The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger: Book Review

4 Stars. I’ll be honest–I fully expected to dislike this book. I only decided to read it to see why it’s always on lists of banned/challenged books. You can’t even begin to imagine my surprise when I immediately clicked with Holden. Is he young and judgmental? Yes. But he’s broken and feels the world deeply. He sees all the ways we hurt […]

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The Giver by Lois Lowry: Book Review

4 Stars. This was published in 1993, when I was 15 years old, and I must have just barely missed having it as assigned reading in school. While it’s probably a classic to many of you, this was the first time I’ve read it. I was surprised by how unsettling it is. Jonas’s world seems almost perfect at first. Everyone apologizes […]

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The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende: Book Review

3 Stars. I’m just not the reader for magical realism in literature. Oh, I do just fine with Sarah Addison Allen’s light touches of fantasy in otherwise contemporary novels. But a huge black beast of an unknown species adopting a family? Spirits wandering the house? Curses? Mermaid girls? All in dark historical fiction? I just […]

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The Scarlet Pimpernel by Emmuska Orczy: Book Review

3 Stars. One of my go-to guilty pleasures for years was The Pink Carnation series by Lauren Willig. I’m really not a romance reader, and they are most definitely romances, but the witty dialog, fantastic characters, Napoleonic setting, and light action/suspense kept me going back for all twelve books. I knew they were influenced […]

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The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark: Book Review

4 Stars. This was a short, accessible classic but it packed a punch. I would love to discuss it with a book group. I looked around to find out if it’s ever been banned (references to “sexual intercourse” in a book published in the 1960s seems like a recipe for a challenge) but if it has, I can’t find evidence of it. The group of

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Beezus and Ramona by Beverly Cleary: Book Review

Beezus and Ramona by Beverly Cleary Book Cover

I’m 42 as I write this so it’s been 30 – 35 years since I read any of Beverly Cleary’s books. I always enjoyed them as a child, and can clearly picture exactly where they were on my local library’s shelves. I called it a good library day when I found a new one. Who am I kidding? Every library visit was a good library day, but…

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Five on a Treasure Island by Enid Blyton: Book Review

Five on a Treasure Island by Enid Blyton Book Cover

Julian, Dick, and Anne are disappointed when their parents announce plans to vacation alone in Scotland. The children quickly change their tune when they learn that they will be spending the summer at their aunt and uncle’s house on the coast with their cousin George (Don’t ever call her Georgina) and her dog, Timmy. What follows…

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Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne: Book Review

3 Stars. Eh. Axel was a whiny wimp who complained endlessly about having to go on the trip. The minute his uncle, Professor Liedenbrock, started to get the least bit angry with him over his dithering, Axel would cave and blithely go along with whatever ridiculous plan the professor has in mind. Axel was generally the one with […]

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The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett: Book Review

The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett Book Cover

I was looking for a book featuring a private investigator to complete a reading challenge, so when I saw this was available (and that it was short–it’s the end of the year and time was running out), I jumped on it. I’ve never seen the movie and didn’t really have any idea what it was […]

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The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury: Book Review

The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury Book Cover

I honestly picked this up for a reading challenge, not expecting to enjoy it. I do love fantasy but science fiction isn’t really my thing, with only a few exceptions. I read Fahrenheit 451 back in 8th grade and didn’t care for it, but there was very little reading that I had to do for school that I did like. Imagine my surprise […]

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