifies German motherhood. Gundi, however, is anything put the perfect Nazi and holds alliances and love elsewhere. Hildie desires to be a true “Hitler girl” and will do whatever it takes to bear a child of a Nazi officer. And Irma, a nurse who is attempting to do her job while trying unsuccessfully to notice atrocities taking place.

I read this novel from beginning to end on a travel day, and I was so absorbed in the story and characters it made all the flights and layovers I experienced fly by! This novel is a fascinating and heartbreaking novel about a time in history ( one of the many times ) where women are exploited for the “good of the country”. Be sure to add this to your Tbr list when it is published in October. Thank you to Netgalley and Source Books for the free advanced copy!