Here's another great historical fiction read: The Book Spy, by Alan Hlad. Once the U.S. entered WWII, the military knew they would need to track down crucial information in Europe. Who better to do this than librarians? They were sent to neutral countries, from the Library of Congress to photograph (for microfilm) magazines, newspapers, books ... all under the guise of preserving them for history. At first, only male graduates of Ivy League schools were recruited, but Maria (based on a real person) had other ideas! Based in Lisbon, she learns that book store owner Tiago is helping those fleeing occupied countries get away. He provides money, and proper (forged) paperwork, arranges safe housing, etc. Now, the librarians were NOT supposed to act as spies, that was made very clear ... but Maria is in an unusual position (and, she speaks several languages) ... and soon finds herself working as a double agent, feeding false information to the Germans. This is a gripping read, and very hard to put down! Be sure to read the notes at the end. I actually started there, and referred back to them several times.

Seems long before Harry Potter, JK Rowling wrote a book that she read to her children, but never actually finished writing it. When the Pandemic hit, and so many kids were stuck at home, she had the idea of putting it on line for free and asking the readers to illustrate it. So, it was finished, and put on line and she received lots and lots of illustrations! She picked her favorites when she had the book published! The Ickabog (with Illustrations by the Winners of The Ickabog Illustration Competition) is a bit darker to me than the Harry Potter books (but to be honest, it's been a while since I read them(!)) and rather violent ... it's also a story of what happens when people follow leaders blindly and don't 'think things through' (as my mom used to say). In general it was on okay read, but I loved the illustrations!

Reading Hermit With Dog