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Strange the Dreamer

December 11, 2023

strange

The unconscious mind is open terrain—no walls or barriers, for better or worse. Thoughts and feelings are free to wander, like characters leaving their books to taste life in other stories. Terrors roam, and so do yearnings. Secrets are turned out like pockets, and old memories meet new…The only rule is that there are no rules. A young man who dreams of a blue goddess at ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: fantasy, young adult

Check & Mate

December 8, 2023

check

Mallory is only 18 but she already has an unwanted reputation. She’s the only person to have beaten Nolan Sawyer, the 20-year-old World Chess Champion who hasn’t lost in over three years. Some would be thrilled, but Mallory hates chess and hasn’t played since that infamous game. This is the board upon which Ali Hazelwood arranges her players in Check & Mate, a young adult ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary life, rom-com, young adult

True Biz by Sara Novic

March 17, 2023

true biz

So much of today’s zeitgeist revolves around the much needed recognition of vulnerable communities, but what about acknowledgement for the community that can’t hear? Sara Novic explores the realities of deaf life in her riveting novel True Biz. Set at the River Valley School for the Deaf boarding school, the novel encompasses the lives of the school’s headmistress and those of ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, contemporary life, cultural, social issues, young adult

Daughter of Smoke & Bone

June 13, 2022

daughter

I don’t know about the rest of you, but it’s requiring more and more effort to calm my reading brain. Between watching the real footage of the January 6th insurrection and trying to negotiate a cross country move I was as finicky and unhappy as a baby with colic. Nothing helped—not bright and shiny or smooth and slow—so I tossed all my preferences out the window and went with ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: fantasy, young adult

Firekeeper’s Daughter: A Novel

November 12, 2021

firekeeper

As a biracial member of the Ojibwe tribe Daunis Fontaine lives in the uncomfortable in-between space of not belonging to any one community. What bought her acceptance from everyone were her  incredible skills as a hockey player. After graduating high school she was looking forward to a bright future as a player at the University of Michigan until family events caused her to ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: cultural, debut, mystery, Native Americans, young adult

The House in the Cerulean Sea

January 11, 2021

cerulean

Often when it’s time to begin a book review I try and draw from the facts—plot, place, biographical details. Because I read so much (and don’t have the discipline I should) specifics tend to blur by the time I sit down to write so in starting there I bring the book back to me. All of that is moot when it comes to novels like The House in the Cerulean Sea. I can sum up the book ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, children, fantasy, young adult

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