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The Cabinets of Barnaby Mayne by Elsa Hart I thought I would love this book more than I did, since it's both a mystery and historical fiction (and features two female characters as the protagonists). The plot was well-paced and I was surprised at the end, but the book was still slow-going and a little boring. The ending seemed to set up a sequel, or perhaps the start of a series, with the same characters. If that does happen, I will probably read it, but I won't be waiting anxiously for it to arrive. Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center This was a nice little romance for a quiet Saturday afternoon. I don't know much about the world of firefighting and I learned a lot about it, plus I felt like both the leads were realistically drawn and fit together well. My main quibble with the book is that it uses unresolved major trauma as the underlying base for the main character's 'quirks', and that trauma is easily resolved by falling in love with the right pe...

After the Last Border: Two Families and the Story of Refuge in America by Jessica Goudeau If you are looking for a book that will change your heart and mind, this is a good one to try. The author intersperses a history of refugee policy in the United States with the personal stories of two refugee families. The families came from very different circumstances, and those as well as the timing of their arrival in the US affected how they were received and how they have been able to adjust to life in a new country. I learned so much about the intricacies of refugee assistance, as well as the enormous difficulties faced by refugees around the world. Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade I had high hopes for this book based on the number of positive reviews I had read about it. However, reading it was a bit of a let-down. First of all, I've never really read any fan fiction and don't know much about that world, so I felt like the interspersed fan fiction interludes detracted from my enjoyme...