Hi, I'm Kelsie.
I've been with McLean and Eakin since March of 2022. It still doesn't always seem real that I get paid to talk to customers about books. Besides reading (especially on my front porch), I love skiing, gardening, hiking, and kayaking. My husband and I have a daughter, a dog, a cat, and 10 chickens.
Crow Mary by Kathleen Grissom is the type of book that was a new favorite just 10 pages into it. This is the story of a real woman, Crow Mary, who in the late 1800s was a citizen of the Crow tribe and married a white fur trader. Her life is woven throughout these pages; the most notable of which being the part when she saved the lives of five Nakoda women who had been attacked and were being abused by a gang of white fur traders. She did this acting completely on her own, and without her husband's knowledge -and certainly without his approval. The relationship between Crow Mary and her husband, and the way their cultures often clashed, but how they met and still built a relationship, will leave you fascinated -or possibly horrified- at the pieces of herself Crow Mary had to leave behind.
The way the book is written will transport you to the wild lands of Montana and Saskatchewan, Canada. Grissom weaves in the hardships of life during Crow Mary's time and how decisions made then continue to present challenges for Native Americans today, in a way that fans of Angeline Boulley will love. This includes pieces about Native American boarding schools in the name of assimilation and many families' forced removal from Native land. Fierce and feminist, Crow Mary is a name everyone should know.
You may recognize the author's name from The Kitchen House, which came out in 2010, and is also an awesome read. It is clear within these pages that Grissom did her homework on this book. It is even endorsed by Crow Mary's family, as well as Crow elders and scholars. Kathleen Grissom has presented her story beautifully. If you are a historical fiction fan or want to be inspired by the life of a strong woman, this is a must read.
It doesn't get much more fun than the words in a book leading you through a dance! Herve Tullet, author of the popular Press Here and Mix It Up! is back with Tap! Tap! Tap!: Dance! Dance! Dance!
This book is sure to have not just the littles in your life dancing, but everyone in the room. Starting with wiggling your fingers to warm them up. Then, the book progresses into a ton of fun different dance moves. The bold, primary colors make it easy to follow along, and the large book size and heavy-duty cover will keep it from getting beat up while you are dancing wildly across the room.
As the parent of a toddler, I appreciated the learning that was built in in a natural way including directional words (like stop, spiral, figure eights), action words (like jump, freeze, twirl), opposites (like fast and slow), and body parts (like fingers, head, fist) - just to give you an idea of the type of dancing you'll be doing. For school-aged kids, there are a ton of great similes, so it is a book you can keep around awhile and get something new each time you dance on through. This book would make a great gift and is sure to have everyone giggling as you dance along. Possibly the best part? A tired toddler when you're done!
Before I really start my review, can we take a moment to acknowledge that sometimes you really do need to choose a book because of its fantastic cover? My TBR pile was overflowing even more than usual when I picked up Bad Summer People, and I'll be honest, it was the one I chose because the cover is so perfect! (I'm a person who dog-ears pages AND writes in books too, which I know both really spark debate too.)Bad Summer People by Emma Rosemblum is absolutely a book that can be judged by its cover - a great cover, and it's a riot of a read. You're going to want to bring your beach bag so you can tuck in your book and go straight from the store to the shore with this one. There couldn't be a better place to read it than the beach. This is a fun, fast read, full of drama. If you were ever a fan of Desperate Housewives or The Real Housewives, you'll have just as much fun reading this book as you did watching those shows.The story takes place on Fire Island, and focuses on a group of uber-rich from NYC who summer on the island. The only better way to describe the characters than the title of the book is to get out a thesaurus and look up "bad." These are some unpleasant, horrible, appalling summer people. There is a lot of gossip, lying, sneaking around, and even a murder. The characters will suck you in, in a way that makes you unable to look away, even though you probably should. This is a book that you'll easily finish in a weekend while you're enjoying the opposite of a "bad" Northern Michigan summer.
