Pages & Paws

Writing, Reading, and Rural Life With a Border Collie


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Why ‘Cross Roads’ Will Make You Want to Sing

Cross Roads

By Wm. Paul Young (Faith Words, Hachette Book Group, 2012)

Genre: Fiction/Inspirational

Pages: 286

Via: Library Book Sale

Kimber: Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay/My, oh my, what a wonderful day…

Mom: You’re awful chipper today.

Kimber: I’m always chipper. Especially when there’s a nice, juicy pot roast hangin’ around unattended. Or when we stumble upon a gem of a book at a library book sale.

Mom: You mean Cross Roads? That we picked up for like, a quarter at the library book sale?

Kimber: Bingo! I’ll let Her Royal Momness fill you in:

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11 Characters We’d Love to Get Updates On

“This book taught me, once and for all, how easily you can escape this world with the help of words! You can find friends between the pages of a book, wonderful friends.” ―Cornelia Funke, Inkspell

It’s true, isn’t it? says I, Kimber the Magnificent. Mom says we’ve met some of our best friends through a book or books. (I personally think a double cheeseburger would help. But who’s counting?)

So Mom and I? We put head and paws together to come up with our list of Characters We’d Love An Update On Now That The Book is Over. Several of their book stories have been made into movies. How many do you recognize? (The jury’s still out on that cheeseburger. But it never hurts to ask, right?)

11-ish Characters We’d Love An Update On (in no particular order):

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Missed Opportunities in ‘Russian Legacy’ Memoir

Thread of Life: My Russian Legacy

By Jennifer Kavanaugh (CollectiveInk, 2025)

Genre: Non-fiction/Memoir

Pages: 153 + Chronology and For Further Reading

Via: Author/Publicity Request

Note: We received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

“This is a story of contrasts: the beauty of St. Petersburg and the brutality which took place within its walls; the gentle beauty of Dora and the atrocity of her treatment. A story that gives glimpses of the paradoxes of the human spirit: the ugliness and beauty of which humanity is capable…”

Thread of Life looks at the 20th century through the lives of three Jewish women. At its heart is Dora, a romantic and tragic figure, a concert pianist born in Riga, Latvia. She lived in St Petersburg and was killed in the Riga Holocaust. Her daughter is Genia. Born in 1915 in St. Petersburg, Genia lived in many places around the world before dying in England at the age of 102. It’s also about the author and her life and perspectives.

A thoughtful weft of memory, history, love, loss, and learning, this memoir includes insights from the author in which she shares her moments of discovery while addressing themes of Russia, Jewishness, motherhood, music, home, and language, as well as the vagaries of memory.

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5 Most PAWsome NEWish Authors

‘Yo! Listen up!’

Kimber here. With a newsflash: We’ve read over 200 books thus far this year. Some were Pawsome. Some were Stinkers. Most were somewhere in between.
Is this place great, or what?

Go Ahead, Guess!

So guess which books have been the best? Most engaging and enjoyable? Most fun. Inspiring. Entertaining and informative.

Go ahead! Guess!

Never mind. I’ll tell ya:

The Most Pawsome books we’ve read thus far this year are by indie authors. Not best-selling authors. Not “over a million copies sold.” Not “soon to be made into a major motion picture.” Nopers. None of that jazz here. Because frankly, that “bestselling author” stuff is so over-rated. We’ve seen wilted brussel sprouts with more flavor than some of those “best-selling” titles.

So here’s our 100% unscientific, totally subjective version of Best Books We’ve Recently Read in 2025 So Far. All are by indie authors. In no particular order:

  1. Letters From the Saddle – Michael Wegner
    Check out our review.
  2. Even If – Dwayne Harris
    Check out our review here.
  3.  Twilight of Evil – George Alexander.
    Here’s our full review.
  4. Stay, Girl – Angelica R. Jackson
    See our full review.
  5. Two Weeks Till Sunday – Caleb Backholm
    Here’s our full review.

What are some of your top reads thus far this year?


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Story Set in Afghanistan Brings Gravitas, Authenticity

Wanting Mor

By Rukhsana Khan (September 2010)

Genre: Teen and YA Fiction

Pages: 192

Via: Library

Another book we read awhile back. But worth a revisit.

The Basics

Young Jameela is determined to follow her mother Mor’s advice: “If you can’t be beautiful, you should at least be good.”  Growing up in a post-Taliban Afghan orphanage, shy, sensitive Jameela finds this easier said than done, especially since she’s not really an orphan.  Her father is alive, but her mother, Mor, has just sickened and died.  the rest of Jameela’s family was wiped out when bombs fell on a wedding party they were all attending.

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15 Best Fictional Worlds to Get Lost In

You gonna eat that?

Kimber: There’s no place like Outback. There’s no place like Outback…

Mom: Kimmi, girl. Today’s post is about best fictional worlds to get lost in. Hate to break it to ya. But Outback Steakhouse is real.

