Detective Aunty by Uzma Jalaluddin

First sentence:

"Every soul shall taste death"

Description:

"After her husband’s unexpected death eighteen months ago, Kausar Khan never thought she’d receive another phone call as heartbreaking—until her thirty-something daughter, Sana, phones to say that she’s been arrested for killing the unpopular landlord of her clothing boutique. Determined to help her child, Kausar heads to Toronto for the first time in nearly twenty years.

Returning to the Golden Crescent suburb where she raised her children and where her daughter still lives, Kausar finds that the thriving neighborhood she remembered has changed. The murder of Sana’s landlord is only the latest in a wave of local crimes which have gone unsolved.

And the facts of the case are troubling: Sana found the man dead in her shop at a suspiciously early hour, with a dagger from her windowfront display plunged in his chest. And Kausar—a woman with a keen sense of observation and deep wisdom honed by her years—senses there’s more to the story than her daughter is telling.

With the help of some old friends and her plucky teenage granddaughter, this unlikely woman sleuth digs into the investigation to uncover the truth. Because who better to pry answers from unwilling suspects than a meddlesome aunty? But as this clever amateur sleuth digs deeper, even Kausar can’t predict the secrets, lies, and betrayals she finds along the way." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

I liked this first book in the Kausar Khan Investigates series. Kausar not only figures out what is going on and helps her daughter Sana, but she also learns about herself. I look forward to reading the next book, Moonlight Murder.


Date read: 7/26/2026
Series: Kausar Khan Investigates, #1
Genre: Mystery
Rating: 4*/5

ISBN-10: 0063434873
ISBN-13: 9780063434875
Imprint: Harper Perennial
Publisher: HarperCollins
Year: 2025
# of pages: 324
Binding: Trade Paperback
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Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper by Harriet Scott Chessman

First sentence:

"'Could you model for me tomorrow, Lyd?'"

Description:

Harriet Scott Chessman takes us into the world of Mary Cassatt's early Impressionist paintings through Mary's sister Lydia, whom the author sees as Cassatt's most inspiring muse. Chessman hauntingly brings to life Paris in 1880, with its thriving art world. The novel's subtle power rises out of a sustained inquiry into art's relation to the ragged world of desire and mortality. Ill with Bright's disease and conscious of her approaching death, Lydia contemplates her world narrowing. With the rising emotional tension between the loving sisters, between one who sees and one who is seen, Lydia asks moving questions about love and art's capacity to remember. Chessman illuminates Cassatt's brilliant paintings and creates a compelling portrait of the brave and memorable model who inhabits them with such grace. Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper includes five full-color plates, the entire group of paintings Mary Cassatt made of her sister.

My thoughts:

I enjoyed this book about the artist Mary Cassatt as told by her older sister, Lydia, who often posed for Mary's paintings. The book includes full page prints of these paintings that the reader can turn to and admire. I also learned about the Impressionist movement happening in Paris in the late 19th century and about Mary's artistic friendship with the painter Edgar Degas.

Date read: 6/13/2026
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 4*/5

ISBN-10: 1583222723
ISBN-13: 9781583222720
Imprint: Permanent Press
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
Year: 2001
# of pages: 163
Binding: Trade Paperback
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Copies in Seconds by David Owen

First sentence:

"We ourselves are copies."

Description:

"The first plain-paper office copier--which was introduced in 1960 and has been called the most successful product ever marketed in America--is unusual among major high-technology inventions in that its central process was conceived by a single person. David Owen's fascinating narrative tells the story of the machine nobody thought was needed but now we can't live without.

Chester Carlson grew up in unspeakable poverty, worked his way through junior college and the California Institute of Technology, and made his discovery in solitude in the depths of the Great Depression. He offered his big idea to two dozen major corporations -- among them IBM, RCA, and General Electric -- all of which turned him down. So persistent was this failure of capitalist vision that by the time the Xerox 914 was manufactured by an obscure photographic-supply company in Rochester, New York, Carlson's original patent had expired. Xerography was so unusual and nonintuitive that it conceivably could have been overlooked entirely. Scientists who visited the drafty warehouses where the first machines were built sometimes doubted that Carlson's invention was even theoretically feasible.

Drawing on interviews, Xerox company archives, and the private papers of the Carlson family, David Owen has woven together a fascinating and instructive story about persistence, courage, and technological innovation -- a story that has never before been fully told." - from the inside flap

My thoughts:

I found this to be a fascinating read about the ways new ideas take hold in not only someone's mind but in our lives. Carlson's determination and drive plus the hard work from others, particularly the Haloid company executives and employees, brought this untested idea into life. I especially liked the part concerning the makeshift building of the first Xerox 914 copiers and how they expected the average use to be about two thousand copies per month and were surprised that it was at least four times that amount. Owen also clearly describes the history of writing, the printing press, and other forms of duplication.

Date read: 6/12/2026
Genre: Nonfiction
Rating: 4*/5

ISBN-10: 0743251172
ISBN-13: 9780743251174
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Year: 2004
# of pages: 306
Binding: Hardcover
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The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

 First sentence:

"There was an old Jew who lived at the site of the old synagogue up on Chicken Hill in the town of Pottstown, Pa., and when Pennsylvania State Troopers found the skeleton at the bottom of an old well of Hayes Street, the old Jew's house was the first place they went to."

Description:

In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new housing development, the last thing they expected to uncover was a human skeleton. Who the skeleton was and how it got buried there were just two of the long-held secrets that had been kept for decades by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side, sharing ambitions and sorrows.

Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, which served he neighborhood's quirky collection of blacks and European immigrants, helped by her husband, Moshe, a Romanian-born theater owner who integrated he town's first dance hall. When the state came looking for a deaf black child, claiming the boy needed to be institutionalized, Chicken Hill's residents--roused by Chona's kindness and the courage of a local black worker named Nate Timblin--banded together to keep the boy safe.

As the novel unfolds, it becomes clear how much the people of Chicken Hill have to struggle to survive at the margins of white Christian America and how damaging bigotry, hypocrisy, and deceit can be to a community. When the truth is revealed about the skeleton, the boy, and the part the town's establishment played in both, McBride shows that it is love and community--heaven and earth--that ultimately sustains us." -- from the inside flap

My thoughts:

This is a very good book about community, compassion, strife and courage in facing adversity. I liked the characters - well most of them except for Doc and Gus Plizska. I especially liked Moshe and Chona and their relationship with Nate and Addie. I also liked how people worked together to help Dodo.

Date read: 4/26/2026
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 4*/5

ISBN-10: 0593422945
ISBN-13: 9780593422946
Imprint: Riverhead Books
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Year: 2023
# of pages: 381
Binding: Hardcover
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Refugee by Alan Graff

First sentence:

Crack! Bang!

Description:

"Three different kids. One mission in common: Escape

Josef is a Jewish boy living in 1930s Nazi Germany. With the threat of concentration camps looming, he and his family board a ship bound for the other side of the world. . .

Isabel is a Cuban girl in 1994. With riots and unrest plaguing her country, she and her family set out on a raft, hoping to find safety in America. . .

Mahmoud is a Syrian boy in 2015. With his homeland torn apart by violence and destruction, he and his family begin a long trek toward Europe. . .

All three kids go on harrowing journeys in search of refuge. All will face unimaginable dangers--from drownings to bombings to betrayals. But there is always the hope of tomorrow. And although Josef, Isabel, and Mahmoud are separated by continents and decades, shocking connections will tie their stories together in the end." -- from the inside flap

My thoughts:

This is a compelling book about hope, despair, and survival through tough times. While not every story ends well, I admired the courage of the characters throughout.

Date read: 3/16/2026
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 4*/5

ISBN-10: 0545880831
ISBN-13: 9780545880831
Imprint: Scholastic Press
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Year: 2017
# of pages: 317
Binding: Hardcover
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The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch

First sentence:

"At the height of the long wet summer of the Seventy-Seventh Year of Sendovani, the Thiefmaker of Camorr paid a sudden and unannounced visit to the Eyeless Priest at the Temple of Perelandro, desperately hoping to sell him the Lamora boy."

Description:

"An orphan's life is harsh—and often short—in the island city of Camorr, built on the ruins of a mysterious alien race. But born with a quick wit and a gift for thieving, Locke Lamora has dodged both death and slavery, only to fall into the hands of an eyeless priest known as Chains—a man who is neither blind nor a priest. A con artist of extraordinary talent, Chains passes his skills on to his carefully selected "family" of orphans—a group known as the Gentlemen Bastards. Under his tutelage, Locke grows to lead the Bastards, delightedly pulling off one outrageous confidence game after another. Soon he is infamous as the Thorn of Camorr, and no wealthy noble is safe from his sting. Passing themselves off as petty thieves, the brilliant Locke and his tightly knit band of light-fingered brothers have fooled even the criminal underworld's most feared ruler, Capa Barsavi. But there is someone in the shadows more powerful—and more ambitious—than Locke has yet imagined. Known as the Gray King, he is slowly killing Capa Barsavi's most trusted men—and using Locke as a pawn in his plot to take control of Camorr's underworld. With a bloody coup under way threatening to destroy everyone and everything that holds meaning in his mercenary life, Locke vows to beat the Gray King at his own brutal game—or die trying."

My thoughts:

I thoroughly enjoyed this book about Locke Lamora and his friends in the city of Camorr. Their con games become more elaborate and dangerous as the mysterious Grey King becomes more powerful. I look forward to reading the next book in the Gentleman Bastards series, Red Seas Under Red Skies.


Date read: 9/9/2025
Series: Gentleman Bastards, #1
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 4*/5

ISBN-10: 055358894X
ISBN-13: 9780553588941
Imprint: Bantam Spectra
Publisher: Random House
Year: 2007
# of pages: 719
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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Chaos Terminal by Mur Lafferty

First sentence:

"A sentient space station should have perfect temperature, Mallory Viridian thought."

Description:

"Mallory Viridian would rather not be an amateur detective, thank you very much. But no matter what she does, people persist in dying around her--and only she seems to be able to solve the crime.

Now the law enforcement agent who hounded Mallory on Earth has come to Station Eternity, along with her teenage crush and Mallory's best friend from high school. Mallory doesn't believe in coincidences, and so she's not at all surprised when someone in the latest shuttle from Earth is murdered.

Only this time she has more than a killer to deal with. Between her fugitive friends, a new threat arising from the Sundry, and the alarming behavior of the sentient space station they all call home, even Mallory's deductive abilities are strained. If she can't find out what's going on, a disaster of intergalactic proportions may occur. . .." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

I enjoyed this second book in The Midsolar Murders series. I especially liked how Mallory had to convince the sentient ship Eternity that something was wrong and how the rambunctious Gneiss, Tina, played a very big part. I look forward to reading the next book in the series, Infinite Archive.

Date read: 8/25/2025
Series: The Midsolar Murders, #2
Genre: SF/Mystery
Rating: 4*/5

ISBN-10: 0593098137
ISBN-13: 9780593098134
Imprint: Berkeley
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Year: 2023
# of pages: 366
Binding: Trade Paperback
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