Let’s just establish, right away, that though I gave Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky only three stars out of five (I think, generously), I will still be recommending it. Sometimes books are important for a reason, but maybe they’re not the world’s best book. They fill a void. And until that niche…
I have read Life of Pi a couple of times and I like it. I have reasons, and I’ll give them to you in a sec. I also always leave it a little disappointed. I think my main beef with this book is that Yann Martel tried too hard to sell us his perceived moral.…
Lyddie was another in a line of middle grades historical fiction that I have read as the Middle School Language Arts teacher at the homeschool co-op I am a part of. I’ve been more impressed by the selections for this year (part of a writing curriculum based on Modern History as opposed to last year’s…
The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, is one of the best modern books written in the English language and I don’t know how anyone can argue otherwise. Okay, maybe I can, but this is the third time I’ve read this book and it still amazes me. The writing amazes me. The structure amazes me.…
Note: This book review is for a Christian book. I expect to review a Christian book about once a month, this year. You have been warned. When I was a teenager, I found my way to Max Lucado. A pastor and Christian writer, I read everything of his. Why? Because he’s an image-painter, a word-player,…
I enjoyed Prepper’s Long-Term Survival Guide by Jim Cobb WAY too much. Part of me was curious when I put this on the year’s reading list, and part of me was being funny. Guess there really is a latent Prepper inside of me, or maybe just a Boy Scout. I love being prepared! Or maybe…
Oh how I do love thematic reading. Christmastime, love to read something Christmassy. Halloween. Valentines. Even Thanksgiving. In the spring I always think Anne of Green Gables, and in the fall, Harry Potter. I have been getting in the habit of yanking at least one book from my holiday lists as I arch ‘round the…
Well! There are gushing reviews of Outlander by Diana Gabaldon and there are scathing reviews of Outlander. No one expects it to be literary fiction—it’s popular fiction—though many claim it is great historical fiction (though it incorporates time travel), but the real discrepancy revolves around “rape culture.” I would say one out of ten, maybe…
BRIDGET JONES’ DIARY (2001) Kicked off the Christmas season with my teen daughter’s first viewing of Bridget Jones’ Diary. It’s possible it’ll be her last, but maybe—while she’s still under my roof anyways—she’ll join me come Christmastime and I won’t have to watch “all by myself.” I believe she said it was “cute.” It is…
Is there something that you want to read this year? With all this pandemic nonsense (it’s not actually nonsense, I’m just over it in like August and am referring breezily to something that has been very real and terrible for me lately), I am—like many people—really staring off at the horizon of 2021. Of course,…
Perhaps this is a crazy undertaking for me as a blogger, since it would be a little crazy for you as a reader to attempt what it will imply: reading a book a week for the year. I don’t know what’s wrong with me—or with other people, for that matter—that lists and attempts like this…
I read Lee Strobel’s The Case for Christmas because it showed up on the best-ofs lists for the holidays, not because I am a Christian or because I am searching for answers about God or the Christmas story. Clearly, this book—more like an extended tract—is meant for the latter. The seeker seeking around the holidays.…
I am running behind, because of the holidays, but we are nearing the end of the Christmas reading reviews. This is the second to the last. And though you tire of hearing me say it, I was surprised by this book. I don’t recall if I’ve read any Nikolai Gogol, though I am certain that…
When I finally—after years of meaning to read it—ordered Truman Capote’s A Christmas Memory from eBay, I did not expect what I got. Full disclosure: I have not read Capote, ever. I have meant to, of course, but have never gotten around to it. Yet. My impression, however, is true crime with a literary swagger.…
It only makes sense in life that the more niche-y or specific you get, the slimmer the pickin’s and the more difficult it is to find things of quality. As it is with Christmas reading. Most great authors don’t have a Christmas book. There is quite a lot written, but it is taken up largely…
Yes, yes; it’s a bit late for this year, but I have two bits left to review from my Thanksgiving reading. They are a short story of sorts and a poem. The first was recommended to me and the other I found looking about for things to share with my middle grades students. “Turkey Remains…
I have a new favorite food writer and—like my other favorite food writer, Bert Greene—she is someone you don’t hear about every day. She whisked into my life with an aroma of days gone by and required me to do a little searching for her titles. (I still have one last Greene book that I…
ROCKETMAN (2019) So, I had heard that Rocketman was really good and that Bohemian Rhapsody was not so great, but I got them smashed together in my head—both flashy biopics of some of my favorite, classic singers/bands. I got to this one on my ever-growing list of movies to watch (when Spirited Away wasn’t available…
While my Christmas wish list includes things very pandemic—sweat pants and self-help books about anxiety—and things very me—roller skates, an old-fashioned bike, and about 600 cookbooks—it also includes plenty of things in the writerly and readerly vein. I thought, this year, I would make a list of great gifts for writers and for readers. Perhaps…
Well, I guess I liked it. As is often the case, I am torn after reading There, There by Tommy Orange. As is not often the case, I am of two minds myself. For a moment, I am in the camp with the Hemingway/PEN committee and the New York Times and all those many fans.…
