Navigate Your Stars by Jesmyn Ward: Book Review

4 Stars. This is one of the most realistic commencement addresses I’ve ever read or heard. These things are usually full of high flown language about changing the world and chasing your dreams. That’s all very inspirational. But how do you actually get to that point? You work and you work some more. Sometimes you get lucky […]

Continue Reading

Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward: Book Review

5 Stars. As I read this, I periodically thought of that adage stating that to be a writer, “You simply sit down at the typewriter, open your veins, and bleed” (I’m going to attribute this to Walter “Red” Smith, citing Quote Investigator). Ms. Ward’s pain and grief comes through in these pages almost viscerally. Growing up poor […]

Continue Reading