Biblio Reviews

At the halfway point of reading Aurélie Valognes's debut  Out of Sorts  (2016), my mind took me to Rose's dream sequence in the Golden Girls' season 1 episode "A Little Romance." It was a farcical scene that brought on much laughter mostly because of the brilliance of the four actors. As an audience member, I could follow along because the set up had been clear. I was in on the joke. That wasn't the case when I got to the midpoint of  Out of Sorts . I started to wonder whether I had wandered into a dream sequence and had missed the cues that set up the ridiculousness of the events that occurred. Nope, no such misses, so it was also at that point that I wanted what started out as a quirky but entertaining read to just freaking end. Set in France,  Out of Sorts  is a quick-read that can best be described as a madcap of a story about Ferdinand Brun, a miserable octogenarian who eventually learns to open his heart and get involved with life. These changes are ...

All of the books in the pile were for my classroom library, and I was four dollars short from getting the loyalty card stamp at my favorite independent book store. So back to the shelves it was so I could meet the minimum $30 purchase stamp. It took a while, but I finally settled on an author and genre of romance I'd never read: Beverly Jenkins and African American historical romance. The selection turned out to be a satisfying one. Set in 1881, Beverly Jenkins'  Jewel  (2009) is the story of Jewel Crowley and Eli Grayson of bucolic Grayson Grove, Michigan, an all-Black township established in the 1830's by Eli's grandparents. Lifelong residents of the town, the romance brews when Eli, founder and editor of the defunct  The Gazette,  begs Jewel to pose as his wife for a day to seal the deal with newspaper magnate G.W. Hicks who wishes to revive The Gazette  by adding it to his holdings. Conflict arises when Hicks announces to the surprised town folks...