What do Pearl Cleage, Edwidge Danticat, James McBride, and Cheryl Strayed have in common–other than being published, successful writers? They are four of the twenty writers whose names stand out brightly against the backdrop of a colorful (though dated-and-insipid-for-2016) cover of Why We Write about Ourselves: Twenty Memoirists on Why They Expose Themselves (and Others) in the Name of Literature (2016), one of the best collections on writing around, edited by Meredith Moran. Read the full review.
Spindle–Not Cabot–Cove
Having read this title three months ago, I do remember enjoying it. Victor Bramwell, newly titled Earl of Rycliff, is a stubborn man but finds his match in Susanna, a woman way ahead of her time: She is an independent woman, and dare I say, a feminist (pun unintended). Together and apart, they are both fully fleshed characters. A Night to Surrender is a better than average romance with a cast of likable and intriguing supporting characters (particularly Corporal Thorne) whose stories I’m interested in knowing from […]
My Review: “Meh”
I didn’t love Rose Lerner’s Sweet Disorder (2014) as much as Ellepkay did, though her wonderful review is what sold me on reading it. Nonetheless, she is correct in identifying the nonstandard aspects of this romance as being its main appeal. Read the full review.
GFY Sizzle
New to reading m/m romances, I was taken aback by the raw, coarse, and descriptive language of Nick and Bryce’s sexual encounters, which seemed to occur at about every other page after the initial friendship building set up. As a result, I certainly got some updated sex education reading Crossroads, a Gay-for-You romance. Read the full review.
Challenging Stereotypes: The Crossover
Other than his vibrant use of language, a strong narrative voice, and his realistic portrayal of the speed, heat, and energy of basketball, Kwame Alexander’s The Crossover (2014) is wonderful because it challenges the “single stories” of black life related in many books: It isn’t about impoverished black boys from a single parent female-headed household living in a crime-ridden neighborhood who play basketball to escape. Rather, it is a universal story of growing up, of family, and of love told in narrative verse (poetry). Read the full […]
The Definitive Titanic
To date, I have not watched even one minute of James Cameron’s historic blockbuster, Titanic (1998). I may be one of the few, for even my 12-13 year-old students have seen it and have recommended it to me. While it irritates me that Kate and Leo and Cameron’s Titanic are cemented in their mind as the definitive Titanic story, I can appreciate the fact that the film provides them with an anchor for visualizing and understanding the events detailed in Walter Lord’s A Night to Remember (1955), truly […]
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