I had this whole list of novels that we were going to cover in fourth grade. About halfway through the year, my husband and son were wandering a bookstore when Eamon saw the cover for a Fablehaven novel and said, “I think that one looks cool.” My husband, bless his heart, ran to the library…
This is the second book that I have read in my learning-culture-through-fiction, China kick. I am going to China in July. Perhaps I can get four more books read. I already have three waiting on the shelf and one of them is a bit enormous. There are similarities between this novel and the previous, The…
If you are looking for comparison reviews, you will not find them here. I am just going to review the books that we used for fourth grade. For most subjects, we used whatever I had decided upon when I was researching material in the spring of 2017. There were a few times we switched, midway.…
When I made the Best Books list and started on the adventure of reading to children as they grew, I did not realize that so many of the “classics” of children’s chapter books come from the 50s. Even if they weren’t written in the 50s, many of them take place in or around the 50s.…
Announcement time! My daughter and I are headed to China! As you probably know, I very rarely solicit my bloggers. Like when I publish a novel (which is rarely). And when I go on some major humanitarian adventure. This post falls into the latter category. There is a woman from our church who has been…
I may have let this book build up too much before reading it. I have been intending to read it for years. It was recommended by lots of people as well as generally the state of North Carolina. It is magic realism, which is my favorite genre. And I love the movie, am a huge…
Well, this is the first Devon-y, from-the-best-books-list book review that I have done in quite some time. (In the old days, I read mostly literary literature, with an emphasis on world and trendy.) The book wasn’t actually slated to be next, but I am going to China in July, so I have started gleaning from…
Yes, this is a writing and reading blog. I do take the liberty of reviewing other entertainment, however, when I feel it is applicable to either the writing or reading life. Sometimes something is so good, that I might be stretching it a bit, and when I saw Arrival I knew that I wanted to…
I’m going to do you a solid. You want to read The Princess Bride, but you don’t want to be as confused as I was when I started reading. And you don’t want to have to do research in order to get your bearings. So, here. The Princess Bride is, on one level, a standard…
My husband wanted me to read this. And since I have long joked that once I recommend something to him it’ll never get read… well… somehow that meant I had to read what he recommended. I doubt that drive comes from a healthy place. Even so, my husband, who knows and loves me, thought that…
Um. I read this book some time in 2017. It has sat on the list of reviews to write since then. The problem is, it is a fairly forgettable read. I mean, it accomplishes what it is, I think, but I am no teenage girl. Tell Me, written by Joan Bauer of young adult literary…
If you have been following this blog for forever, then you should know what NaNoWriMo is. If you haven’t, you may anyhow, but my experience has been a lot of blank stares where I mention it. If you are a writer and don’t know what NaNoWriMo is, then it is time I introduced you. NaNoWriMo…
I seem to be on a roll with the dystopian fiction. It might have something to do with reading short fiction? It seems like the rate of dystopian fiction among novellas is on the high side. Or this is all just a coincidence. Well, whatever the reason, I landed on Fahrenheit 451 for my very…
I should have read this book a really long time ago. Someone whom I admire and love gave it to me with a meaningful inscription in the front, telling me how much it has meant to them. I was younger then, and perhaps a lot less mature. Maybe I wouldn’t even have been able to…
I don’t know what made me think that this was a Book a Day book. I mean, it’s got a normal amount of writing on every normal-sized page, and weighs in at 236 pages. This is not on par with all the other books I pulled. Still, it was in the pile and I just…
(Bit slow on the up-swing, I know. I read this book as quickly as I could get my hands on a decently-priced copy, but I missed it in reviews. Here it is.) I am a Potter fan. I mean, who isn’t? It was a whiplash ride from passively observing the mania to, well, becoming manic,…
When I was fresh from college and could read whatever the heck I wanted all the time, somehow I picked up a copy of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. The heft of it was a bit daunting, but I just about ate it up (around the same time I also devoured The Stand.) It was so…
This book haunts me. It has taken me nearly two years to write the review (can it be?!?). It is one of the rare occasions when I am reviewing a book I do not own, so every time I see it in the book store I have this dilemma over buying a book I won’t…
Another day, another book. Graphic novels take a remarkably short time to devour, which is why I don’t return to them very often. The pacing is not what I prefer. However, I do enjoy the occasional graphic novel, if only for reveling in its artistic expression. I have read Anne of Green Gables (L. M.…
As mentioned before, I grabbed a few graphic novels from the library to add to the Book-a-Days, but they are not necessarily the ones from the TBR. Then again, I was bound to eventually read this Raina Telgemeier as well as the other review you have coming, Anne of Green Gables: a Graphic Novel. I…
the starving artist 