The Brunch Shift by Adrienne Thurman
When reading a book, you always start with the cover. When I saw it as an online reader, the cover image was just a thumbnail for The Brunch Shift. I did not think I was going to like it based on the cover alone as unfortunately, there did not seem to be anything grabbing me. I figured I knew the story, “Mom was at the restaurant while the child was home with dad or grandparent (other adult) and waiting. It would be a story about […]
Lessons in Magic and Disaster by Charlie Jane Anders
Lessons in Magic and Disaster has been so hard to review because my response to it has been deeply personal. It’s an achingly beautiful book. The ache starts in the opening paragraph, Jamie has never known what to say to her mother. And now–when it matters most of all, when she’s on a rescue mission–she knows even less.” Jamie discovered as a child that she could do magic. If she found a spot in nature at the intersection of cultivated and abandoned, and wished for […]
Saudade: Our Longing for Brazil, by Ana Crespo and André Ceolin
Older books are just as good as a current book or a future publication book. Because, Hello … BOOK! Books are things we long for! Hope for! Need! Now, I am not sure if it fits the definition of saudade (a word that has no real direct to English translation, but basically means “an intense longing for something or someone.”) What is saudade, is the mothers feeling in the story Saudade: Our Longing for Brazil, for the things she left behind in Brazil. Ana Crespo, […]
The Frame-Up by Gwenda Bond
I do love a heist, and Gwenda Bond’s The Frame-Up is a good story wrapped around a heist. I think it’s a standalone, but I would not say no to more of this crew doing their version of a heist with magic in the future. Dani Poissant has been working solo in the decade since she turned her art thief mother in to the FBI. She’s a Robin Hood style grifter – targeting bad people, taking their money, and giving a big chunk of it to […]
Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth by Sarah Smarsh
It wasn’t all bad, that poor rural place. Though money was scarce, you would have had your basic needs met because we knew how to grow and build things. ― Sarah Smarsh, Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth I am grateful for my early life, and I wouldn’t wish it on any child. ― Sarah Smarsh, Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth The women I knew were […]
The Mountains of Mourning by Lois McMaster Bujold
“These hill-folk are ignorant, lord.” “These hill-folk are mine, Pym. Their ignorance is…a shame upon my house. Their continued ignorance anyway,” he amended in fairness. It still made a burden like a mountain. “Is this message so complex? So difficult? ‘You don’t have to kill your children anymore.’ It’s not like we’re asking them all to learn–5-space navigational math.” That had been the plague of Miles’s last Academy semester. “It’s not easy for them,” shrugged Dea. “It’s easy for the central authorities to make the […]
