By Daniel G. Block (Indie author/North Air Entertainment, 2025)
Genre: Non-fiction – Memoir
Pages (print): 334
Via: Author request
Note: We received a complimentary copy of this book for honest review.
Other note: Trail Creek was “Originally written by the late Dr. Daniel G. Block, professor of Biology at the University of Montana, Western and carefully edited and prepared for publication by his grandson, Zach Block with the assistance of the North Fork Landowners Association.”
“Some day we will return – and cry together.”
Throw another log on the fire and grab a hot cuppa for this highly readable and imminently engaging memoir by the late Daniel G. Block, educator, biologist, and natural storyteller. As bright as a summer sun and as big as a Montana sky, this true story of love, life, and adventure on “the last true frontier” pulls at the heartstrings as it whispers of memories of early, unforgettable years on the North Fork of the Flathead River in Montana and the “tonic of the wilderness.” Set largely in the post-WWII years of 1946 through the early 1950s, Trail Creek: A North Fork Saga is Walden-esque and Walton-esque in both style and substance.
Glad you asked. The answer is cuz I’M SO EXCITED!!
Mom: Kimber, that’s not new. You’re always excited. Just likd you love everyone. (Except maybe the neighborhood powder puff. But let’s not get picky here, okay?)
Kimber: I know. But Im soooo happy and super excited! Cuz its a favorite time of year! As in, Spring! New life! Warmer weather! Trees budding! Mud drying! Burgers on the barbie… What?
Oh yeah. Spring. And Easter! Oh yes. Oh Yes. OH YES! Like this:
They thought it was over. Friday felt like a final defeat. But Sunday morning was just getting started.
Cuz Easter isn’t just a story. It’s the Most Momentous Event in Human History. The Ultimate Triumph. The Everlasting Hope. Easter changes everything.
And one of our favorite books celebrating Easter is pretty new. In fact, it was released just last year by indie author Caleb Backholm. It’s called Two Weeks Till Sunday.
You know it’s Pawsome cuz we say so. It also garnered a very rare 5.0.
Kimber: Jackpot! It’s a beautiful spring day. The sun is shining. The sky is a perfect bowl of blue. The neighbor’s cat is visiting relatives elsewhere. And Her Grumpiness is only half as grumpy as usual.
What a deal!
Speaking of “deals,” I’ve got a two-fer for you today. Sort of. One’s a “repeat surprise.” I’ll let Her Grumpiness tell us about that in a min. So kindly keep your shirt on, okay? The other is a Second Sigh. As in, we loved the author’s first book but this second one is a stinker. Which is why Her Grumpiness is only half as grumpy as…
Well, wait. Here she is now.Mom, is that the second or third bowl of cookies ’n cream ice cream? “Mind your own beeswax;” Mom chirps.
By Lili Cyr-Robillard (Kenos Publishing, November 2025)
Genre: YA/Fiction – Fantasy
Pages (print): 304
Via: Author request
Note: We received a complimentary copy of this book for honest review.
What happens after we die? What’s on the other side?
Up to his shackled ankles in corpses, at the lip of the Pit of the Forgotten, twelve-year-old Glaguel wants to know the answers to these questions. And more. You will too in Lili Cyr-Robillard ambitious and absorbing new fantasy, The Forbidden River.
It’s one of the finest fantasies we’ve read in years. Here’s the 4-1-1:
We received a complimentary copy of this book for honest review.
“I don’t know what to think of this book,” spake Her Royal Momness the other day. “It’s not like anything we’ve ever read.”
“Welp,” says I, Kimber the Magnificent. “There you go again, Mom. Thinking on an empty stomach.” (You’d think she’d learn, right?)
Anyway. This book arrived in our mailbox last spring-ish. Or maybe it was summer? We were buried under a metric ton of other stuff and set it aside. It got buried under another ton of other stuff. And was recently excavated. So here’s the 4-1-1:
Peacemaker the Labradane is “black, lanky, and large.” He has one “Achilles’ heel”: Loyalty. He’s also the star of this show. So we like it a lot already, thank you very much.
Now. The’s an old In-Between Land prophecy about a fearless black dog and two “enablers.” (Aka: “Klutzes.” Aka: Humans Malcolm and his friend, Eve.) “Peace” and one other dog are the only ones with enough courage to face infinite evil and save everyone, everywhere.
