4 Stars. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from this book but I ultimately found it to be a surprisingly touching story of a boy on the cusp of manhood. Robert is fairly innocent in the ways of the world (he thinks that the tiny town of Rutledge, Vermont is almost as big as London). But he also has a practical knowledge of […]
5 Stars. Holy cow. Can I give this book all the stars? Because five doesn’t seem like enough. Written by a Black author and a White author, All American Boys covers all the nuances of a scene that’s shamefully familiar to the American public–a policeman beating and/or killing a Black man. Rashad shows signs of PTSD. His older […]
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 […]
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 […]
4 Stars. I liked Callie and her theatre geek crew! (I was a band geek myself.) Callie is outgoing and unashamedly enthusiastic in her passions. She’s a great friend and encourages others at every opportunity. She’s also in 7th grade, at an age when boys and girls are developing school romances. This group of schoolmates sure […]
Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl gave us a freebie for Top Ten Tuesday today. Since it’s Banned Books Week, I’ve borrowed a graphic from the American Library Association to share the top ten most challenged books of 2020. As I prep this post on Saturday, I’ve read three of these books (#1, 7, 8), […]
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 […]
Today kicks off Banned Books Week 2021. I’ve tried to acknowledge this week every year that my blog has been active. I never used to think of myself as a reader who chooses particularly controversial books. When I first started my blog, I mostly read fantasy. What’s offensive about that, right? But when I look […]
Welcome to my weekly update for September 26, 2021! My husband and I are flying home to Asheville, North Carolina tomorrow after spending three months in Anchorage, Alaska with his job. We’ve had a wonderful time in this beautiful state! My big bookish news is that I’ve been chosen as a round one panelist in […]
Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl invited us to share “Ten Books on My Fall 2021 TBR” (To Be Read list). I’m very much a mood reader but with Halloween just around the corner, Banned Books Week coming up in a few days, and several of my reading challenges having monthly prompts, I decided I […]
Welcome to my weekly update for September 19, 2021! We didn’t do much after my sister left last weekend but we drove up to Fairbanks for this weekend (more about that next week). The fog had Anchorage socked in when we left but as we drove further north, the air became crystal clear. We had […]