What a debut for author Martha Hall Kelly! Lilac Girls: a Novel is one of those reads I gave up doing anything else but finishing. This is carefully researched historical fiction and the author spent years tracking down records, speaking with survivors and visiting the places she wrote about. A warning though, it is graphic and intense and pulls no punches. History at its worst, writing at its best.

Remember Make Way for Ducklings? Blueberries for Sal? The Biggest Bear? I loved all these books by Robert McCloskey so was pleased to find what seemed to be a biography about him: Robert McCloskey: A Private Life in Words and Pictures, by Jane McCloskey (the youngest daughter). Turns out it was more about the family than just him. I was a bit disappointed at first, but it turned out to be okay! This is a nice story of the family of the man who wrote and illustrated so many of the books those of us of a certain age (and other generations too, hopefully) enjoyed as kids. The pictures were good, too, as many of them were not ones I'd seen before.

It was the subtitle that caught my eye here: Facts About Canada: Sarcasm and the Canadian Condition, by Sadler Mars. It is part of his series Facts About Stuff and is full of snippets of things about Canada (obviously, yes?!) It is fun and silly.

Reading Hermit With Dog