3,096 Days in Captivity

 Nonfiction by Natascha Kampusch

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Natascha was ten years old in 1998 when she was abducted near her home in Austria, and it was more than eight years before she was finally able to escape her captor. This is her true story.

The Butcher’s Daughter

 Fiction by Wendy Corsi Staub

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This book completes the trilogy begun in Little Girl Lost and continued in Dead Silence.

For some reason, I enjoyed both of those books more than this one; maybe it had just been too long in between reading the others and reading this one for me to get back into the story. Still, this book wraps up all the loose ends from the others and I liked the conclusion.

I definitely recommend reading all three books together for the full effect!

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder

 Fiction by Holly Jackson

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

In this story, a girl called Pippa decides to do her high school senior project on a local murder that everyone thinks is a closed case. Four years previously young Andie Bell went missing on a Friday and her boyfriend supposedly confessed to killing her before hanging himself the next Tuesday. But Pip thinks there is more to the story...

This was a good book and I liked the characters, but I thought the ending was a bit of a stretch.

Saving Danny

 Nonfiction by Cathy Glass

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

I've read at least fifteen of Cathy Glass's books now; you might say I'm addicted! This one was less sensational and more relatable to me than a lot of the others.

At the center of this story is six-year-old Danny, who is NOT an abused or neglected child as so many of Cathy's charges are. Danny is just a special-needs kid whose loving mother and bewildered father can't figure out how to cope with him. Danny's mum is overwhelmed and his dad is distant; they give the boy up to the foster system in desperation.

I really enjoyed this story and how Cathy was able to help little Danny.

I also read recently by this author: The Child Bride

Shelter

 Fiction by Harlan Coben

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This is the first story in a series of young adult books by Harlan Coben, an author I love. I was concerned that he might water-down his exciting plots and fun writing style when aiming for a younger audience, but that was definitely not the case.

In this book, Mickey Bolitar is stuck going to high school and living with his uncle Myron, a great character who already has a long series of thrillers by Harlan Coben that I loved. To young Mickey, however, his uncle is hopelessly square. But Mickey has plenty of adventures of his own!

I'm looking forward to the next in this series soon!

I also read recently by this author: Win

The Child Bride

 Nonfiction by Cathy Glass

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

In this book, fourteen-year-old Zeena reports to her school that she is being abused and she is removed from her traditional Bangladeshi parents while the police investigate her claims. At Cathy Glass's home, Zeena is surprised that she is not required to perform all the chores she had been forced to do at home. But, as one might guess from the title, slave labor was the very least of Zeena's problems at home.

This was a shocking story and the ending was a surprise.

I also read recently by this author: Nobody's Son

The Four Winds

 Fiction by Kristin Hannah

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This a very good story, set in the Dust Bowl era, which is a terribly depressing time. In high school I read Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, and I'd say this was a better book, but I don't know if my English teacher would agree.

The family in this book lives on a farm in Texas that was incredibly prosperous in the 1920's and then goes sharply downhill in the 1930's. As neighbors lose their homes to the bank and set out for "better lives" in California, I was hoping against hope that this family would resist that idea. With our historical hindsight, we know that California was a bad bad idea, but of course, the characters in the story don't know that, and they were starving and trying to grasp at any kind of hope.

It's not a happy story, but still a good one.

I also read recently by this author: The Great Alone

The Outcasts of Time

 Fiction by Ian Mortimer

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This story begins in December 1348 when two men are traveling through a Britain ravaged by the Black Death. John, a serious young man with a wife and children waiting at home, is devastated by all the senseless death and suffering, and longs to find a way to help his fellow men. His brother William, normally more light-hearted and pleasure-loving, takes a more practical view of the situation, and tries to ignore their surroundings and focus on getting home. Then something happens, and both brothers realize that they have caught the plague themselves.

