Rebecca M. Douglass, Author

I'm doing mini-reviews here of a couple of books I read recently about women explorers. I picked up an actual paper copy of  Off the Beaten Track  last fall when I was visiting Banff National Park.  A Woman in the Polar Night  was a library book, one of those that pops up in the "if you're looking at this book, you might like these books" lists.   Title: A woman in the Polar Night Author: Christiane Ritter. Translate by Jane Degras, read by Rebecca Gallagher Publication Info: Tantor Media, 2024. 7 hours. First published in German in 1938. Source: Library Publisher's Blurb (Goodreads): This rediscovered classic memoir tells the incredible tale of a woman defying society's expectations to find freedom and peace in the adventure of a lifetime. In 1934, the painter Christiane Ritter leaves her comfortable life in Austria and travels to the remote Arctic island of Spitsbergen, to spend a year there with her husband. She thinks it will be a relaxing trip, a c...

I 'm posting today with t he fantastic Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop hosted by Greg Pattridge of Always in the Middle . Check out Greg's blog for a list of additional middle grade reviews.     Title: The Peach Thief Author: Linda Joan Smith Publication Information: Candlewick Press, 2025, 385 pages Source: Library  Publisher's Blurb (Goodreads) :  The night that workhouse orphan Scilla Brown dares to climb the Earl of Havermore’s garden wall, she wants only to steal a peach—the best thing she’s ever tasted in her hard, hungry life. But when she’s caught by the earl’s head gardener and mistaken for a boy, she grabs on to something a temporary job scrubbing flowerpots. If she can just keep up her deception, she’ll have a soft bed and food beyond her wildest dreams . . . maybe even peaches. She soon falls in with Phin, a garden apprentice who sneaks her into the steamy, fruit-filled greenhouses, calls her “Brownie,” and makes her skin prick...

I'm posting today with t he fantastic Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop hosted by Greg Pattridge of Always in the Middle . Check out Greg's blog for a list of additional middle grade reviews. This was one of those library books I found by following the "if you liked that" suggestions. It kind of falls into the "issue books" category, but was an interesting read regardless.   Title: Asking For a Friend Author: Ronnie Riley Publication Info: Scholastic Press, 2024. 268 pages in Kindle Source: Library Publisher's Blurb (Goodreads) : Why go through the stress of making friends when you can just pretend? It works for Eden and their social anxiety... until their mom announces she's throwing them a birthday party and all their friends are invited. Eden's "friends," Duke, Ramona, and Tabitha, are all real kids from school... but Eden's never actually spoken to them before. Now Eden will do whatever it takes to convince them ...

I'm posting today with t he fantastic Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop hosted by Greg Pattridge of Always in the Middle . Check out Greg's blog for a list of additional middle grade reviews.  IIRC I won today's book in a drawing from someone's web site. It then sat on my TBR pile (the real one, the one that might bury me in an earthquake) for so long that I don't remember from whom I got it. My thanks to you, whoever you are!   Title : Meg Goes to America Author: Katy Hammel Publication Info: 2020, 193 pages Source: won it in a giveaway  My Review: Meg Goes to America  is a fictionalized version of real-life events in the life of the author's mother. As a family story, it's pretty dramatic.  The book deals with some serious issues, and brings up a lot of good food for thought, but somehow it didn't grab me in the way that I think it might have done.  One reason for that might be the writing style. The reading level is probably a little more t...

    Publisher's Blurb (Goodreads): Two kids join forces to save a dog . . . but wind up saving each other. Ash is no stranger to feeling like an outcast. For someone who cycles through genders, it’s a daily struggle to feel in control of how people perceive you. Some days Ash is undoubtedly girl, but other times, 100 percent guy. Daniel lacks control too—of his emotions. He’s been told he’s overly sensitive more times than he can count. He can’t help the way he is, and he sure wishes someone would accept him for it. So when Daniel’s big heart leads him to rescue a dog that’s about to be euthanized, he’s relieved to find Ash willing to help. The two bond over their four-legged secret. When they start catching feelings for each other, however, things go from cute to complicated. Daniel thinks Ash is all girl . . . what happens when he finds out there’s more to Ash’s story? With so much on the line—truth, identity, acceptance, and the life of an adorable pup named Ch...

