Back to top

MADreads

Book reviews by library staff and guest contributors

Au pair beware

Cover of The Perfect Nanny
A review of The Perfect Nanny by Leila Slimani

“The baby is dead.”

That’s the first sentence.

Here’s a suspense thriller that puts it all out there from the get-go. Generally unconcerned with twists or secret motives, The Perfect Nanny really isn’t for you if you’re craving an old-fashioned who-done-it. But if you want a psychological horror show that is as literary as it is tawdry, Slimani serves it up on a platinum platter.

November 5, 2018

It's a scholarship program, darn it!

Cover of The Accidental Beauty Quee
A review of The Accidental Beauty Queen by Teri Wilson

Charlotte Gorman and her twin Ginny could not be more different. Where Charlotte favors Harry Potter t-shirts and jeans, Ginny wouldn't be caught out in public (or on her Instagram feed) in anything less then full makeup and fashion-forward outfits. And where Charlotte is an elementary school librarian, Ginny is a beauty pageant professional. And it's at Ginny's latest pageant, Miss American Treasure, where their two disparate lives collide.

November 2, 2018

Love in a digital age

Cover of My Favorite Half-Night Sta
A review of My Favorite Half-Night Stand by Christina Lauren

This is another great romantic comedy from the writing duo Christina Lauren. Millie, a true crime professor, and her four male friends/colleagues decide to wade into the cesspit of online dating together, and when Millie accidentally matches with her friend Reid, chaos ensues. Anyone who has tried online dating will commiserate with Millie and her friends as they struggle to find love online. This book was laugh out loud funny, sweet, and I gobbled it up in one sitting. Recommended for fans of Helen Hoang, Sally Thorne, and Penny Reid.

October 25, 2018

Wisconsin Book Fest goes on

Cover of We Can't Breathe
We Can't Breathe by Jabari Asim

Jabari Asim was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. For eleven years, he was an editor at The Washington Post, where he also wrote a syndicated column on politics, popular culture, and social issues, and he served for ten years as the editor in chief of The Crisis, the NAACP's flagship journal of politics, culture, and ideas.

October 24, 2018

HahahahahahaX1000

Cover of My Squirrel Days
A review of My Squirrel Days by Ellie Kemper

Ellie Kemper is funny, upbeat, and the type of person who immediately replies to emails and types out HAHAHAs instead of using LOLs.  She writes in all caps and generously uses exclamation points.  She is not afraid of emotion.  I appreciate this!  I like to type out HAHAHAs, too!  (See what I did there with the capitalization and exclamation points?!?!).

October 19, 2018

Sweet Anticipation for November 2018

Sweet Anticipation Graphic
New Titles

Winter might be knocking on the door, but November is one of the hottest months for new releases. On to the highlights: 

--One of the most anticipated memoirs of recent times finally hits shelves November 13. Michelle Obama’s memoir Becoming, part of a reported $65 million dollar deal that also includes a memoir by the former President (no word yet on a release date for his book).  Given the challenge of recouping such a huge advance, expect to see this hyped just about everywhere.  

October 17, 2018

Pages

Subscribe to MADreads
https://www.madisonpubliclibrary.org/madreads/wreck-grace-barnum?page=6
www.madisonpubliclibrary.org
crawl=CC-MAIN-2019-13
66655
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:JSUY5HNKKNVGIA63PKZIQFJI6E7W6KG3
<urn:uuid:b8bec7f7-35d7-49b3-b3c9-d6cb2808e6d9>
2019-03-24T17:12:48Z
35.161.138.184
text/html
sha1:YCNFQ325AVWTYG4EJMLWP5Z6K43RBB2I
<urn:uuid:526dc77e-a473-414e-94c0-b65609bc25c0>
https://www.madisonpubliclibrary.org/madreads/wreck-grace-barnum?page=6
response
<urn:uuid:545a4a66-2edd-40e7-8ce2-e44d880f8e61>
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2019-13
publisher: Common Crawl
description: Wide crawl of the web for March 2019
operator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)
hostname: ip-10-146-115-99.ec2.internal
software: Apache Nutch 1.15 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)
robots: checked via crawler-commons 0.11-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)
format: WARC File Format 1.1
conformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/