The next part of the story involves a strange Brigadoon-like time-travel element that is difficult to understand and never fully explained by the author. Basically the young men realize that they have less than a week to live and are given a strange choice: to live out their last few days normally, or to live each day they have left 99 years apart.

(Wait, what? Yeah, it doesn't make any sense to me either. You just have to roll with it.)

The rest of the book is interesting philosophically, but pretty weird from a story-line perspective. We get John's (and some of William's) point of view on a single day in each of the following years: 1447, 1546, 1645, 1744, 1843, and finally 1942. It makes the reader think a bit about what the progress of humanity means, if people are really better off now than they were in the past, can we know the purpose of life in general, and so on.

All in all, this was a good book but not really a good story, if that makes sense.

Nobody’s Son

 Nonfiction by Cathy Glass

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

In this story, a seven-year-old boy called Alex has been bounced around to different homes all of his short life after being born to an imprisoned mother. Now he has been brought to live with foster mother Cathy Glass to prepare for his new adoptive family, a couple he has been matched with but whom he's never met.

This was both a sad and heart-warming story; one hopes that the adoption goes perfectly but knows that it probably won't. I really liked that the author gave us the long-term follow-up on Alex's life as well.

I also read recently by this author:  Cruel to be Kind

Everything Matters

 Fiction by Ron Currie Jr

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This book should actually have been called “Nothing Matters,” because that seemed to be the author’s point. 

It began with the birth of a child who —for reasons never explained— was born with the knowledge that the world would end in destruction by fiery comet before his 40th birthday, and nothing could change that. I don't want to put any spoilers here, but... what would you do if you knew this? Try to prevent the disaster? Give up in despondency? 

I did not like this book.

Cruel to be Kind

Nonfiction by Cathy Glass 

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Max has to come into foster care temporarily because his mother is in the hospital; she has to have two of her toes amputated. This does not prevent her from calling Cathy with the strongly worded message that her son had better be well-taken care of. Then when Max arrives at Cathy's house, he brings more surprises.

This was a really good story; unfortunately, I did feel a little of the sanctimonious tone that was in Finding Stevie, and that bothered me a bit. 

I also read recently by this author: Another Forgotten Child

Her Last Move

 Fiction by John Marrs

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

There's a killer in London, methodically taking out people who seem to be unrelated to each other; however, the reader knows that the anonymous murderer is working from a list of people he has a grudge against. Now it's a race against time for police detectives Becca and Joe. Will they be able to discover the link between the victims and unmask the killer before it's too late?

This was an exciting thriller with a surprise ending.

I also read recently by this author: When You Disappeared

My Dad’s a Policeman

 Fiction by Cathy Glass

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Unlike the (many) other books I've read by this author, (See Another Forgotten Child) this is a novel told from the point of view of the child, based on a true story. 

It was a good short read, about a boy called Ryan who likes to tell the local bullies that his Dad is a policeman when in truth he doesn't know who his father is.

The Perfect Couple

 Fiction by Jackie Kabler

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Gemma and her husband Danny are newlyweds who have just moved to Bristol when Danny doesn't come home one evening. She reports him missing after a full day, but the police wonder if she is telling all she knows about his disappearance.

At the same time, the police are on the track of an unknown killer who was struck twice in the area, and both victims happened to look exactly like Danny...

This book was pretty good, and the ending was a surprise.

Another Forgotten Child

 Nonfiction by Cathy Glass

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Aimee comes to Cathy's house as a foster child because her mother is on drugs and can't take care of her. Her five half-siblings were removed from the mother long ago, but Aimee, the youngest, was left there and seemed to have been forgotten. Although Aimee is eight, she can't read because she's never been to a full day of school, and she's never eaten at real table or slept in a real bed. She's also never taken a bath that she remembers and is infested with lice.

This story is all about the challenge Cathy faces in trying to help Aimee, and how Aimee's mother fights tooth and nail to keep her. It's very interesting.

I also read recently by this author: A Life Lost