I loved this book, from beginning to end — and it’s a book that stayed with me long after I put it down. In fact I recently re-read the last chapter, just to hear it one more time. I keep thinking about how moving this book was for a debut novel, and how beautifully written.…
I had mixed feelings about this book, which generated a lot of buzz when it came out, but I continue to think about it. It’s an unusual blend of character-driven horror, something like Station Eleven. It’s a book where not much happens, but it’s still terrifying. I would have liked it more except that sometimes…
This week’s Nonfiction November prompt is hosted by Rennie @ What’s Nonfiction: Week 3: (November 16-20) – Be The Expert/Ask the Expert/Become the Expert: Three ways to join in this week! You can either share 3 or more books on a single topic that you have read and can recommend (be the expert), you can put the call…
I love reading about Australia, ever since I traveled there in 2013. I was struck by the similarities in the history of Australia and the United States, though I felt Australia was much more open about its troubling treatment of Aboriginal populations. Too Much Lip tells the story of Kerry Salter, a young woman who…
If you’re like me, the first time you knew anything about the 1921 Tulsa race riots – or race massacre – was this summer, when Trump scheduled a rally in Tulsa on June 19 (Juneteenth). Before that I was mostly unaware of this history. What happened in Tulsa is a perfect example of the way our…
I had mixed feelings about this book, but I found the story and its characters really compelling. Saint X is a fictional island in the Caribbean, a place where affluent white families go to soak up the sun and drink all day long. The Thomas family arrives at the resort of Indigo Bay with their…
I read these two books nearly back to back, and their plots and characters were amazingly similar, though I had no idea when I chose them. I love a totally random reading coincidence. Here’s a comparison of the two novels. The story: both The Dry and Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter are mystery/thrillers about an unsolved…
I really appreciated this memoir by Nicole Chung about her adoption and the search for her birth family. It was particularly interesting to read about her personal struggles as a child being of Korean descent in a white family and a mostly white town. It made me think about the complexity of identity, and the…
It’s Back to School week at Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl), so I decided to write about ten books that can help us learn about America. Right now I’m in the midst of Hamilton-mania, so I’m reading Lafayette in the Somewhat United States by the always excellent Sarah Vowell. I haven’t read…
I’ve been putting off writing a review of Just Mercy, because it felt so important I didn’t think I’d do it justice. There are very few books that I wish everyone would read, but this was one of them. It’s about race and the criminal justice system — how the U.S. locks up disproportionate numbers of…
I enjoyed this book more than I expected to, mainly because the stories are a surprising combination of everyday life, tragedy, and humor. The stories focus on black identity in a powerful way, but this is far from a one-issue book. Thompson-Spires covers body issues, bullying, friendship, parenthood, and therapy, just to name a few. …
This was a very intense read, and a thoughtful one. Grooms takes us into the minds of three characters who are involved in a mass lynching in Georgia in 1946 (one based on actual events). One character is Lonnie, a young white boy who sees the brutal murder of four people, one of them a…
There's always room for one more...
I read, breathe, and live in bookish worlds.
Book Reviews
"Books are a uniquely portable magic" - Stephen King
*somewhere to collect my (mostly) bookish thoughts*
"She had read novels while other people perused the Sunday papers" - Mary Elizabeth Braddon
"The world was hers for the reading."
Thoughts on Literature, Expressing Creativity, Being Authentic
books, libraries, life
