I think most of us know Retta from Parks and Rec, where she played Donna Meagle and was part of the TREAT YO SELF phenomenon of 2011. I also knew she loved the LA Kings and Hamilton, but really didn’t know much else about her before listening to her audiobook. Now I know a lot about her…but I still don’t really feel like I know her. RETTA, WHO ARE YOU? You love handbags. You love your hardworking, immigrant parents. You love Duke University. You are […]
A lovely fairy tale that came at just the right time
I am quite sure I found a review of this book on the CBR site, and it sounded like a lovely warm book to read in what has been a challenging few weeks. It’s a Newberry Award winning young adult book, filled with emotion and magic and love. The book began much like a traditional Brothers Grimm fairytale; a village needs to leave it’s youngest child in the forest on a certain day every year, an offering to an evil witch so that she leaves […]
The Ballad of the Reluctant Hero
I have always loved ancient myths, I read every book of myths from every single part of the world I could get my hands on as a kid. Being that I grew up in the Western World this mostly meant Greek Myths. While I could find a couple Chinese, and Korean, and Indian myth books in my local libraries, and there were several on Norse and Celtic mythology as well, all of these were far outnumbered by the books of Greek and Roman myths and […]
Life is Simple, Except When it Isn’t.
This book is amazing. I love this book. I am so glad I stumbled across this looking for something to fill up my bingo card. Magical realism is one of my absolute favorite story telling devices when it is done well, and this is such a perfect example of what it can really do. This is the story of Jojo’s family. Jojo is a thirteen-year-old mixed race boy growing up in the current day South and straddling that realm in between boyhood and adulthood. He […]