- November 14, 2019
The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys (2019)
Madrid, Spain. 1957. Francisco Franco
has been in power for 18 years. The country is still burdened by the losses of
the Spanish Civil War and is shrouded in the secrets necessary under Franco’s oppressive
regime. Ana, an orphaned child of dissidents, is lucky to have a good job at
the Castellana ...
Read more… - October 31, 2019
This is an extremely well-researched and thoughtfully presented account of the lives of a group of North Korean defectors that worked with journalist Barbara Demick to tell their stories of survival and escape. Demick has been interviewing North Koreans since 2001, when was stationed in Seoul by the Los Angeles Times; she is now ...
Read more… - October 25, 2019
Pumpkinheads is the latest YA Graphic novel collaboration between Rainbow Rowell, author of bestselling titles such as Eleanor and Park, Fangirl, and Carry On, and Faith Erin Hicks, author and illustrator of Friends with Boys.
This graphic novel follows two best friends –Deja and Josiah — through their last night working together at “the Patch,” the ...
Read more… - October 17, 2019
Jacqueline Woodson received the National Book Award for her memoir, Brown Girl Dreaming, published in 2014. You might have missed her talents because she writes a lot of young adult material. But don’t miss this work of adult fiction. It packs a punch.
I don’t want to appear lazy, but the last paragraph of ...
Read more… - October 11, 2019
It seems absurd to us now that humans once thought the world was flat, but I always get a kick out of pondering: which practices are humans performing this very minute that will seem equally absurd to future generations? In Inconspicuous Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Don’t Know You Have, former New York Times science ...
Read more… - October 4, 2019
This 2013 short story collection by Nathan Ballingrud won the Shirley Jackson award. I found it while combing around for good short stories that have monsters as central figures, whether real or imagined. After reading one of two in this collection, I couldn’t put it down. The author’s deftly woven and beautifully written ...
Read more… - September 27, 2019
Louisiana Elefante has a voice that can sing! In Louisiana’s Way Home by Kate DiCamillo, twelve-year-old Louisiana is going to need to use her talents and sing for her supper. You see, Louisiana has a family curse on her head and the day of reckoning (according to Granny) has arrived. Louisiana is separated ...
Read more… - September 19, 2019
Late
Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss, by
Margaret Renkl
In
this unconventional memoir, Renkl blends evocative recollections of her family
with insightful observations of the natural world outside her home in
Nashville.
Told
in brief essays, Renkl’s narrative eases seamlessly between the past and the
present, bringing the reader from the red dirt roads of her childhood in
Alabama to the ...
Read more… - September 5, 2019
I started The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead with low expectations. Because of my own tastes as a reader, I was not as awed as the rest of the world by his 2016 bestseller, The Underground Railroad. I could not completely buy into Whitehead’s magical realism and his fantastical vision of an actual railroad, secretly ...
Read more… - August 28, 2019
For the only time that I can remember, I finished a book, turned to the title page, and read it again. Patricia Lockwood’s Priestdaddy: A Memoir is that good: witty, perceptive, and crafted. She’s a poet, and it shows, the imagery and the diction are that vibrant.
Priestdaddy is the story of a ...
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