Because I absolutely loved  The Secret of Honeycake (review in link) by Kimberly Newton Fusco, I nabbed Beholding Bee as an audiobook for my recent trip to Utah. I'm reviewing it for t he fantastic Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop hosted by Greg Pattridge of Always in the Middle . Check out Greg's blog for a list of additional reviews of middle grade books .    Title: Beholding Bee Author: Kimberly Newton Fusco. Read by Ariadne Meyers Publication Info: Listening Library, 2013. 8 hours. Original hardcover by Knopf Books, 2013, 336 pages. Source: Library Publisher's Blurb (via Goodreads): Bee is an orphan who lives with a carnival and sleeps in the back of a tractor trailer. Every day she endures taunts for the birthmark on her face—though her beloved Pauline, the only person who has ever cared for her, tells her it is a precious diamond. When Pauline is sent to work for another carnival, Bee is lost. Then a scruffy dog shows up, as unwanted as she, an...

I'm posting today with t he fantastic Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop hosted by Greg Pattridge of Always in the Middle . Check out Greg's blog for a list of additional middle grade reviews.  I'm pretty sure I learned about this book from one of my fellow MMGM bloggers--they've been tipping me off to the best books lately. Wherever I learned about it, it struck the right note with me.   Title: Ollie in Between Author: Jess Callans Publication Info : April 2025, Feiwel & Friends. 225 pages (ebook) Source: Library Publisher's Blurb (via Goodreads): Puberty, AKA the ultimate biological predator, is driving a wedge between soon-to-be 13 year old Ollie Thompson and their lifelong friends. Too much of a girl for their neighborhood hockey team, but not girly enough for their boy-crazed BFF, Ollie doesn’t know where they fit. And their usual ability to camouflage? Woefully disrupted.When a school project asks them to write an essay on what it means t...

  I'm posting today with t he fantastic Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop hosted by Greg Pattrige of Always in the Middle . Check out Greg's blog for a list of additional middle grade reviews. A few weeks ago I read and reviewed t he charming Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms , an amazing debut novel from 2011. Since I liked it a lot, I went ahead and checked out Katherine Rundell's second book, Rooftoppers, to listen to as I drove to California. I ended up getting distracted by a great podcast about D-Day, so didn't finish the audiobook until a couple of days ago.     Title : Rooftoppers Author : Katherine Rundell. Read by Nicola Barber Publication Info: Simon and Schuster Audio, 2013. 6 hours. Originally published by Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2013, 289 pages. Source : Library Publisher's Blurb: “The beauty of sky, music, and the belief in ‘extraordinary things’ triumph in this whimsical and magical tale” (Publishers Weekly) about a girl in ...

Thanks to Great Escapes Virtual Book tours for the chance to read and review this fun mystery. Soft Serve Sleighing (Coffee & Cream Café Mysteries) by Lena Gregory About Soft Serve Sleighing   Soft Serve Sleighing (Coffee & Cream Café Mysteries)   Cozy Mystery 5th in Series Setting – Long Island, NY Publisher ‏ : ‎ Gemma Halliday Publishing (January 28, 2025) Number of Pages - 226 Kindle ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0DLHPWDNT From author Lena Gregory comes a delightfully delicious cozy mystery... With most of Eastern Long Island closed down for a blizzard, Danika Delaney and her friends are holed up in her old fashioned malt shop, the Coffee & Cream Café, with ice cream and hot chocolate. However, their plans to wait out the storm in cozy company are interrupted when a popular YouTuber and her two companions show up at the door—they've been trapped by the storm, and Dani generously offers to serve them breakfast. But her generosity isn't rewarded in kind, as the re...

