– Book Reviews
The renaissance of Gwen Hathaway : a novel / Ashley Schumacher. New York : Wednesday Books, 2023.
Content Warnings: Grief, Fatphobia, Death of Parent.
I adored this book. It is such a sweet romance, but it also deals with some heavy topics.
Maddie has spent her life on the road with her parents at Renaissance …
“A door in the dark” Reintgen, Scott. New York : Margaret K. McElderry Books, [2023].
Content Warnings: Major Character Death, Murder, Torture, Fantasy Drug Use, Grief, Death of a Parent, Body Horror, and Gore
Ren’s father was murdered. Now she competes against the sons and daughters of the rich and powerful families who killed …
“Silver Alert,” Lee Smith. Chapel Hill, North Carolina : Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2023.
Content Warning: dementia, cancer, child trafficking and death.
I love Lee Smith’s writing – it is very Southern, in that on the surface, it seems happy and lighthearted, but beneath the surface lies deep waters. Being a Southerner, her …
“Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries,” by Heather Fawcett. Copyright 2023, Del Rey (317 pages, $28.00).
Content Warning: Blood, Kidnapping.
One of my new favorite genres when it comes to what I read is “cozy-fantasy”, a category that is not very large, but is certainly growing with new titles every day. It’s a nice way …
Children of the state : survival and hope in the juvenile justice system. Hobbs, Jeff; New York : Scribner, [2023].
Jeff Hobbs uses the stories of several children and adults involved with the juvenile justice system to illustrate the challenges the system faces, and the small, but significant, improvements that are being made.Hobbs …
The Silmarillion. Tolkien, J. R. R. ; edited by Christopher Tolkien. Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 1977.
As a huge Lord of the Rings fan (I even have a Gandalf tattoo to prove it!), one of my resolutions for this year was to take on The Silmarillion, which J.R.R. Tolkien considered the most important …
Miss Benson’s beetle. Joyce, Rachel. New York : Dial Press, [2020].
Content Warnings: Miscarriage, Suicide, Stalking, Death of a Parent, Aftermath of War
Set in 1950, Miss Benson’s Beetle is the story of a 46-year-old domestic arts teacher who realizes that she hates the person she has become and the life she is living. …
Romantic comedy : a novel. Sittenfeld, Curtis. New York : Random House, [2023]
Romantic Comedy is the perfect, well, romantic comedy!
Sally Milz is a writer for an infamous late night live comedy show called The Night Owls that airs every Saturday night. She was married once, and it ended without too much fanfare …
Seen and Unseen: What Dorothea Lange, Toyo Miyatake, and Ansel Adams’s photographs reveal about the Japanese American incarceration by Elizabeth Partridge, illustrated by Lauren Tamaki. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2022. 124 pages.
The incarceration of Japanese Americans by the United States Government is one of the darkest events in American history. Over 120,000 …
“Blue Marlin” by Lee Smith. Durham, NC: Blair-Carolina Wren Press, 2020, 123 pages, $15.95
This slight novella by North Carolina author Lee Smith is a little pocket gem that can probably be read in one-sitting by most readers. The year is 1958 and 13-year-old Jenny Dale is obsessed with growing up, movie stars …