For the Tlingit and Haida peoples, both shamans and kushtakas, land otter spirits of those who had drowned

Breakout, by Kate Messner is amazing! I loved how it was written in letters and documents. I have one thing that kept me from giving it five stars though. The characters are supposed to be in middle school I'm pretty sure, but they do not seem as mature, or educated in society matters as middle schoolers these days are.

This is the first in a new series of Georgia B&B Mysteries. It is a pleasant read with eccentric small town

This Cookbook Nook Mystery featurn

Kushtakas were half man-half otter, spirits of those who had drowned. These phantoms appeared to those in danger of drowning and offered to rescue them, but aimed to turn them into kushtakas too. Only those with respect for elders and traditions and a strong will from ascetic practices were able to resist these spirits. The shamans were healers and could see into the future and tried to use their powers against the kushtakas. There are beautiful illustrations at the chapter headings. This is a nice book of native American legends.

A frustrated teen aged steeplechase jockey agrees to help his father's campaign for a seat in Parliament. Sabotage and murder attempts ensue in this page turner. This is a quick and fun summer read.

This memoir is told in fragments, shards of a brutal childhood and racist schools, survival on the margins of society. But it is also about the southwest landscape, Navajo stories and spirits. The language is both poetic and sometimes almost stream of conscious. Nasdijj is a fascinating and unusual writer.

I would recommend this book because it was both quick to read but also because the events of the story move quickly as well. The author does an excellent job characterizing the main 7 throughout. There are certain times when you have to be familiar with Shakespeare to get more out of the scene- for example, important references/parallels are made with both Hamlet and Pericles (among others). The Hamlet themes are easier to pick up on, since nearly everyone has read it, but with a more obscure show like Pericles I ended up googling a lot of information that effected the events of the book. But if you have ANY interest in Shakespeare (or found family dramas) then you'll probably really enjoy this book.

This book tells the life of the legendary Mike Fink, brawler and noted keelboatman on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Nicely illustrated and full of tall tales of the rough life of the men rowing the river boats until displaced by steamboats.