Kimber: Peace is probably a cousin. I know we’re related. No doubt about it.
When Malcom, Eve, Peacemaker and Gruffy stumble upon a “farm pond”, everything goes sideways. Unleashed by the stout-hearted by impetuous Peacemaker, “whimsical forces” drag Malcolm and Eve away from Earth and into In-Between Land where the adventure unfolds. While traveling through a mountainous landscape of ancient lore, the Earthlings learn that the future of all worlds within the continuum depends on their ability to defeat the demonic evil that has invaded In-Between Land.
So. The future of pretty much everything and everyone is in the paws of one black, lanky, and large Labradane and his faithful friend, Phantom.
Kimber: Best place to be in the midst of an ‘epic conflict’!
Still not quite sure what to make of this book. It’s quirky. Witty. Clever. It also sags in the middle and feels overlong in places. It defies genre pigeon-holing. You might call it a “silly fantasy.” Or an “epic fairy tale.” An adventure story. A dog-ish book. Or a trip to Neverland via Narnia and Middle Earth. Add a chaser of Oz on the side. And a spur trail into Star Trek. The text includes nods to Germanic/Norse origin or mythology with chapter headings like Odin’s Day, Thor’s Day, Freya’s Day, etc. (Yeah. We noticed.)
Top-Notch
The writing is top-notch. With just the right amount of sass and spunk. Besides. Who can resist words like “globulous agglomeration”? “Mucilaginous.” Sentences like, “A stench of wickedness accompanied the silence.” Or “Beware of chicanery and desolation if you chose to proceed.” There’s also The Anthology of Erudition. The Compendium of Catastrophe. The Tenets of Antephsyics and Subliminal Simulacrums. World tunneling. A rift in the continuum. The Managerial Reserve and the Kingdom of Deletion. And that’s just for starters! Delish! Indeed, the clever word play and labyrinthian plot twists in this delightful fantasy adventure are so “out of the box,” they’re in a completely different world!
And that’s the whole point. Or at least part of it.
Clever
This imaginative, clever tale brims with originality and sparkles with rapier wit. Beautifully written with rich, robust language, the story features impressive world-building skills and an imagination that registers somewhere in the stratosphere. It’s a riotous romp through a dazzling fantasy world and a host of fantastic creatures. These include Weewuns (“gnomes” to you hoomans). Sasquatch. Evil Lizard Number One. A mouthy unicorn named Mr. Corny. A shape-shifting witch named Irene. Zinger the loquacious bunny. Seedub. The Weewuns who administrate In-Between Land. Villain extraordinaire, Ahrem. There’s even a “lazy gray cat” named Gruffy (nobody’s perfect.) Many more.
The story is metafictional. You’ll find the author popping in and out of the story here and there. Some readers will love this technique. Others may find it jarring or disruptive. Just sayin’.
The story takes some time to get rolling and the timeline can get bumpy. We got a little lost in the opening chapters. (Kimber:Mom had a hole in her breadcrumbs pocket. Silly Mom!)
Issues
A story synopsis or book blurb on the back cover or the inside jacket flap would be a big plus. Absent both, readers and potential readers don’t really get much on an idea of what they’re in for when opening page 1. Except for what can be deduced from the cover art. So a story synopsis would make a welcome addition.
On the whole, Farm Pond is a whole lotta fun, empty stomach or not. (Note: Sometimes raw mushrooms aren’t half-bad. Except when they need salt. “And cheese. And bacon.” Just ask Eve.)
By Jessica Fletcher & Terrie Farley Moran (Thorndike Press, 2023)
Genre: Fiction – Murder Mystery
Via: library
Pages (Print) 382
Kimber here. Telling you we weren’t going to do a “St. Patrick’s Day post.” Were not. Were not. WERE NOT!! But then…
This here “murder mystery” thingy sorta jumped off the shelf at The Book Place and landed in Mom’s book bag. Funny how that happens sometimes. But a cozy mystery by Jessica “J.B.” Fletcher set in Ireland? Well. Who can resist that? Especially on St. Patrick’s Day. So here we are.
Mom and I? We get that a lot. Like, when we read 469 books in one year, 2025.
Short answer: One of us is Simply Brilliant. And reads at warp speed.
“Simply Brilliant.”