While looking through all of the amazing books I've read recently to decide which ones to actually do a review on, I realized that so many of the others I have reviewed in the past are books that show human connection at its finest. We get asked for recommendations for books that are "happy" or "an escape" all the time, and you only need to turn on the news or do one swipe through your Twitter feed to know why. Add this to the list!You may recognize the author Steven Rowley from his entertaining and heartwarming 2021 book The Guncle. Trust me when I tell you, he is even better with The Celebrants. The setting will have you feeling like you're sitting on the beach, but the story is cozy in a way that's perfect for the campfire. The story follows a group of former college friends who have made a pact that at any time, they each get one opportunity to call each other together - no questions asked - for a living funeral. They all want to make sure they support each other, and share with each other the things that are so often not shared until someone's funeral, when it is too late for them to hear it for themselves. Each section of the book follows each of the times the friends have gathered. This is a wonderful novel about the importance of authentic friendships, how friendships evolve over time, and the value of being your authentic self. It is emotional in a beautiful way and a great reminder for us all in how to value the relationships most important to us, which seems to be what Steven Rowley does best. The Celebrants is an absolute charm of a read!
If you've spoken with me while in the bookstore anytime over the last 6 months, I've likely handed you Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. When I came across Go as a River by Shelley Read and saw that Bonnie Garmus was quoted on the front cover, and it was historical fiction, I knew I needed to get my hands on it. This is the best book I have read in a long time and will be hard to beat as my favorite book of 2023.The story focuses on Victoria, a young woman who is running her family's peach farm in Colorado. It follows her story from the late 1940s until 1970 and perfectly captures the hope that can come from making a heartbreaking decision (or many decisions, in the case of Victoria). The pages included all of my favorite things: an emotional story, a strong female character, a piece of history I didn't know about before, and descriptions of the wilderness that take you there. Like Garmus, this is Read's first book. Fingers crossed they are both working on another!
You know Ari Shapiro's voice from NPR's All Things Considered. Now he has put his story as a journalist down on paper. And it's a story that has been shaped so much by all of the strangers' stories he has told us. I found this book absolutely inspiring in so many ways. Shapiro reminds us we are all human and how the act of listening can do powerful things. I found this was exactly the right book to pick up after finding some recent attempts at "inspirational" titles pretty flat. Shapiro has traveled the world finding the best in strangers, and now we get to experience these travels beyond the radio. He weaves in details of his personal life that make him so human. As an added bonus, if you're just too used to listening to him, you can still do that with this book by getting it through Libro.fm. Naturally, he is the reader.
Iona Iverson has taken the same train to her same job everyday for a long time. She sees the same people every day but has never spoken to them. She has a very strict list of rules for commuting. She isn’t going to change. Then an incident takes place on the train that forces her group of familiar strangers to interact. Iona is forced out of her comfort zone and suddenly learning more about the sulky teenager, the beautiful woman, the nurse, and the arrogant man that she sees every day. Iona just may have a whole other side to her as well.This is a wonderful feel-good novel to get you going on your 2023 reading goals. It highlights the power of face-to-face connection that has been such a challenge to come by the last few years. Hours after you’ve finished, you’ll be left thinking about the familiar strangers in your life a bit more gently and even an urge to want to get to know them. This novel is lighthearted enough to take on your winter beach vacation, but likewise powerful enough to lose yourself while cozied up by the fire.
Calling all romance readers! If you haven’t yet discovered Ashley Poston now is the time!Florence Day is a ghost writer for a popular romance writer. She’s been able to turn out bestseller after bestseller until her own relationship fails. Romance is dead. Or is it? She’s just been assigned a new, and totally-cute, editor. She's just met him when he is hit by a car and dies. She then must return to her hometown (also dreadful) after her father, who runs the funeral home, unexpectedly passes away. Book deadline? Forget it. There is no way she is meeting her book deadline. For every emotional reason listed, and for the fact that every time she is home, she is reminded of her ability to speak with ghosts. Her father shared this ability, and now he is gone. So, when her dead editor shows up in her hometown, only she can see him. Maybe romance isn’t dead. But how can it exist when only she can see or speak to her totally-cute, totally-dead editor?I know we often times read romance for its predictability, but I loved this one because I had no idea how it would end. Florence couldn’t possibly end up with her editor when he wasn’t even living! It is low on the spice level, so great for a wide age-range of romance readers. Ashley Poston is also set to release another book this June, The Seven Year Slip. Grab this one now, and add her to your list of new favorite authors. After all, what is better than a book about books?
