“Bernice Takes a Plunge” Right Into My Heart
My rating: 5 of 5 stars This book is one part “The Boy Who Cried Wolf,” and one part “Nancy Drew” meets “Harriet the Spy.” I’m a little (cough cough) older than the intended audience for this book, and while I’ll dip my toes into some Young Adult reading reasonably often, it’s been a while...
Fall Tidings of Mental Health
How Jessica Darling Helped Me Feel Sane For most of my life, the first hints of cold weather have been a balm to my heat weary soul. Living in the deep South means a lot of things, but the weather being hotter than Hades most of the time is not one of my favorites. I...
Help Fight Censorship: Pick Up a Banned Book
Banned Books Week 2020 Banned Books Week (September 27 – October 3) is something I anticipate every year. I’ll never forget my middle school self being assigned a persuasive speech. I’d recently been whipped up into a frenzy by the scenes of book burning in Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451” and the knowledge that local pastors and churchgoers...
Koraalen: An Ecological Mystery with a Sweet Romance
My rating: 4 of 5 stars Some books are fast-paced whirlwinds of action you can’t put down. This is like an ocean current that carries you along at a gentle pace; the surprising climax a storm brewing in the background waiting to pour down on you out of nowhere. Author Heather Murata bills “Koraalen: Planetary...