Book Review: You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson

I have been on a contemporary YA kick lately, and I have no regrets. You Should See Me in a Crown is a fabulous, joyful book that also deals with real issues, like all the very best YA novels. Liz is an intelligent, determined Black girl in a mostly white Midwestern town. She’s also a …

Review: The Human Son by Adrian J. Walker

I could not read today, you guys. I know there’s been a lot of that going around for stress-related reasons, but I couldn’t read today because I am still stuck in The Human Son. I cannot remember the last time I couldn’t start a new book because I was so busy reflecting on the last …

Review: Miss Austen by Gill Hornby

You guys, I finished a book! Last I checked in, I wasn’t even reading because I couldn’t focus. I’m not going to lie, there are small chunks of this book I just entirely missed. The one downside to audiobooks is that when you realize your mind glazed over a few minutes ago, it’s harder to …

The Care and Keeping of Me

We have been incredibly lucky. Until today, my husband’s and my jobs were totally unaffected by the pandemic; they were perhaps a bit busier than normal. We have everything we need, and so far my children have not gone without anything. We are all healthy. I am in that gratitude. But per a county “Stay …

Review: Cuddle Monkey by Blake Liliane Hellman

Cuddle Monkey is an adorable picture book. Lewis really loves to cuddle, and these are his adventures in search of the cuddles. The pictures are sparse, but cute. It’s just the right amount of words for the younger set. I don’t know about your kids, but my boys are all world champion cuddlers, so they …

Review: Good Night Unicorns by Adam Gamble and Mark Jasper

I love this little board book. Good Night Unicorns goes throughout the day with, you guessed it, unicorns. The pictures are bright and engaging enough for Little Brother. There’s just the right amount of words for Middle Brother. Especially in this very weird time, it’s a soothing book for the little ones in your life. …

Love in the Time of Coronavirus

You haven’t been seeing a lot of posts from me lately. You haven’t been seeing them because I haven’t been reading. I’ve been listening to music in the car instead of my audiobooks. I’ve been looking at social media in the evening instead of reading my physical books. There are a lot of reasons for …

Review: Where We Go from Here by Lucas Rocha

Where We Go from Here is a powerful debut novel about three gay teens in Brazil dealing with HIV in various ways. The author spent some time working with a nonprofit that dealt with distributing antiretroviral medications in Brazil, which got him to thinking about all the damage done by public misconceptions about the disease. …

Review: Lakewood by Megan Giddings

First off, I listened to this book as an audiobook, so a note on the narrator: She narrated a middle school child on Look Both Ways, which I listened to not that long ago, so it took me a long time to not think of this book’s main character as a child. She does a …