Xepherus Reads

Hello, Fellow Book Worms and Book Dragons!    I will tell you a story about the fairy folk of Ballysiogdun. They are upset because a woman lives in a cottage that is upon their land. They want her out and will curse the village if she is not removed and the cottage remains standing. Or, so the villagers believe...      Murder in an Irish Cottage is the fifth book in Carlene O'Connor's Irish Village series of cozy murder mysteries. It is published by Kensington Books and is available now in hardcover. In this fun and whimsical book, we are once again brought back to the village of Kilbane, Cork County, Ireland. Garda Siobhan O'Sullivan and her fiancé (and superior in law enforcement), Macdara Flannery, are back to solve the latest murder in Ireland. Unfortunately, this time the deceased is Macdara's Aunt Ellen, and Siobhan is worried that she may have to solve this case alone because Macdar...

Hello, Fellow Book Worms and Book Dragons!   My elementary school years still remain some of my fondest memories. They shaped a great deal of the reader that I am now. And I still see my elementary school friends occasionally to reminisce and recall our crazy times as pre-adolescents. When I was a kid visiting my elementary school library I was grabbing up as many Beverly Cleary books as I could. Nowadays I use my favorite children's books to add some light reading to my otherwise heavy thriller and suspense reading. Plus it is always fun to read a story rife with innocence and laughter.     Ramona and Her Father is the Newbery Award-Winning fourth book in the popular series by Beverly Cleary. Tracy Dockray also returns in this edition to illustrate some of the book's funnier moments with her fun and whimsical artwork. It is published by Harper Collins under their Harper Trophy imprint. Originally released in 1975, Cleary takes Ramona to second grade, givi...

Hello, Fellow Book Worms and Book Dragons!    A childhood favorite is rife with nostalgia. It is a feeling of comfort that lasts throughout the years of our lives. As we face the harsh reality of being an adult, it is sometimes a great idea to set aside duty and adulting to just be a kid again. A favorite way that I have done that this year is to revisit one of my favorites series as a child, Ramona Quimby written by Beverly Cleary.   In Beezus and Ramona we saw a young Beatrice Quimby daringly brave being an older sister of a four year old. That four year old was Ramona. Imaginative, often infuriating, and absolutely adorable, little Ramona began what would be a series of children's books published from 1955 to 1999. When last I visited Klickitat street in Ramona the Pest , our pint-sized protagonist was entering kindergarten. In Ramona the Brave, she is a first grader still yearning for the easy days as a kindergartner, and not liking her new cl...