Rebecca M. Douglass, Author

Well, I meant to post on Saturday. And I mean to get a blog post ready for Marvelous Middle Grade Monday. I miss all those deadlines because I just got tired, and distracted. You can enjoy this audiobook review of Amy Liptrot's memoir whenever I manage to finish it.     Title: The Outrun: A Memoir Author:  Amy Liptrot; read by Tracy Wiles Publication Info: Canongate Books, 2023, 7 hours. Original hardback 2016 by Canongate, 280 pages. Publisher's Blurb:   At the age of thirty, Amy Liptrot finds herself washed up back home on Orkney. Standing unstable on the island, she tries to come to terms with the addiction that has swallowed the last decade of her life. As she spends her mornings swimming in the bracingly cold sea, her days tracking Orkney's wildlife, and her nights searching the sky for the Merry Dancers, Amy discovers how the wild can restore life and renew hope.   My Review: This one didn't turn out to be quite what I expected. The blurb mad...

Thanks to Great Escapes Virtual Blog tours for the chance to read and review the 3rd book in Leslie Karst's Orchid Isle Mystery series! (See reviews of Molten Death and Waters of Destruction if you like to start at the beginning.) Murder, Local Style (An Orchid Isle Mystery) Cozy Mystery 3rd in Series Setting – Hawaii Publisher ‏ : ‎ Severn House Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 7, 2026 Print length ‏ : ‎ 240 pages Hardcover ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1448316588 ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1448316588 Digital ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1448316571 ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0FVLW3ZL8     Retired caterer Valerie Corbin investigates a suspicious poisoning in this Orchid Isle cozy culinary mystery, featuring a feisty queer couple who swap surfing lessons for sleuthing sessions in tropical Hilo, Hawai‘i. A dinner to die for! It’s been an eventful transition, but retired caterer Valerie Corbin and her wife Kristen are finally settling into life on the Big Island of Hawai’i. Val’s even joined the ne...

I'm posting this morning with the Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop. The hop is sponsored by  Greg Pattridge of Always in the Middle . Check out Greg's blog for a list of additional middle grade reviews.  This week's book I won in a give-away, thanks to author Jamie Sumner and Rosi Hollinbeck for the chance to read this story!     Title : Schooled Author : Jamie Sumner Publication Info: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2025. 218 pages Source: Won a paperback in a giveaway from a 3rd party (not the author or publisher) Publisher's Blurb (Goodreads) :  A bighearted, compulsively readable novel from acclaimed author Jamie Sumner about new schools, unexpected friendships, and overcoming loss. Eleven-year-old Lenny Syms is about to start college—sort of. As part of a brand-new experimental school, Lenny and four other students are starting sixth grade on a university campus, where they’ll be taught by the most brilliant professors and given every re...

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 got this book out of the library thanks to multiple positive reviews from other posters on the Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays hop. The plot and setting revolving around a fire lookout in the Gila Wilderness were the main attractions. I also liked the cover--very dramatic!    Title: The Burning Season Author: Caroline Starr Rose Publication Info: Audible Audio, 2025. 3 hours. Hardback by Nancy Paulsen Books,  256 pages. Source: Library  Publisher's Blurb (Goodreads): In this coming-of-age survival story in verse, a fire lookout-in-training must find her courage when a wildfire breaks out on her watch. Twelve-year-old Opal is deathly afraid of fire. Still Opal is preparing to become a fourth-generation lookout on Wolf Mountain, deep in the New Mexico...

Before I get to my review, I need to report that reality has struck and I've shifted my launch date back to August 25. With luck, I can actually get all the parts together by then! Why does every book take at least a long as the last? You'd think I'd get the system down and be faster at this!   Now, on to today's feature: a great book I got for Xmas, about the first botanists to run the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, collecting botanical samples all the way!   Title : Brave the Wild River: The Untold Story of Two Women Who Mapped the Botany of the Grand Canyon Author: Melissa L. Sevigny  Publication Info: WW Norton, 2023. 290 pages in paperback. Source: Xmas gift  Publisher's Blurb: In the summer of 1938, botanists Elzada Clover and Lois Jotter set off down the Colorado River, accompanied by an ambitious expedition leader and three amateur boatmen. With its churning rapids, sheer cliffs, and boat-shattering boulders, the Colorado was famed as the mo...

Thanks to Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours for the chance to review another of Lena Gregory's fun mysteries!     Rocky Road to Murder (Coffee & Cream Café Mysteries) Cozy Mystery 6th in Series Setting – New York Publisher ‏ : ‎ Gemma Halliday Publishing (July 1, 2025) Number of Pages – 220 Digital ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0F7MV3JW5 From author Lena Gregory comes a tasty summer murder mystery… Danika Delaney is thrilled that her old fashioned malt shop, the Coffee & Cream Café, has gotten a catering contract for the biggest party of the season, the Rutherford Manor Fourth of July gala. She’ll be providing desserts for the party as well as attending the exclusive event on Eastern Long Island. However her path to the gala quickly becomes a rocky road… Dani arrives at the event, only to find the gala’s hostess, Cressida Rutherford, dead! What’s worse, one of Dani’s signature parfaits sits next to the dead woman, with what looks like peanuts in it—a food Cressida is...

My June Pride reviews have spilled over into July! Here's another good MG book I read, about a lot more than just being non-binary, but that's part of the character. I think I like it best when the LGBTQ+ issues are balanced with other issues any kid might relate to. P.S. I'm out hiking, but I will return visits and comments!    Title: Just Shy of Ordinary Author: A. J. Sass. Read by P. J. Morgan Publication info: Little, Brown Young Readers, 2024. 7 hours. (Original hardback by Little, Brown, 2024, 384 pages). Source: Library Publisher's Blurb (via Goodreads): Thirteen-year-old Shai is an expert problem-solver. There’s never been something they couldn’t research and figure out on their own. But there’s one thing Shai hasn’t been able to logic their way through: picking at the hair on their arms.       Ever since their mom lost her job, the two had to move in with family friends, and the world went into pandemic lockdown, Shai’s been unable to control...

Thanks to Great Escapes Virtual Tours for the chance to read and review Campfires and Corpses .   Campfires & Corpses: A Maine Campground Cozy Mystery by Nikki Weber About Campfires & Corpses Campfires & Corpses: A Maine Campground Cozy Mystery Cozy Mystery/ Cozy Animal Mystery 1st in Series Setting – Maine Publisher ‏ : ‎ Independently published (February 24, 2025) Paperback ‏ : ‎ 282 pages ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 979-8311619622 Digital ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0DS6KRK16 When the campground becomes the scene of the crime, will Noelle’s peaceful summer go up in flames? Down on her luck event planner Noelle Cooper is returning to rural Maine to do the one thing she swore she would never do: run her family’s campground. But it’s only for the summer, and the timing couldn’t be better–she’s lost her job and has nowhere to live. She hopes that a change of scenery will be the thing she needs to regroup and reinvent herself. But Noelle’s plans go up in smoke on h...