I’ve never read anything by Jodi Picoult. Her stuff always seemed a little cheesy to me. But, one of my book clubs is reading Small Great Things this month so I gave it a go. I was right. I hate read this in its entirety and you’ll enjoy my rambling, disconnected diatribe on why it sucked. Small Great Things is the story of Ruth Jefferson, a 40-something African-American nurse in New Haven, CT; she is a 20-year veteran of the L&D ward and quite good […]
Nothing to do with turtles, really
I don’t profess to be the picture of mental health, but overall I’d say I don’t have a lot of experience with depression, anxiety, or any other mental disorders. Maybe it’s my WASPy suppressive tendencies? In our YA book club, the woman who suggested John Green’s Turtles All the Way Down described it as “the best depiction of anxiety” she’d ever seen, so I was intrigued. Turtles tells the story of Aza, a young woman dealing (poorly, but trying) with serious anxiety and OCD. Aza’s […]
Random Pennyroyal Green Selection
I’ve read another book since having finished Julie Anne Long’s It Happened One Midnight, so I have forgotten some of the particulars, but I enjoyed another entry of the Pennyroyal Green series that seems so endless. This particular book, the eighth, is the story of Jonathan Redmond (third son of an aristocrat of unremembered rank) and Thomasina de Bellesteros, a popular, mysterious and attractive women who entertains in an eccentric Countess’ salon every week. Jonathan Redmond is a rake, or so his character description and […]
Pirates, Forbidden Love and a Quest
Mackenzi Lee’s The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue is ripe for film or TV adaptation and is something I totally would have loved reading as a teenager. However, I am older than Lee’s target audience and still enjoyed the ride, but with some prudish gasps and doubts interspersed here and there. Guide is the story of young Henry Montague, the oldest son of an earl, bound for the traditional continental tour young men would take prior to settling down, with his best friend Percy […]