The other has to work at it (Hi, Mom). So if you’d like some ideas about how to read more and fit more books into your day, here are some tips. (Mostly from the Simply Brilliant one. Mom’s just sorta along for the ride, if ya know what I mean).
10 Ways to Read More Books (the Mom-ish Shor-ish Version):
1. Turn off the TV.
2. Multi-task. Read audio books while cooking, doing dishes, driving, etc.
3. Use voice mail. Prodigously.
4. Ask the library staff for help. A lot. They’re a huge help, from placing inter-library loans to suggestions for every category and genre.
5. Realize sleep is over-rated. I don’t really need 8 – 9 hours of sleep a night. We’re usually fine with 5 – 6 hours. That’s an extra 3 – 4 hours a day to get busy.
6. Get a ‘reading buddy.‘ As you know, Kimber happily joins in through thousands of pages. (A golden retriever/black lab/border collie mix, Kimber isn’t really a ‘lap dog.’ She just thinks she is.)
“You gonna eat that?”
7. Setup “reading roosts” – places where you can disappear (or almost disappear) for a while and read, undisturbed.
Mon has a recliner off a living room window with lots of light, pillows, a big fluffy quilt and a snack stash. Or a closet off the spare room upstairs. She cleaned it out, moved in a rocking chair and ottoman, added a space heater for early mornings, and cleared shelves for books – in – progress. She grabs reading lists, munchies and a note pad, and close the door. No electronic devices allowed. (A library cubby hole also makes a pretty good “roost.”)
8. OverDrive. (Now Libby.) Library ebooks and audiobooks via Amazon. If you don’t have the app, now would be good.
9. Prioritize. Like, we cut out unnecessary meetings. This frees up about 4 – 6 hours a week. We dial back on social media, limiting our time to no more than an hour a day. Often less. We periodically evaluate our endeavors and drop those with limited ROIs (return on investment), like regular posting to other blogs/guest posting.
10. Re-read.
Some titles are better or quicker than others. For example, the sparse free verse of Karen Hesse’s Out of The Dust or Calvin Miller’s The Singer read much faster than the detail-laden, history-heavy style of Robert Matzen’s Mission: Jimmy Stewart and the Fight for Europe. Since we’re already familiar with the plots, re-reads are also swift.
The Real Secret
Now, the real secret to reading more books? We. Love. Books. And we love to read. Always have. Ever since one of us was ‘knee-high to a grasshopper.’ For more, see: Hard Night: Growing Up in the Land of Endless Summer.
Is the library open yet?
How do you fit more reading into your day?
This post was originally published in 2017. Updated for today.
Note: We received a complimentary copy of this book for honest review.
Kimber: Mom and I are Majorly Miffed. We’re talking Mount Everest of Miffed-ness here. That’s really sayin’ something, too. Cuz about the only time Her Royal Momness gets this miff-ified is when the Dodgers lose on a bases loaded wild pitch in the bottom of the ninth, buster.
Anyway, this new memoir/true crime thingy by Charles Wallace, The Caregiver’s Game, has both of us seeing red. That’s really sayin’ something again. Cuz I only see in one color: Dinner. What?
Okay, okay. Mom says I need to nix the visions of New York steak dancing in my head. And get down to business on this thoroughly engaging and uber absorbing tome. So here goes:
“Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy. “Safe?” said Mr. Beaver. “Don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ’Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.” (Emphasis added.)
– C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
Margaret Sparhawk is a young, idealistic American missionary in this compelling Christian fiction by former missionary and best-selling author Elisabeth Elliot. Margaret travels to Ecuador to reach the Quichua Indians of the Andes Mountains. At first, she feels displaced. But per Matthew 28:19-20, Margaret (“Margarita”) is certain she belongs there. “I am under orders” she says to herself.
Someone has finally come up with an idea I can sink my teeth into! Mom calls it Read Across America Day! Mom is so excited! So I! Am! Excited! Too!
Mom says this special day is a nationwide observance. We’re giving you a little head start. Cuz it coincides with the March 2 birthday of Dr Seuss. You know. That “hat cat” and Grinch guy. (Nobody’s perfect.)
Anyway, Read Across America Day is our kinda day! Yeah, Lassie! One whole day to focus on my favorite two things in the world: reading and books. (Well, okay. Maybe a nice, thick New York steak, too.) So, here are…
Pages & Paws 