Plastic may not be the worst issue impacting the environment, but it does feel like one that an individual can more easily do something about. And if you’ve seen the photos and videos of marine life with bellies full of plastic trash, it’s pretty hard to look away. I picked up McCallum’s book as part…
Every year I enjoy participating in 746 Books‘ 20 Books of Summer Challenge. I read all year round, of course, but something about summer reading is special, even though I’m no longer a kid treasuring long summer days to myself. Long-time readers know how much I love summer and feel sad when it’s over. Even…
Today I’m doing a look at my 2022 reading challenges, while there are still about four months in the year, so I can get readers’ suggestions about what books I should read. I try not to put a lot of stress into reading challenges (life is stressful enough) but challenges often push me to read…
I loved this novel about a small community in Monterey, California. I think I expected something more industrial from the title – Cannery Row refers to Monterey’s cannery district, where most of the men of this town make their living. But it’s also an ode to the natural beauty of coastal California, something that really…
Brideshead Revisited was written during World War II by Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh. Brideshead reflects many aspects of his life, from experiences at Oxford, his friendships with the British aristocratic set, and his military service. He published his first novel in 1928 at the age of 25. Also around that time he was married, then…
This year I signed up for a challenge to read more books about the environment (hosted by Gum Trees and Galaxies). I haven’t read too many yet this year, but I read these two in June and July and it made sense to write about them together. Both books are pretty impossible to “review” in…
Today’s Top Ten Tuesday topic is books on our summer TBR list. I’ve already written about my summer TBR in this post about the 20 Books of Summer reading challenge. My summer TBR list, with what I’ve read so far, is below. Normally at this point in the summer I’d be much farther along, but June…
It’s two days until June 1, and that means the start of 20 Books of Summer, hosted annually by Cathy at 746 Books. Many of you know summer is absolutely my favorite time of year. And putting some thought into what I’m reading makes it even better. Here’s how I did last year. Why make…
Rules of Civility is the debut novel of Amor Towles, also widely known for his book A Gentleman in Moscow. The novel is set in New York City, beginning in the 1960s but then jumping back to the last night of 1937. It centers around Katie, a 25-year-old secretary who is out for New Year’s…
I’ve been interested in this book about introverts for a long time. Cain’s premise is that U.S. culture, from workplace to politics, prizes the qualities of extroverts over introverts. And as someone who’s pretty far on the introverted spectrum, that makes a lot of sense to me. It’s easy to oversimplify when you’re talking about…
Mediocre is a book about racism and sexism in America, and like Oluo’s So You Want to Talk About Race, it’s written in an accessible, personal manner. This one is more a discussion of U.S. history, similar to Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste, though I found the book most powerful when she was talking about her own…
Before the Ever After is a beautifully written middle-grade novel about a 12-year-old boy whose father, a professional football player, is suffering from CTE. The book occurs in a time before anything was widely known about CTE and its effects on many athletes. Zachariah, or ZJ, is in the dark about what’s happening to his father, and…
The Book Stop 