I’m on a roll here with the blog. I have been meaning to “complete” the lists of Best Books for years, and I am almost there! I have two more lists left (religion and plays), but they are in sight, during this stay-at-home order. I am an avid list maker, and I will admit that…
It has only been two days since I reviewed a picture book, but this one was sitting on the list waiting to be reviewed, so we’re going to go ahead and do it. I found this book when I was looking for something specific. I have a nephew who is really, really into building and…
I am not going to review the whole series. Why? Because I read the first book and have decided that this series is really not meant for me. It is meant for someone, but it is not me, and I have so many other books that I am itching to read right now, but not…
I enjoy giving books to the young people in my life. It is a fantasy of mine to supply great libraries of curated books to all of my grandchildren. Yes, this is my fantasy. Toward this end, I have kept my eyes open for the best of all books for every age of person. This…
During the Stay-at-Home order, I have had the opportunity to watch more movies than I usually do. Still, it’s not a tremendous amount, as I have a lot of cooking, cleaning, schooling, and writing to do, not to mention projects here and there and everywhere. But that is the reason I have been able to…
The plan was always to update the Best Books list every ten years. That way, we can keep up to date on what we’re reading and not miss anything really exciting. Well, it’s been somewhere around ten years, and I thought I would make sure that the list goes all the way back to 2000.…
Well, this is embarrassing. I guess if I’m going to do the crime, I’ll have to do the time. Just kidding, sort of. The truth is this: one of those little library boxes appeared in my neighborhood last year, which made me very happy. I wander by it frequently, depositing and taking books, although mostly…
I have dreaded writing this review. I have dreaded writing it so much that I actually refused to finish the book for months, therefore delaying the review. Perhaps this wasn’t done consciously, but it was done nonetheless. I like Anthony Bourdain, after all. I have praised him highly for many things, including most of his…
This is one of the longest waits I have had before reviewing a book, in my—what? eight?—years doing reviews on The Starving Artist. It might even be the longest, but it’s not like I have that info handy to check. I mean, the point of these reviews is to share, sure, but also to remember,…
My son is in a home school co-op this year. I am the fifth and sixth grade writing teacher. I was given my curriculum, which came complete with a list of reading for the year. So I read the novels along with the kids, and there were some mixed results. As you should be able…
Okay, okay, so I know there’s another memoir in this series. Written in 2005, Teacher Man picks up the story where ‘Tis leaves off in Frank McCourt’s life, and tells the story of the teacher who would become a writer. I don’t feel compelled to read this book, largely because it focuses in on teaching high school…
I’m allowed to review this movie because it has something to do with writing. The inciting character is an (uber-successful and famous) writer and the whole plot takes place securely in the genre of murder mystery, which is what Harlan Thrombey wrote. Nevermind that he had the kind of fame and notoriety (and also quirkiness)…
This is a loooooong book. For me, it was life-changing and made it onto my list of Books That Changed My Life. But Dr. Mark Hyman could have written it with a lot less words, and this comes largely from repetition (and also from technical details, but that might be necessary). Not everyone is going…
One of the reasons I hadn’t ever read this book before (besides the thousands of other books I want to read) is the title. Another reason was the cover. It just didn’t make me want to pick it up (and it turns out, the copy I have is also not very representative). As for the…
This was a tough read. I’m not the first to say that, and maybe not even the first person to begin their review with that exact sentence. And looking at the other reviews, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls is fairly polarizing, even to people who like it (and they are minion). “It was well…
I have been out of commission since October, which is a little extreme. I attended that wonderful writing residency and finished a novel, but within weeks of returning I came down with something like the flu and destroyed my Thanksgiving season. I struggled with recovery until I decided that I had a secondary sinus infection.…
I’m not averse to a story in which animals are personified. I’m not averse to a story in which animals are personified but being sneaky about it right under the nose of unsuspecting humans. But there was something about The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate that somehow defied both these categorizations and got…
Is a writing residency worth it? For me, it has been the lifeblood to a career that is crowded out by life as a mother, wife, hobbyist, home school educator, and middle class American (Lord, help us). This is, true, only my second writing residency. It is also the same residency as the one I…
Well, The Five People You Meet in Heaven is a quick read. And if you like morals with your stories–if you want to walk away introspective in a Halmark-movie sort of way–then this could be the book for you. What did I think about it? It’s certainly easy to read. It’s interesting and moving. You’re always…
I have this feeling that my review of J.R.R. Tolkein’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy has to be super long, like in accordance with the length of the books. But are the books really that long? Let’s do a little comparison. Each of the books (The Hobbit and then the trilogy…
the starving artist 