Kimber: A canine can dream, right? Okay, okay. I’ll try to bring it in and focus on beautiful, interesting and well-built fictional worlds to get lost in. Or maybe sit down with a nice, thick juicy steak…

While Kimmi’s doing her thinking (or chewing), what about Best Fictional Worlds to Get Lost In via the pages of a really good book? Here’s our collection. From books we’ve actually read.

These books brim with adventure and intrigue. Enchantment. Secret rooms or fantastical forests. Talking beasts. Magic. Lots more. They’re a chance to spread your mental wings. Fire your imagination. And escape into fictional worlds of fantastic heroes and heroines. Dastardly villains. Narrow escapes. Harrowing close calls. Uncommon courage and steadfast valor. And lots of other good stuff.

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What’s ‘Secret’ About “The Secret Story of Sonia Rodriguez”?

The Secret Story of Sonia Rodriguez

By Alan Lawrence Sitomer

Hyperion Books, 2008

Via: Library

Genre: YA

Pages: 332

Note: We read this book awhile back. Recently re-discovered it. Thought it rates a revisit. So here ya go:

Sonia Rodriguez is the family work camel.  The oldest daughter in a family of nine, the 15 year-old wants to keep her grades up and the first member of her family to graduate from high school.

But the demands of caring for her pregnant-with-twins mother (“Sonia….. Ayudame!”) who spends all day, every day watching Spanish soaps, plus cooking, cleaning and caring for her younger siblings as well as endless trips to the tienda for cervezas for her loutish “drunkle” are overwhelming.  “In mi cultura,” Sonia explains – a culture she both loves and hates – “familia es todo.” (Family is everything.)

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‘Worst Hero Ever’ Has the Right Stuff – And Milk

Worst Hero Ever

By Archer Thorn (Blackstone Publishing, April 2025)

Genre: Fiction: Fantasy/Sci Fi/Humor/Action-Adventure

Pages (print): 211 + Glossary)

Via: Author Request

Riddles? Secret doors? Some faceless evil pulling the strings? A dead sister who may not be dead? Double-crosses? Betrayals? All kinds of techno gizmos and mechanical doodads with minds of their own? What could possibly go wrong?

Kimber: Wait! Wait! The first thing you need to know about this book is that it’s about me! Kimster the Amazing! Kimster the PAWsome! Kimster the marvelous wonder dog and stupendously splendiferous and seriously stunning super hero!

Mom: Dial it back a little, will ya Kimmi?

Kimber: What? Okay, okay. I s’pose we better go on with the book review?

Mom: Not much gets past you, does it?

Kimber: That’s what super heroes do. Nothing gets past us! Unlike that Jim Riven “worst” guy in this new fantasy book. So just remember. I’m the Real Deal, okay?

Since you asked Real Nice, here’s the 4-1-1 on the book:

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‘Twilight of Evil’: WWII Historical Fiction With a Twist

Twilight of Evil

By George Alexander (Old Monk Publishing. January 2025)

Genre: Historical Fiction

Pages (print): 284

Via: Author Request

Note: We received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Fegelein pressed the top corner of the panel. It clicked and opened inward, revealing a narrow, dark passage. Hitler took Eva’s hand. “We depart.”

Move over John le Carre, Ken Follett, and Hilary Mantel. There’s a new kid in town. Name’s Alexander. George Alexander. And he’s penned one doozy of an historical fiction tome in Twilight of Evil. Like this:

A faked suicide? Body doubles? Look-alikes and stand-ins? A hidden passage and a staged suicide shrouded in uncertainty? Did Hitler, aka: Evil Mustache Due (EMD), really die at the end of World War II? Or did he escape, leaving a trail of lies and deception in his wake with visions of rebuilding the unthinkable from the ashes of defeat: A Fourth Reich?

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Coming of Age Tale a Mixed Bag?

Downeyoshun: A Novel

By A. Young (Apprentice House Press, 2024)

Genre: Fiction – Coming of Age

Pages (Print): 380

Note: We received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Setting & Stats

This coming–of–age tale is told from the point of view of Sally Osterhoff. Set in Baltimore, Maryland, it opens in summer 1955 and spans 25 years of Sally’s life. The final chapter rings down the curtain on summer 1980. In between we learn that Sally is a math whiz. She plans to be a mathematician, a teacher, and a carpenter. Swim in the 1968 and 1972 Olympics. And find a place to call “home.”

That being said, Toots, the first thing ya oughtta know about Downeyoshun is what Downeyoshun (“down-ee-oh-shun”) means. It’s a Maryland thing. A contraction of “down to the ocean” or “down to Ocean City.” Like, “We’re going downeyoshun this summer.” (The other thing ya oughttta know is that we’re writing reviews on a borrowed computer for the time being. Which we like, can’t stand. But Mom’s is in the shop. So deal with it, okay?)

Key

That’s key. (The word meaning. Not the AWOL computer. Well. Maybe the computer, too. But anyway…) Because Sally lives for summers with her aunt and uncle in Ocean City. Or going “Downeyoshun.”

See how this works?

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