The Midwatch Institute for Wayward Girls by Judith Rossell

Magdalena "Maggie" Fishbone is being moved from one orphanage to another. She knocked a boy (who, to be fair, was bullying some younger children) off a dock into the water. And for that, she's being sent to the Midwatch Institute for Wayward Girls. Luckily, all is not as it seems. Though the atmosphere is initially dreary, Maggie is somewhat heartened to meet two other new girls, Nell and Sofie. She is even more heartned to meet the director, Miss Mandelay. She has an eye patch and an aluminum leg and is more concerned that the girls learn useful skills than that they are "good."

I read about this on NPR's Best Books and it did not disappoint. 

Four stars

This book came out January 1, 2024

Borrowed as hard copy from library

Opinions are my own

Fair Play by Louise Hegarty with Aoife McMahon, Andrew Wincott

Abigail is known for her fun murder mystery parties that are thrown on New Year's Eve. A group of friends get together, dress up, and then celebrate her brother's birthday the next day. But this year is different. This year, Benjamin is dead. And the famous detective Bell has been called in to solve the mystery. 

This is very much like a Golden Age mystery but rather than an homage like "Miss Winter's Library", it's a play on the classics, more like a twist on the classics like "Everyone in my Family has Killed Someone."

Three stars

This book came out April 20, 2025

Borrowed as audiobook from Hoopla

Opinions are my down

The Power of Regret by Daniel H. Pink

I heard about this book from  NPR's Best Books and thought, "Why not?" I think I'm like most people, that there are things in my life that I regret. But so much of American culture these days encourages us to live life with no regrets. But why? Pink urges us to look at that statement and see that maybe it is incorrect. Maybe we do need to have some regrets. How else will we know how to improve ourselves? But there are ways to avoid regret. . In this book, Pink goes through the four core types of regret and talks about ways that we can avoid foundation, boldness, moral, and connection regrets. It is these regrets that we should focus on when making decisions; in five years, ten. Otherwise, "satisficing" is good enough. To undo regrets, you can apologize or try to undo action regrets or "at least it". For both action and inaction, practice self-compassion, normalize (zoom out several years), or try to work through them whether by talking with others or writing it down somewhere.

Three and a half stars

This book came out February 1, 2022

Borrowed as audiobook from Libby

Opinions are my own

The Haunting of Alma Fielding by Kate Summerscale

This was one of the books from NPR's Best Books of 2021. This book main follows Nandor Fodor as he grows up, moves from Hungary to England, and becomes one of the main researchers of psychical happenings around the country. It is this research that brings him into the life of Alma Fielding. 

It seems that there are some very mysterious happenings occurring around Mrs. Fielding. The newspapers are calling it a poltergeist. So Fodor and his friends are sent to investigate.

Summerscale takes us through the laborious process that the Institute would take to ensure that people were not faking their paranormal phenomena. We also hear the stories of some other people who claimed to be able to talk to spirits or produce objects from thin air.

This was an interesting story but it did take me quite a long time to slog through some parts.

Three and a half stars

This book came out October 1, 2020

Borrowed as ebook from Libby

Opinions are my own

Love by Matt de la Pena, Loren Long

The description of this book on the 2018 NPR Book Concierge is pretty darn close. There aren't a "zillion" ways depicted to show love but there are many and (almost) all of them are lovely. All of the pictures are absolutely amazing though.

This book came out January 9th, 2018
Four stars
Borrowed this book from the library
Opinions are my own

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

January Scaller does not live with either her mother or her father. Instead, she lives with Mr. Locke while her father travels the world, searching for treasures for the New England Archeological Society. And Mr. Locke seems to care for her. She cares for him. Her life is distressingly normal for a girl who is neither white nor black in (I think?) the early 1900s. But her life begins to change at seven when she briefly sees a blue door and goes through to another world. When her father dies, her life changes irrevocably. Her first person narration pulls us into the story, into her feelings and sense of wonder.

Her story intersects with two others whose identities are originally concealed from us by the third person narrator. All of them, explorers, trying to discover all 10,000 doors (which is actually "too many to count" but 10,000 works well.)

Great character development, awesome world building, and a happy ending. All things that make me happy. I did skim a couple of sections but not very much.

Four and a half stars

This book came out September 10th, 2019

Borrowed as audiobook from library

Opinions are my own