Summer weekends have so much promise and I’m ready to dive into this one. One of my planned events is to hit my new favorite bookstore, Commonplace Books, with my daughter. She got a gift card for her high school graduation and is dying to spend it! If you’re in the Oklahoma City area, I …
We reach another weekend and I can’t say I wasn’t ready for this one! Short weeks at work always seem so much longer than a normal five-day. A few things made the week pass a little more quickly. I caught up on my podcasts. I finally made it through S-Town. I’ll be honest. I …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
How do you know what is evil and what is good? Are there such distinctions? “Lair of Dreams” by Libba Bray explored some very deep issues and it made for an absorbing read. The flat out evil presented in “The Diviners” was terrifying and made for creepy late night moments, but “Lair of Dreams” presented …
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 …
I’ve been madly reading the Lady Emily Mystery series from Tasha Alexander over the last few weeks. According to my Goodreads shelf, I finished the first in the series in mid-August. So, I was very excited when I won an ARC from Goodreads of the ninth Lady Emily mystery that comes out in just a …
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