Change Your Brain Every Day

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Are you interested in improving your brain health? Psychiatrist and neuroscientist Daniel G. Amen has a new title coming out on March 21 that will give you advice on how to do just that. You can read an extensive sample peek on Amazon now. Dr. Amen identifies eleven risk factors that you can remember with the mnemonic BRIGHT MINDS: blood flow, retirement/aging, inflammation, genetics, head trauma, toxins, mental health, immunity/infections, neurohormone issues, diabetes, and sleep issues. He also offers brain-healthy habits to combat each risk factor. Keep an eye out for this title if you are interested in Amen’s suggestions…

Play Like a Girl: a Graphic Memoir

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Misty is a middle school girl who wants to play football. She convinces her best friend, Bree to join with her, but it’s not really Bree’s thing, and she soon drops out. At first, the boys on the team are not happy with Misty playing, one in particular, Cole, makes sure to tackle her hard every chance he gets. But several of the others offer to help her become a better player. Misty Wilson and her husband are the co-authors, and it is her story to tell. She is now an elementary school teacher, and she thanks her students for inspiring her to write this book, as well as her 7th grade coaches for never treating her differently from the male players on the team. Play Like a Girl is an inspiring story of a girl trying to stay true to herself and fit into the middle school culture at the same time.

The House Guest

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Alyssa is shocked when her wealthy but nasty husband Bill demands a divorce; she definitely didn’t see it coming. To drown her sorrows, she visits a neighborhood bar one night and makes a friend, Bree, who is on the run from an abusive boyfriend. Alyssa offers her a place to stay: in her guesthouse (there is serious money here). Together they try and track down Bree’s only relative, a brother that she just found out about. The story spins on and on, and Ryan completes it with a neat ending. This author is a master at storytelling, I forgot how much I enjoy reading her work. Good choice for mystery lovers…

Murder in Tuscany

Pamela SimboliLeave a comment

This cozy mystery by T. A. Williams is currently available as an audio book and ebook on our Hoopla platform. Dan Armstrong is a retired DCI from England recently retired and separated from his wife. As a retirement gift, he goes on a writer’s retreat to Italy. Hoping to be distracted from his failing marriage, a dead body turns up and he is asked to assist in the investigation with the local police. As Dan gets more involved in the case, he begins to see a new life for himself in a new country. This low-key detective story builds on the local color and atmosphere as much as the murder mystery. By the end I was already looking for number two in the series which I am almost finished with (A Murder in Chianti).

The Cage

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Shay Lambert has just begun working at a fashion conglomerate in New York City as an in-house lawyer. One evening after working late, she finds herself leaving the floor with a colleague, Lucy Carter-Jones, the head of Human Resources. They both step into an elevator, but the power goes out in the building and they are trapped inside. Finally the doors open, but Shay is the only one alive. Lucy Carter-Jones is dead from a gunshot wound. And the whodunit begins. Was it suicide, like Shay attests, or was Shay the shooter? This is a great read, with enough twists and turns to hold your interest. Highly recommended for mystery fans…