Word by Word

Creating myself one word at a time.

We’ve entered the spring season and are quickly moving toward the beach read high point for the year. Summer book clubs, summer reading lists and all that jazz abound. Well, I have one for you to add to the list. And you’ll want to do is quickly because the sequel comes out July 4th. Catch …

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You want a reminder to change your passwords? Read The Takedown by Corrie Wang. Then, after 50 pages, you’ll want to go “off the grid.” Seriously though, the levels Wang achieved with The Takedown were fantastic and she did it all while telling a wonderful story. Before we dig in though, a quick recap. Welcome …

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There has been a lot of discourse about the roles women have been forced to play throughout the course of history. Mother. Daughter. Sister. Saint. Boxes were created and women were placed neatly into them. Those who didn’t fit neatly into those boxes were given other names. Names meant to carry very negative labels. Trouble …

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I would have finished this book much quicker if life had not gotten in my way! I really enjoyed Lonsdale’s story in this women’s fiction, magical realism crossover. While the setting was very west coast and of the ocean, the elements of her story reminded me a lot of Sarah Addison Allen’s books. There were …

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For any reader of a book series, the ultimate payoff is evolving with the characters of the books. Watching events and situations unfold over a number of tales, so that by the time you get to the eleventh book the characters, and thus the reader, are in a very different place. In Tasha Alexander’s eleventh …

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I’m late to the fan base for A Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. I’ve had this book on my “to be read” list for many years, along with others that I will get to soon! Recently, my high school senior shared that this is her favorite book, so much so that her …

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One of the reasons I love historical fiction is how it sheds light and reality on our ancestors—that’s if it’s done the right way. We spend so much time thinking about the “good old days.” People have always been nuanced, imperfect and life has never been white and black.   In the novel Hanging Mary …

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Books

The feeling I have this week must be the same feeling kids in my junior high had when they were chosen first for [insert any group sport]. I joined NetGalley and will now be reviewing books for publishers as they are published. I. AM. SO. EXCITED. The special feels. They are so great. Those of …

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Haunted Library book

I don’t remember what I was reading in first grade…or second…not even third. I begin to have vague recollections around fourth with Roald Dahl’s The BFG and The Babysitter’s Club books. There is nightly tradition in my house. My son and I curl up in my bed with the book we’re currently reading together. We …

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City of Jasmine

It was one of those books where you let out a pleasant sigh at the end. Or maybe you’re panting from the non-stop action. Can a book’s ending ever give you both? If it can, then “City of Jasmine” is that book. I stumbled upon Deanna Raybourn’s book “Night of a Thousand Stars” late in …

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