The Used Marketplace
When Parul is only 6 years old, her father, Ahmed, decides to leave her with the Sens, a Hindu family of considerably superior financial means. Parul and her family had become so poor that they were on the brink of starvation. Parul is taken in as a maid, but her status in the wealthy family is discomfortingly ambiguous, a lack of clarity highlighted by her relationship with Mohini Sen. As Parul grows up, Mohini becomes a close friend and a … Read the rest
In her role as a financial adviser, Blayney had helped other women plan for retirement, but when she stopped working at age 67, she found negotiating her own retirement plans to be unexpectedly challenging. Facing the increasing physical limitations of aging, along with numerous financial and lifestyle decisions, Blayney decided to compile the resource book that she herself needed to make the transition to retired life. She collaborated with like-minded colleague, attorney and financial planner Fox, who had retired at … Read the rest
Jakob lives in a “bubble” to protect his health. But it doesn’t stop the boy from enjoying imagined escapades with an oversized version of his “best buddy Buvo,” a red stuffed toy. For instance, they visit a place called “puddle land on a rainbow unicorn,” and when Jakob’s grandparents call, he imagines the phone “is a super-powerful teleporter and magnifying glass.” Throughout the tale, Mom reminds Jakob to wash his hands to avoid germs. When Jakob feels sick and scared, … Read the rest
“By the time he was eight, Fred Urquhart was a bug man.” Though Urquhart’s work has been well documented for young audiences, most recently in Meeg Pincus’ Winged Wonders (2020, illustrated by Yas Imamura), this brisk and lively account of his decadeslong search focuses on the role played by thousands of “amateur scientists,” particularly schoolchildren, of three countries in finally tracking the butterflies to their winter quarters in mountains west of Mexico City. Rosenstock fills in details about the monarch’s … Read the rest
After a vicious ruler’s reign mercifully ended, the three nations of Meraria formed the Trifecta, and since then, Humans, Elves, and Dwarves have lived in peace for centuries. But now there’s a startling double homicide in the city of Trifectus. Senior officer Kelt McNair takes the murder case and quickly learns that one of the victims was part of the Guardians—essentially the Trifecta’s police force. Kelt was once a renowned Spell Breaker—a hunter of necromancers—though he’s now retired from that … Read the rest
Boudreaux Clemont Finch—everyone calls him Peck— is a man of beguiling contradictions: Once “an illiterate Cajun French lawn-mowing hunk,” he is now in night school in Tulane, while he works at a law office run by his boss and sometime lover, Lily Cup. Despite his unprepossessing manner, he has a remarkably lively, observant mind. One night, he witnesses a young girl—he estimates she’s 13—abducted at gunpoint, pulled into a black Mercedes, and beaten. He suspects and later confirms with his … Read the rest