“Behold the Dreamers” is one of those books I appreciated but didn’t always enjoy. It’s very frank in its portrayal of the characters in which they are all flawed, yet very real. I enjoyed and disliked this as I tend to “escape” into books and I don’t always like having to dislike a character all the while recognizing that the character could very well be someone I’ve met in real life. In this sense I’d say Mbue’s art reflected life. The novel focuses on Jende […]
The Power of Stories
“Eva Luna” is the story of a young woman who grows up in turn of the century [insert Central/South American country here]. We are never given the name of the nation in which this story is based, but there are many hints and my personal prediction is that this is set in either Chile or Argentina. Anyways, Eva Luna, the character, finds out that while her life is chaotic and seemingly destined to a live in service, she finds that she has a knack for […]
Maybe she does, maybe she doesn’t, but is that for us to decide?
The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes is the original Adrian Simcox Does NOT Have a Horse by Marcy Campbell. Written over 60 years ago, The Hundred Dresses, addresses the theme of bullies and the fact that kids want to fit in and will tell a tall tale or two to try and do so. Both books deal with these and a few other issues. As in Adrian (who is poor, wants friends and tells a pretty tall-tale about having a horse) The Hundred Dresses sees […]
“Sometimes people have to be allowed to have something to live for in order to survive everything else.”
Last year, after I read A Man Called Ove, I tried to get my hands on everything Fredrik Backman had written. Including Bear Town. I read it but didn’t review it. I couldn’t quite figure out what I wanted to say about it…that it was a good book that filled me with dread every time I picked it up? That I didn’t enjoy it but acknowledged that it was great? That, as the parent of a teenage girl, it scared me to death? I wasn’t […]