Under Vixen’s Mere is one of those novels that quietly gets under your skin and then refuses to leave.
From the opening pages, the prose immediately stood out to me. It’s spare without ever feeling sparse—clean, confident, and quietly assured. Dialogue and description are held in careful balance, each doing its work without calling attention to itself. Nothing strains for effect, and that sense of restraint builds trust early on, inviting the reader to settle in and follow where the story leads.
What makes this book especially satisfying is its sensory richness. The attention to detail is so precise you can practically smell the bread cooling on the racks, the sharpness of cheese, the damp stone after rain. It is comfort reading with substance: sunshine and laughter paired with the everyday complications life throws at us, and the quiet resilience required to meet them.
This is not a book about capital-H heroes. Instead, it centers on people who engage in small acts of service, kindness, and yes, heroism—not for recognition or glory, but because it was the right thing to do in the moment. These are stories of people showing up when it would have been easier not to.
The Locked Room is clever, cozy without being complacent, and deeply satisfying for puzzle-lovers. If you adore classic detective fiction but crave a fresh perspective, Harriet White deserves a place on your shelf—and very likely, in your reading rotation for a long while to come.
About the Book: A Treatise on Martian Chiropractic Manipulation and Other Satirical Tales Human beings are flawed creatures, and humor is the perfect means to exploit the endless fodder of our shortcomings. This multi-genre collection of twenty-one short satirical stories will leave you smirking, chuckling, scratching your head, and maybe even muttering to yourself […]
Books! What a role they played in our home.
“Don’t tell me you are bored”, my mother would admonish,”go read a book!”
And other times ” You always have your nose in a book, go get some fresh air.”
Fresh air and books, those were my mother ‘s recurring themes.
And so I cannot be without a book, and if I am at a cafe, the beach or waiting anywhere I have a book.
And on days when I don’t have a new book to read I’ll read an old favoite. sort of like re-runs but better, no commercials.
When Melissa was a sprite with two bouncng braids, thick glasses and the vocabulary of Miss Ann Shirley, she was never without a book.
I would call out to her in the morning to encourage her to get through her bathroom routine and come down for breakfast.
Finally, sounding just like my mother I would say ” Miss Melissa Annette put the book down!” her response ” Moooom, I am not reading!” And then I would here the clunk of a book being dropped.
Living in La Paz, Baja California Sur, where there is one bookstore with limited to no English language books, no libraries and it is near impossible to have books mailed, makes the desert we live in feel more bare and dry. When clients and friends say they are coming and ask for a list of essential items for themselves, and something I might like, I always say BOOKS! And they bring them, their favorites or a recent bestselle or a specific genre or author that I request.
Powell’s Books in Portland will send books to Mexcio without freight charges. We have tested it, the system works.But it takes weeks.
There is not a big culture of reading, whether it be for busines, research or pleasure, especially pleasure, among the local Pacenos ( La Paz natives). My Spanish teacher said she is amazed that wherever she goes in town, and especially in cafes and at the beach, Americans and other foreginers are alays reading. She thought it was nice, but wondered why people would travel to a foreign country just to read!
Those of us that read, and cannot bear to be without a book in progress (or two) need to promote reading to children the world over. Melissa your choice of charity for this year’s blogathon has made me proud again.