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 by Lee Smith. Tropical pink house with green palm fronds around it, road leading from house to the horizon.

“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 …

cover Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

“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 …

Silmarillion cover

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.  …

Cover of Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld

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 …