“Shall we make a new rule of life…always to try to be a little kinder than is necessary?” (299) Just the other day, we were talking at work about the hardest times for kids as they grow up. I said, unequivocally, that middle school was the worst for me. I didn’t have a particularly bad time of it, but I think there was a reason I had a spate of migraines during middle school. Middle school kids have an astounding capacity for cruelty. August Pullman, […]
From Homeless to Harvard
I first heard of this book when my mom mentioned that she’d stayed up all night reading it. This was a couple of years ago, but my mom’s strong reaction to the book made an impression on me. Breaking Night: A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival, and My Journey From Homeless to Harvard (2010) by Liz Murray is pretty much exactly what it looks like from the title. It is a memoir by the author of her childhood and teen years in the Bronx. I found this book […]
Walk right into a different world
Every Heart a Doorway (2016) by Seanan McGuire was a book I had not heard of and probably wouldn’t have chosen to read if left to myself. I would probably call it a young adult coming-of-age novella with fantasy elements. The reason I finally picked this up was because a friend of mine kept doggedly recommending it to our book club, month after month, until I could hardly say no. Nancy is a brooding teenager, recently brought by her parents to Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward […]
Old-fashioned romance
I’d heard that Venetia (1958) by Georgette Heyer is a classic of the romance genre, as well as reminiscent of Jane Austen. I wasn’t sure it could live up to that kind of hype, but I was willing to give it a try. One thing that made me nervous about this novel is that it was written in the 1950’s–not exactly a banner decade for women. I was afraid the old-fashioned mindset would be reflected in the novel. Fortunately, for the most part, this was not true, […]