To Love and Be Wise

To Love and Be Wise is by Josephine Tey. The third book in the Inspector Grant mystery series. Leslie Searle, a handsome American photographer, bumps into Grant at a literary party and uses him to gain an introduction to famous author Lavinia Finch, who invites Searle to stay at her home when she discovers he shares a friend with her nephew. The two men decide to work on a book together and set off on a canoe trip down a local river. One night Searle disappears and Grant is called in to find the body, but is Searle dead? Grant doesn't think so. 

Ratings: 9th grade - 8 out of 10 - AC (mature thematic content). 

A Shilling for Candles

 A Shilling for Candles is by Josephine Tey. The second book in the Inspector Grant mystery series. When a woman's body washes up on an English beach. Inspector Grant is called in. The victim turns out to be a famous actress, and Grant is baffled by false leads and confusing clues. Is there anyone who didn't want Christine Clay dead? Fans of Tey's Inspector Grant will love this installment. 

Ratings: 9th grade - 9 out of 10 - AC (mature thematic content). 

Escaping Utopia: Growing Up in a Cult, Getting Out, and Starting Over

Escaping Utopia: Growing Up in a Cult, Getting Out, and Starting Over is by Janja Lalich. This nonfiction book focuses on a number of former cult members, who were either born into a cult or whose parents joined when they were children. The 65 individuals left the cult on their own with no internal support or outside help. It looks at their struggle to heal and find support from therapists who really understand what they had been through. 

Ratings: Adult - 6 out of 10 - AC (mature thematic content). 

God and Man at Yale: The Superstitions of 'Academic Freedom"

God and Man at Yale: The Superstitions of 'Academic Freedom' is by William F. Buckley, Jr. This classic nonfiction work looks at the "progressivization" of America's higher education system, focusing on Yale. Buckley's alma mater. Reading this book you see the infancy of the decline in American higher education that has fully materialized today. The hostility towards the Christian faith, the acceptance on Marxist ideology, and the ignorance (cowardice) of the alumni who could have pushed to stop the slide. This highly footnoted classic now seems prophetic. 

Ratings: Adult - 8 out of 10.  

This Wretched Valley

This Wretched Valley is by Jenny Kiefer. A horrifyingly gruesome fantasy novel set in the backwoods of Kentucky. Clay is a geologist who thinks he has discovered an untouched cliff face in rural Kentucky. He convinces his friend Dylan, a semi-professional rock climber, her boyfriend Luke, and his research assistant Sylvia to accompany him into the woods to document his find. Seven months later three bodies are found just off the highway in various stages of decay and mutilation. What happened to the foursome and where is Dylan? Did she murder her friends or is there something evil that lives in the valley? 

Ratings: 12th grade - 7 out of 10 - P (profanity) - AC (mature thematic content) - V (violence). 

The Likeness

The Likeness is by Tana French. The second book in the Dublin Murder Squad mystery series. Cassie Maddox is called to a crime scene and finds a dead woman who looks exactly like herself, living under an identity Cassie created when she was working undercover. Frank, her former boss in the undercover unit, wants to hide the fact that the victim is dead and send Cassie into the victim's home to find the killer, and to discover the true identity of the victim. 

Ratings: 12th grade - 8 out of 10 - V (violence) - AC (mature thematic content). 

Trust

Trust is by Hernan Diaz. A very different type of historical fiction novel. There is not much I can say without giving away the conceit of the plot. The book starts with a "novel" written in 1937 that was very successful. The book is about a legendary Wall Street tycoon and his wife, Benjamin and Helen Rask. Rask is said to have contributed to and profited from the crash of 1929 and Helen is said to have gone insane and died in a sanitorium in Europe. This book however, may not tell the true story of the couple it was based on and this is the purpose of the rest of the book. However, which version of the story is real and which narrator can you trust? A literary puzzle, brilliantly written, which asks the reader to think seriously about the meaning of truth and trust and how one can determine who is telling the truth and whose narrative can be trusted. 

Ratings: 12th grade - 7 out of 10. 

Jumping Jenny

Jumping Jenny is by Anthony Berkeley. A strange little historical fiction mystery. Roger Sheringham is an amateur criminologist who is invited to a dinner party where everyone is dressed as infamous killers. When the sister-in-law of the host is found dead, Sheringham finds, what he believes, is a clue pointing towards one of his friends. He decides to tamper with the crime scene, which sets him up as a suspect himself. He must now find the true killer to avoid being accused of a crime he didn't commit. Berkeley is a master of Golden Age mysteries, but this one is weird - worth the read - but weird. 

Ratings: 9th grade - 7 out of 10.