This week’s Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, is the list of books on my fall to-be-read list. I felt really good about my summer TBR list, so I’ve decided to go back to planning my reading a bit more. The first are three books I’ve already started (maybe they don’t really…
This is a novella you won’t want to put down once you start. It’s about a couple of historic days in Edinburgh in 1566. Mary, Queen of Scots is in her castle at Holyrood and though she is beloved by her people, the kingdom is rife with religious conflicts and nobles scheming to take power.…
Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s books should be made into movies. I’ve read three of her books by now and thought the same thing each time. Her writing is so visual, and her stories are atmospheric and full of action. She also takes common genres and tropes but then infuses them with Mexican culture, history, and mythology. And…
I’m always sad to see summer ending, but it’s nice to see kids going back to school, and we are going on vacation! I’ve been working hard and need this break. We’re going to Hawaii to celebrate our 20th anniversary. We seriously considered whether to cancel, in light of COVID, but we are vaccinated, our trip…
For this post I picked out some of my favorite audiobooks from this year so far (these books weren’t necessarily published this year). They range from very serious to just for fun – I think audiobooks work best for really emotional topics, and are often perfect for lighter, atmospheric books like romances, horror, and mystery. I…
This summer I read several powerful books about race that I’d encourage everyone to read, particularly if you’re interested in U.S. history and racism. In my last post, I wrote about Caste by Isabel Wilkerson. After Caste, I read Gilbert King’s Devil in the Grove, a Pulitzer Prize winner that describes racism and the justice…
This summer I read two powerful books about race that I’d encourage everyone to read, particularly those interested in U.S. history and racial issues. This is a discussion of the first of those two books. Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, by Isabel Wilkerson, is a book you’ve probably already heard much about. I found it…
I finished this book with mixed feelings, though I do recommend it, and it’s getting well-deserved rave reviews. I love a novel that tells a historical story in a new way, especially a history I know little about. In this debut novel, Shelley Parker-Chan tells the story of the beginnings of the Ming Dynasty, after their…
I get annoyed by all the copycat book covers out there. Publishers seem to want every book to look like a knockoff of the latest hit. I realize it’s helpful for bookstores to have clear indicators of where to shelve a book, and for people to easily find the latest book that’s just like the…
July began great, with my first plane trip in a year and a half, and I got to see two of my sisters this month. It looked like things might be getting back to normal, but of course now we’re going back to masks, and I know of two people who have gotten COVID recently…
Which books would you want if you were stranded on a desert island? That’s the subject of this week’s Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. It immediately made me think of long, weighty books that you can spend a lot of time with. It also made me think about the books I…
I picked up this book partly because I saw Zauner interviewed on the Daily Show, and partly because it was recommended in Modern Mrs. Darcy’s Summer Reading Guide. I was intrigued by the title and the subject — it’s a book about family and loss, about being biracial and the daughter of an immigrant, and…
The literary journeys of a 20-something, bilingual, elementary school teacher.
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Book Reviews
"Books are a uniquely portable magic" - Stephen King
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"She had read novels while other people perused the Sunday papers" - Mary Elizabeth Braddon
A Reader's Miscellany of Classic Literature