To be honest, I was hesitant to pick up this book because of its setting in our dystopian-future-of-now. Ng's previous book, Little Fires Everywhere was so brilliant I couldn't pass her up though. I am so glad I didn't let this one get by me!
This novel will hit close to home for many with current events in our country, and there are some great reminders for us all within the pages. Margaret is a poet. Her writing doesn't get much attention until a line from one of her poems appears in a major protest. Totalitarianism reigns in Margaret's country. Exposed as a dissident, she is forced to flee, leaving behind her husband, and her son, Bird. The relationship between Margaret and Bird shines throughout the book, despite the major hardships they face that are beyond their control. Every character involved in this book shows major perseverance, and it is a great example of the power of art and personal relationships in an ever-changing, and often depressing, world. You'll be left with a motivated feeling that anyone of any age has the ability to change the world.
Now is Not the Time to Panic by Kevin Wilson is so perfectly weird. Wilson captures the awkwardness of being a teenager, in a way that will leave your heart fluttering and too-long limbs squirming. Frankie and Zeke become fast friends in a boring Tennessee town that the teens can't wait to leave. As the days of summer vacation stretch out and they need something to keep themselves entertained, they design a poster with the words, "The edge is a shantytown filled with gold seekers. We are fugitives, and the law is skinny with hunger for us." What was supposed to provide a little bit of fun during the summer ends up sending the town into a panic. Who made this poster? What does it mean? The teens are suddenly caught in the middle of a beautifully messy situation that echoes the messiness of coming of age. Can life ever get back to normal? This book will have you recalling the lessons you learned the hard way, the decisions you made that had a lasting impact, and you'll root for Frankie and Zeke until the very last page.
While this book won't be found in our Young Adult section when it is released on November 8th, it is a great one to pick up for parents and teens to read together. As an added bonus, the author explains his personal connection to the poster phrase at the beginning of the book.
You will finish this book wanting to be Elizabeth Zott. Scratch that, you’ll finish this book wanting to be everything that Elizabeth Zott tells you, and women across the country in the early 1960s, you can be. Maybe both... actually, you’ll want to be her dog. How about we settle on friends with Elizabeth and her dog?
In a story brimming with charm, author Bonnie Garmus created a dazzling character in Elizabeth Zott. Elizabeth is a chemist in the late 50s/early 60s who will absolutely not get married to the love of her life. She ends up getting fired after becoming pregnant, and landing a spot as a cooking show host, where she proceeds to teach American women how to cook using solid chemistry techniques. As you may deduce, her viewers end up learning so much more from Elizabeth than rules of the periodic table.
This book has everything you could want: it's just light enough, engaging, unpredictable, and has a dog playing a major role. Historical fiction fans will love it too.
I’m not kidding when I say chemistry was by far my worst subject, and I couldn’t turn the pages of this book fast enough. If you haven’t yet picked up this author's debut, it's one of this summer's major hits, and now is the time to add it to the top of your TBR list!
Be sure to have a box of tissues nearby when you're ready to start Between the Mountain and the Sky: A Mother's Story of Love, Loss, Healing, and Hope by Maggie Doyne.
Maggie, who set off on a less traditional path after high school, tells her story of starting Kopila Valley Children's Home in Nepal and the Blink Now Foundation in the U.S. You'll grow alongside Maggie as you turn the pages, as she faces the growing pains of a young adult that suddenly also has the responsibility of having 50 children and is working to change her corner of the world. She is upfront and honest about learning as she goes, both about the world of non-profit work and about life. Although Maggie experiences so much heartbreak, her honesty about how she got through it (some days, barely) will fill your heart with hope. Maggie is careful to tell her story only, not the stories of the children in the home, which are their stories to tell. You'll finish this book crying, ready to change the world, and with a full, full heart.
The only authorized edition of the twentieth-century classic, featuring F. Scott Fitzgerald’s final revisions, a foreword by his granddaughter, and a new introduction by National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward.
Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read.
The Great Gatsby, F.
“A profound, graceful, and literary work of philosophy and economics, well tempered for our times, and yet timeless. . . . It will change the way you look at the food you put into your body. Which is to say, it can change who you are.” — Boston Globe
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America (Paperback)
#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Splendid and the Vile comes the true tale of the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago and the cunning serial killer who used the magic and majesty of the fair to lure his victims to their death.