Halbs – Page 27 – Cannonball Read 17

A Warm Blanket of a YA Rom-Com. You’ve Got Mail 3000

Tweet Cute by Emma Lord

March 19, 2020 by Halbs Leave a Comment

This YA novel has everything: tweeting twins, grilled cheese sandwiches, Nashville girls baking feminist desserts, dive teams, teens crying, and celebrity endorsements. Tweet Cute by Emma Lord centers around Pepper and Jack, two high school seniors attending a swanky private school in Manhattan. While they live in a Gossip Girl-like world of swanky luxury, things don’t feel luxurious to the main characters. Pepper is a Nashville transplant, unsure of her place in NYC and in her own family. Her parents are recently divorced. Her father stayed in Nashville, […]

Some More Ontology, Just for Fun

The Courage To Be by Paul Tillich

March 11, 2020 by Halbs Leave a Comment

I’m by no means a philosophy expert! That being said, my hope is to become more conversant in the “love of wisdom” in order to live a better life. As mentioned in a previous post, I started reading theologian-philosopher Tillich because MLK read Tillich. MLK even critiqued him as a major part of his doctoral work. I grabbed The Courage to Be, my second Tillich book, from the library just because it was what they happened to have on the shelf while I was browsing. […]

“The truth can be seen. Directly. The question is, are you willing to accept what it tells you?”

The Secret History of Twin Peaks: A Novel by The Secret History of Twin Peaks: A Novel

March 11, 2020 by Halbs 1 Comment

Man, what a fun ride this was! The Secret History of Twin Peaks is technically a book, in that it’s a bound collection of pages. But what you’re buying is really more of a mystery kit. Rather than reading like a novel, Twin Peaks co-creator Mark Frost has assembled a collection of photos, news articles, top secret files, journal entries, letters, and a mysterious dossier. The reader sorts through all of the documents side by side with an FBI agent whose presence is made known […]

Monsters and Heroes

The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick by Mallory O'Meara

March 7, 2020 by Halbs 1 Comment

While I’ve been excited to read this book since it came out a year ago, it was only recently that I was finally able to snag a copy from my library. This is probably because of the book’s myriad awards, and because it’s good. The timing works out pretty nicely, though, as this is a great read for Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day (which is tomorrow, at the time I write this). I have to admit that I didn’t fully understand the title […]

An Undergrad Course on Liking Music

Why You Like It: The Science and Culture of Musical Taste by Nolan Gasser

March 6, 2020 by Halbs Leave a Comment

When I reviewed Sixsmith’s Russia I mentioned that it was sometimes classified as a textbook, even though the narrative style made it much easier to read than a traditional history text. Unfortunately, this book is the opposite of that. Even though the book is admittedly dry at times and full of nerdy digressions, it is still a worthwhile endeavour for zealous music fans, even if just as a collection of various philosophies and studies of music. The biggest thing going for the book is the […]

Blair Underwood Presents….Tennyson Hardwick!

Casanegra by Blair Underwood, Steven Barnes, Tananarive Due

February 25, 2020 by Halbs Leave a Comment

Black writers are woefully underrepresented in my Goodreads lists, and so I’m trying to add more African American authors to my regular readings, as well as black authors from around the world. My local librarians mentioned to me that Steven Barnes is a great sci-fi writer. When I was browsing his books I found out that he and his spouse Ms. Due have worked with actor Blair Underwood on this hard-boiled mystery/thriller series around a character called Tennyson Hardwick. Ten is the son of a […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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