The House of Velvet and Glass by Katherine Howe

In 1915 Boston, Sybil Allston sits in a darkened room with several strangers awaiting a potential spiritual presence.  Sybil has been visiting Mrs. Dee’s séance’s for years, after her mother and younger sister drowned while aboard the Titanic.  With a scrying glass, Sybil believes she has her own ability to see, and starts her practice, albeit under the influence.  Meanwhile her brother, Harlan, is expelled from Harvard, subsequently attacked and put into the hospital. He refuses to discuss the situation and Sybil, thinking these two events are tied, gets involved and tries to solve Harlan’s problems.  Also to get involved: Benton Derby, a Harvard professor and past love interest who left Sybil to spinsterhood, re-enters Sybil’s life as he tries to help the Allston family.  The patriarch, Lan Allston, has a distant yet strong presence throughout the novel leaving the reader wondering why he himself doesn’t get more involved in his children’s lives.  With several different perspectives, time frames, and historical settings, Howe writes a rich and complex novel. 

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

It’s been 40 years since the dragons and humans signed their treaty and have managed to live civilly amongst each other since.  Seraphina, as half human and half dragon, an anomaly, must not draw attention to herself in the kingdom of Goredd but finds the task difficult when, as a mesmerizing musician, she becomes Goredd’s music assistant.  Seraphina hides her silver scales under layers of clothing and remains as much in the background as possible.  As the anniversary of the treaty approaches, tensions run high with an abundance of dragons transforming into their saarantrai, human form, to be allowed into the kingdom.  When Prince Rufus is murdered and found with his head bitten off, a dragon-style killing, the people of Goredd speculate how long the treaty will hold.   Although she must do so secretly, Seraphina becomes the link between the humans and the dragons. 

Paranormalcy by Kiersten White

As of late, I haven’t been able to even finish a book, let alone write about one, so my apologies for slacking this month. However, that was until the funny, fast-paced, and light-hearted Paranormalcy hit the spot.  Evie is 16 and works for the International Paranormal Containment Agency (IPCA).  Since she has the ability to see beyond creatures’ glamours down to whom or what they really are, she mainly does “bag-and-tag” missions.  This involves tagging vampires and werewolves and the like to catalog and neutralize their powers.  Evie believes she’s a normal girl and longs to have a normal life not filled with creepy, decrepit vampires and evil faeries until she discovers she happens to be a Category Seven Paranormal, the highest category meant for the most unknown paranormals.  All types of mystical creatures make an appearance in this trilogy and feisty Evie is often making fun of them which I really enjoyed after so many dark and angsty paranormal novels. 

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by David Levithan and John Green

These two are geniuses, and I mean Levithan and Green, however the teenaged Will Grayson's are unforgettable too.  Alternating chapters between the Will Grayson's provides an insight into each as individuals until their serendipitous meeting in an adult video store.  Tiny, whose real name is not Will Grayson, has a starring role as the best friend of one WG and as the boyfriend of OWG (Other Will Grayson).  Both WG's lives become intertwined after their meeting and eventually learn a lot about themselves in this hilarious coming-of-age story.  I highly recommend listening to this book, the actors are phenomenal as well and brought the characters to life. 

MWF Seeking BFF by Rachel Bertsche

Rachel Bertsche, a lifelong New Yorker, relocates to Chicago with her husband and, missing the two childhood friends she left behind, spends a great deal of time contemplating her Chicago friendships or lack thereof.  So she starts a year-long project to go on girl dates, first getting set up with friends of friends, to meeting girls at book clubs and cooking clubs, to chatting up anyone anywhere.  Bertsche even tries to rent a friend.  It’s a very funny and thought-provoking girl-meets-girl-and-tries-to-make-her-a-best-friend tale.  I appreciate that Bertsche expresses the difficulty of her task, especially for someone who is socially shy, and provides ideas to help others, such as say yes to everything. 

Dear Photograph by Taylor Jones

Dear Photograph is a compilation of photos from the original website Dear Photograph created by Taylor Jones.  It’s a photograph from the past held up in front of the same scene in the present and captured again, often accompanied with a message from the photographer.  Jones came up with the idea when he was sitting at his parent’s dinner table with his family looking through old photographs.  He found a photo of his brother when he was younger with a birthday cake displayed on the table in front of him.  Jones looked up across the table and there was his adult brother still sitting in the exact same spot.  So Jones lined up the old photo with the table and cabinets and snapped a new photo and posted it on his blog and an idea was born.  So I decided to go through some of my old photos and found one of my younger brother when he was around 2 sitting inside my parent's kitchen cabinet.  He is now 20 and in the Army.