This was one of my audio "reads" via the library's "similar books" feature. Not quite sure what it was similar to, except that I was probably looking at books about historical events. This is a look at the Dust Bowl that's a bit different from the usual, since this is about the people who *didn't* leave. Title: The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl Author: Timothy Egan. Read by Jacob York Publication Info: Audio book by Audible Audio, 2022. 13 hours. Originally published by Houghton Mifflin, 2005, 340 pages. Source: Library Publisher's Blurb: The dust storms that terrorized the High Plains in the darkest years of the Depression were like nothing ever seen before or since. Timothy Egan’s critically acclaimed account rescues this iconic chapter of American history from the shadows in a tour de force of historical reportage. Following a dozen families and their communities through the rise and ...

I'm posting today with t he fantastic Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop hosted by Greg Pattrige of Always in the Middle . Check out Greg's blog for a list of additional middle grade reviews. I've been discovering some great reads there--possibly including the one I'm reviewing today (I'm not really sure; it was on my library wish list).    Title : Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms Author : Katherine Rundell; read by Biana Amato Publication Info : 2014, Recorded Books. 7 hours. First published by Faber & Faber, 2011, as The Girl Savage Source: Library Publisher's Blurb (via Goodreads): Even a life on the untamed plains of Africa can’t prepare Wilhelmina for the wilds of an English boarding school in this lovely and lyrical novel from the author of Rooftoppers, which Booklist called “a glorious adventure.” Wilhelmina Silver’s world is golden. Living half-wild on an African farm with her horse, her monkey, and her best friend, every day is beautiful...

I think this was the result of a random search through the library's juvenile historical fiction. I'm posting today with t he fantastic Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop hosted by Greg Pattrige of Always in the Middle . Check out Greg's blog for a list of additional middle grade reviews. I've been discovering some great reads there!    Title: Nothing Else But Miracles Author: Kate Albus, read by Carrie Coello Publication Info: Tantor Audio, 2023. 7 hours. Hardback published 2023 by Margaret Ferguson Books, 288 pages. Source: Library Publisher's Blurb : Twelve-year-old Dory Byrne lives with her brothers on New York City's Lower East Side, waiting impatiently through the darkest hours of World War II for her pop to come home from fighting Hitler. Legally speaking, Dory's brother, Fish, isn't old enough to be in charge of Dory and her younger brother, Pike, but the neighborhood knows the score and, like Pop always says, "the neighborhoo...

Another installment in my quest to understand walking, hiking and the huge mental health benefits that I, at least, get from doing it.     Title: On Trails: An Exploration 
 Author: 
Robert Moor, read by Jason Grasl Publication Info: Audiobooks.com, 2016. 11 hours. Original by Simon and Schuster, 2016. 
 Source:  Library 

 Publisher’s Blurb: 

   From a brilliant new literary voice comes a groundbreaking exploration of how trails help us understand the world—from tiny ant trails to hiking paths that span continents, from interstate highways to the Internet. In 2009, while thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail, Robert Moor began to wonder about the paths that lie beneath our feet: How do they form? Why do some improve over time while others fade? What makes us follow or strike off on our own? Over the course of the next seven years, Moor traveled the globe, exploring trails of all kinds, from the minuscule to the massive. He learned the tricks of master trail-...

Thanks to the author and Great Escapes virtual tours for the chance to read and review this cozy mystery. Gone Crazy (Rory Naysmith Mysteries) by Terry Korth Fischer 5-STARS With its sensitive depiction of Native Americans and solid, rich characters, Gone Crazy thoroughly entertained me. ~Novels Alive About Gone Crazy Gone Crazy (Rory Naysmith Mysteries) Mystery 3rd in Series Setting – Nebraska Publisher ‏ : ‎ The Wild Rose Press, Inc. (July 22, 2024) Paperback ‏ : ‎ 284 pages ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1509255974 ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1509255979 Digital ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0D47XQ8WZ A formal declaration of love scares the bejesus out of small-town Detective Rory Naysmith. As Valentine’s Day approaches, he evaluates his relationship with bookkeeper Esther Mullins, and decides to take her on a romantic date that ends with a poet’s murder. Assigned to the case, Rory pushes his private life aside. Things gets tricky after Esther is appointed Executrix for the estate—then rumors start that...