Biblio Reviews

Living to the age of 100 has never appealed to me. However, from a historical standpoint, I am fascinated by knowing that people are still alive today who have seen the world transform and advance in ways that may have been perceived as fantasy/science fiction. When I think of the advancements in technology in the last twenty years, alone, I am am left in wonder. What must Beverly Cleary, Cicely Tyson, or Betty White make of the world they're living in today in comparison to the one they grew up in? Is their desire to remain in this world stronger than their desire to depart from it? Which aspect of this new world fascinates them? Inspires them? Depresses them? Do they view their long life as a blessing--or a curse? Based on their experiences and given the chance to, would they--we--choose to live forever? The question of immortality--blessing or curse--is at the center of Natalie Babbitt's classic,  Tuck Everlasting  (1975), a fantasy children's novel about 10-year-o

"To each, his own," I say when it comes to runaway bestseller  The Woman in the Window  (2018) ,  the debut novel of A.J. Finn. A "thriller," the story is that of agoraphobe, former child psychologist Anna Fox who spies on her neighbors. When she witnesses a murder, she becomes entangled in a film noir much like the ones of which she is a fan. Attempting to deal with her own guilt and trauma, Anna self medicates by guzzling bottles of Merlot mixed with prescriptions with heavy side effects. As a result, she lacks credibility when she reports what she witnessed and is quickly dismissed by authorities. Therein begins the "suspense," for Anna is now in danger with no allies to rely on. This book did not work for me for various reasons. The pacing: very slow. I understand that Finn was trying to mimic the pacing of the noir films that he, himself, and the character love, but good grief! I did not need thirty-plus chapters dedicated to background. I did not

Emergency Contact (2018), the debut novel by Mary H. K. Choi, is a book I judged by its beautiful cover: a soft pink backdrop, a female and male in near fetal position, back to back, staring into their cell phone in perfect contrast along with a cursive title in gold superimposed at center over both characters. The cover is perfect in balance and harmony--unfortunately, the story is not. Snarky, angst-filled, anti-social Penny Lee is a freshman with mommy issues at the University of Texas. On a forced excursion out with her roommate to a local coffee shop, she meets Sam, who works there. Penny immediately falls for him. Sam, homeless and slightly older, has in own serious life problems to get through, so Penny isn't immediately on his radar.  After a disorienting experience for both, they exchange numbers and become each other's "emergency contact," a person to talk to in moments of crisis, and develop their relationship over text messages. In the end, they get tog

I have been on a great reading streak in the past week, so much so that I find myself in a state of squee. Currently Reading: The Song of Achilles  (2012) by Madeline Miller The Sun Is Also a Star  (2016) by Nicola Yoon Recently Finished: Rebound  (2018) by Kwame Alexander Eleanor & Park  (2013)   by Rainbow Rowell The Song of Achilles  is so good that I'm getting butterflies in my stomach as I read it. I want to consume and savor its beauty. At the same time, there's also the lingering butterflies from  Eleanor & Park,  which I finished a couple of days ago. Why had it taken me so long to read it?! I read an e-reader version but then went on to buy the hard copy today so I could re-read my favorite parts easily. Taking a pause from each book to read the other has been maddening--but oh so deliciously satisfying! Reviews for all these book and others should be coming, though I've found that the more I love a book, the more challenging it is to wri

Love is that which alters when it alteration finds best sums up Sophie Love's five-book (and counting) series, The Romance Chronicles, which chronicles 28-year old Keira Swanson's whirlwind romances while on assignment as a travel writer for Viatorum, a cosmopolitan lifestyle magazine based in New York City. When readers meet Keira for the first time in  Love Like This (2017), she is at a crossroads in both her personal and professional life: she's living with her boyfriend of two years and wants more; she works at her dream job but is simply a role player desperate to be a superstar. Keira gets her lucky break when her boss gets injured and she is given the coveted assignment--just when she and her deceitful boyfriend have a fall out. Thus begins Keira's professional and romantic world tour. Destination one is Ireland, a thirty day escapade documenting the legendary Lisdoonvarna Festival of Love--to prove that true love does not exist. The story that follows is..

Had I the financial means, I often think I'd be quite content living as a recluse. I prefer spending personal time in solitude. I attribute this to being an introvert, though that is possibly an excuse. This introversion and desire to minimize social interaction on a need-to basis may explain why, to date, I have never had a social media account and have absolutely no interest in doing so. Jon Ronson's  So You Have Been Publicly Shamed  (2015) only strengthens my resolve. Zooming in to the experiences of Justine Sacco and Jonah Lehrer while peppering other relevant anecdotes throughout, Ronson examines and details what he considers to be a resurgence of public shaming, which has historically been used as a form of social control. Ronson argues that this revival of the form, however, is unprecedented in that the viral nature of public shaming via social media, particularly Twitter, has catastrophic effects unlike anything experienced before in history. Informative and enga