I love historical fiction and historical romances are by far one of my most guilty pleasures. With this book’s setting, Seattle—a city near and dear to me—I was hooked. The story is set in Seattle 1889, the year of the great fire that leveled Seattle and thus began its rebuild on a grid, raising it higher above the tideline and the final fixing of the sewers so that the privvys didn’t gush at high tide. Simple things. Our heroine is an actual seamstress, as opposed […]
When When the Emperor was Divine was just Ok
This is one of the okayest books I have ever read. That sounds mean maybe, and I am not trying be, but that’s what it is. At the end, I was like, yes ok, I read that. That book. The one I read. The story is about Japanese Internment, with especial focus on the order, the disappearance of a father, the children affected, and the accompanying racist milieu in the country at large. This is obviously a relevant topic today for plenty of reasons. We […]
Recommended by many Middle-School Students
I have a standing (almost never used ) policy with my students that if they tell me about a book or bring me a book I will read it and talk with them about it. Ideally, they will write me a paragraph explaining why they like it or why they want to share it. This is one of those books. It’s interesting because this particular student is really sweet and funny, but not necessarily always engaged in class or has shown this kind of initiative […]
Fortunately, I am mighty!
IT’S HERE! IT’S HERE!! IT’S FINALLY HERE!!! *Ahem* Apologies, but I have a lot of feelings about Neil Gaiman’s books, and it seems like this one was announced 742 years ago. However, I got my hands on it a week and half before the official release date, because I’m bullshit lucky and someone at my local bookstore put it on the shelves early. One of my favourite books in recent years was Philip Pullman’s retelling of some classic fairy tales, Fairy Tales from the Brothers […]