Believe the hype. This book is as good as everybody says it is. From its elegant front cover to its subtly devastating back cover (of a barely visible, faceless, brown-skinned young man) this book had me riveted. Sixteen-year-old Starr attends a party she shouldn’t (her parents would freak) with a friend she barely knows anymore.…Continue reading Book Review: The Hate U Give
Category: Grown-up books
Book review: The Bitch Is Back
Great title, right? Perfect for on A Day Without a Woman, when women around the country are marching, striking, and celebrating women’s work and accomplishments (by showing what happens if we step away, Lysistrata-style). I’m home with a sick kid today, so I’m celebrating women by wearing red (and my 1 Billion Rising t-shirt) and…Continue reading Book review: The Bitch Is Back
Book review: March
Happy African-American History Month! To celebrate, check out the #1 New York Times and Washington Post Bestseller March by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell, winner of: National Book Award for Young People’s Literature Coretta Scott King (Author) Book Award, which recognizes an African American author of a book for kids Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in young-adult literature…Continue reading Book review: March
Book review: Shirley Jackson, A Rather Haunted Life
I just finished Ruth Franklin’s marvelous biography Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life, which would make a great gift for writer-mamas. Best known for her short story “The Lottery,” Jackson wrote six novels–one of which was nominated for a National Book Award and another made into a movie–five story collections, four children’s books, and two…Continue reading Book review: Shirley Jackson, A Rather Haunted Life
Book review: Brown Girl Dreaming
How did I not know that Jacqueline Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming was a book in verse?! Highly awarded, this memoir (in verse!) describes the author’s childhood in the 1960’s and ’70s in Iowa, South Carolina, and Brooklyn. Woodson paints portraits of places and people with spare-yet-lush poetic language. Each poem could stand alone, some moreso…Continue reading Book review: Brown Girl Dreaming