Last month, Trevor Noah interviewed Jason Reynolds on the Daily Show and even before I had read any of his books, I became a fan. He talked about writing, reading, and young people in a powerful way and made a strong argument for the need to write books that would have spoken to him as a young teen growing up in the inner city. I’ve been a follower of the We Need Diverse Books organization and without mentioning the hashtag, Reynolds made their argument with […]
Again, I could not begin to connect these. Except I got a new kitten and as I was sequestered with her keeping the dog out, these are some of the things I read.
North Station: 4/5 Stars This is an interesting collection of longish short fiction by the Korean writer Bae Suah. It’s a recent translation (actually maybe brand new) from the University of Rochester imprint “Open Letter” and I received a subscription to their press as a gift from my old colleagues. This book presents a really interesting set of questions for me. I have read a few different books by Korean authors, but not many at all. In fact, I think it would be true that […]
The key to great horror
Okay so, the version of this I added to my audiobook queue actually turned out to be the audio drama version, which I was not expecting. Thus there’s a chance it’s a bit different than the printed version due to the fact it was all told in dialogue. However, I will definitely say if you can get your hands on the audio drama, grab it. The voice acting was great and had some decent talent behind it (including Haley Joel Osment and Stephen King). […]
You Can’t Run from Your Past
“Running ain’t nothing I ever had to practice. It’s just something I knew how to do,” explains Castle “Ghost” Cranshaw from Jason Reynolds’s National Book Award finalist Ghost (2016) when he comes across a track practice on his meandering run home from school one afternoon. A seventh grader, Ghost also has “a lot of scream in him” that has resulted in many altercations at school that have put him on a path to delinquency. Read the full review.