Well, I couldn’t have chosen a better book to raise my spirits in these trying times. Cece Bell’s Newbery Honor-winning graphic novel is pitched toward kids but will entertain and educate anyone who picks it up. El Deafo is Bell’s account of losing her hearing but finding her power in her childhood. I am the parent of two special needs kids, one of whom wears a hearing aid, and I found myself saying, “wow, I never thought of that,” as Bell recounts what it was […]
Happy Birthday, Zora Neale Hurston!
Thanks to Bonnie for sending me this book for the Cannonball holiday book exchange! Their Eyes Were Watching God is a love story and an odyssey. It is a feminist story about a woman named Janie who struggles to live the life that she desires, to fulfill her own dreams instead of being trapped in others’ dreams. In telling this story Zora Neale Hurston employed a language new to African American literature — the vernacular, the genuine language of African American communities, particularly of women. […]
To the lighthouse (I can’t come up with a better or more poetic title than that)
“What is the meaning of life? That was all- a simple question; one that tended to close in on one with years, the great revelation had never come. The great revelation perhaps never did come. Instead, there were little daily miracles, illuminations, matches struck unexpectedly in the dark; here was one.” In the summer, a family travels to a house on the top of a hill with the view of a lighthouse. A woman and her son look out to the lighthouse. He wants to […]
Being in one’s body
Dust Bath Revival is a book in which magic and history and Florida and science all get scrunched up and then smoothed out again into a shape neither the reader nor Hank can anticipate. It’s a dark and fascinating ride. Henrietta Goodness — but for the love of little green apples call her Hank — is not your average heroine. But then, Dust Bath Revival is not your average book; sure, there are zombies but these aren’t your grandfather’s zombies and they aren’t necessarily the […]
We Were Alright
I picked this up solely because I adored the title. The cover seemed calm and mysterious as it stood there on the library shelf. I wasn’t in the market for new books to read, but I thought “eh why not?” Unfortunately I never came to love we were liars. It was a pleasant enough read, short and light. I, however, was expecting a beautiful slow read about families and secrets and the special bonds formed when people grow up together. It wasn’t. Instead it was […]
Theology 101
All ways of living can be sanctified, and for each individual, the ideal way is that to which our Lord leads him through the natural development of his tastes and the pressure of circumstances. ~ Tielhard de Chardin Another step along my literary walk of shame. How am I only just now reading this Pulitzer and National Book Award winner that Spielberg made into a movie starring Whoopie and Oprah? While it deals with hard subject matter (rape, incest, racism, misogyny — just like the […]
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