review

…the hidden city on the border between our world and the Realm of the elves? Welcome to Bordertown, edited by Holly Black and Ellen Kushner, brings readers back to one of the first shared worlds of urban fantasy.

…the modern British family that decided to see what life was like in World War II Britain? In 2000, a three-generation family tackles the lifestyle of The 1940s House.

… the young dragon who has had adventures with ninja frogs and giant bats? Danny Dragonbreath investigates a haunted house on Halloween night in his latest adventure – Ursula Vernon’s No Such Thing as Ghosts*. Danny, his best friend Wendell, and their classmate Christiana are out trick-or-treating when a bully challenges them to check out a spooky abandoned house.

…the screaming lobsters? This food myth is debunked in Lobsters Scream when You Boil Them: And 100 Other Myths about Food and Cooking by Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough. Lobsters don’t have vocal cords.

… the military retirement plan?  At age seventy-five, you can join the army and go to war in outer space.  That’s the basic premise of John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War*.  Despite the vast reaches of space, habitable planets are few and far between, so competition for them is fierce, and mankind must fight to defend Earth and find our own space to colonize.

… the Georgia gal whose sassy southernisms and love of good chocolate and food make some great mysteries? Savannah Reid stars in A Decadent Way to Die*, the sixteenth book in the series by G. A. McKevett.

… the “Little Endless” – childlike versions of the characters from Sandman? In Delirium’s Party* by Jill Thompson, Delirium wants to cheer up her sister Despair. She decides to throw a big party and invite all of their siblings.

… the 1943 romantic, musical comedy set in San Francisco’s Barbary Coast at the turn of the 19th century? In Hello, Frisco, Hello, a talented singing foursome is fired for being so good at a dance hall that the customers stop drinking their beer to just watch and listen to them. The story line is about what happens during their rise to fame and fortune, and the downfall that follows.

… the stories of Jesus’ life that didn’t make it into the Bible? Christopher Moore’s Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal goes far beyond the Apocrypha.

…how to get through hard times?  In Cherries in Winter: My Family’s Recipe for Hope in Hard Times, Suzan Colón writes with candor of her family history in hard times and includes a few wonderful, old fashioned, stick-to-your-­ribs recipes.