Title: This Impossible Brightness Writer: Jessica Bryant Klagmann Publishing House: Lake Union Publishing Date of Publication: February 1, 2024 Rating: 5 stars ‘’I always wonder, isn’t being a good listener worth anything? Can’t you do something good for the world without standing in a crowd or shouting from a podium?’’ In a future that may…
Tag: American Literature
Find Me in California
Title: Find Me In California Writer: Kerry Lonsdale Publishing House: Lake Union Publishing Date of Publication: June 11, 2024 Rating: 5 stars Matt and Julia have more in common than meets the eye. Both use their careers as an anchor to the reality around them, both have been facing family issues all their lives and…
The Christmas Kid and Other Brooklyn Stories
Title: The Christmas Kid and Other Brooklyn Stories Writer: Pete Hamill Publishing House: Little, Brown and Company Date of Publication: October 30, 2012 Rating: 5 stars ‘’In that lost city of memory, the wind is always blowing hard from the harbor and the snow is packed tightly on the hills of Prospect Park. They are…
The White Priory Murders – A Mystery for Christmas
Title: The White Priory Murders: A Mystery for Christmas Writer: John Dickson Carr Publishing House: British Library Crime Classics Date of Publication: October 10, 2022 (January 1, 1934) Rating: 3 stars ‘’H.M.’s room, spacious in decayed finery, is in the most ancient part of the damp old rabbit-warren, once a part of Whitehall Palace: it looks…
A Cathedral of Myth and Bone
Title: A Cathedral of Myth and Bone Writer: Kat Howard Publishing House: Saga Press Date of Publication: January 8, 2019 Rating: 5 stars ‘’My own curse had been silence. It’s common enough, particularly for girls. We’re so often encouraged not to speak, and that practiced quiet makes it easy for a curse to steal our…
Lotería
Title: Loteria Writer: Cynthia Pelayo Publishing House: Agora Books Date of Publication: February 21, 2023 Rating: 5 stars ‘’In a few hours I will take you with me on the journey to the other world because I can’t leave you, not ever again.’’ In a game of Loteria, there is a multitude of paths one…
White Fur
Title: White Fur Writer: Jardine Libaire Publishing House: Weidenfeld & Nicolson Date of Publication: May 30, 2017 Rating: 5 stars ‘’I’ll do anything in the world for you.’’ Elise and Jamey meet in New Haven in 1986. It doesn’t matter whether theirs is ‘love at first sight’ or not. The bond swiftly developed between them…
Haunters at the Hearth: Eerie Tales For Christmas Nights
Title: Haunters at the Hearth: Eerie Tales for Christmas Nights Writer: Various edited by Tanya Kirk Publishing House: British Library (Tales of the Weird) Date of Publication: October 2022 Rating: 5 stars ”There was a little snow on the ground, and the church clock had just struck midnight. Hampstead in the night of winter for…
Ghosts of Christmas Past
Title: Ghosts of Christmas Past Writer: Various edited by Tim Martin Publishing House: John Murray Date of Publication: October 19th 2017 Rating: 5 stars ”And what a long night it is, out there beyond the warm rooms and the firelight. Don’t worry about the noises. Ignore the moving shapes. It’s time to step out. Turn…
The Dutch House
Title: The Dutch House Writer: Ann Patchett Publishing House:Bloomsbury Publishing Date of Publication: September 24th 2019 Rating: 5 stars ‘’If you lived in Jenkintown in 1968 or went to school at Choate, chances were good you’d cross paths with most of the people there eventually, even if just to nod and say hello, but New…
The Lottery and Other Stories
Title: The Lottery and Other Stories Writer: Shirley Jackson Publishing House: Penguin Modern Classics Date of Publication: October 2009 Rating: 5 stars ”The only town lights were the street lights, the lights in the all-night lunchstand across the street, and the one remaining counter lamp in the bus station where the girl sat in the…
The Dovekeepers
Title: The Dovekeepers Writer: Alice Hoffman Publishing House: Simon and Schuster Date of Publication: October 4th 2011 Rating: 5 stars ”We came like doves across the desert. In a time when there was nothing but death, we were grateful for anything, and most grateful of all when we awoke to another day.” Yael. A woman…
How to Make Paper When the World is Ending
Title: How to Make Paper When the World Is Ending Writer: Dallas Woodburn Publishing House: Koehler Books Date of Publication: June 28th 2022 Rating: 5 stars ‘’But sometimes stories are all we have.’’ Story to Tell Around a Campfire: The narrator instructs us how to tell the tale of Hannah and Mark, a couple who…
Out There:Stories
Title: Out There: Stories Writer: Kate Folk Publishing House: Random House Date of Publication: March 29th 2022 Rating: 5 stars ‘’By night our bones dissolve into our blood like sugar in tea. We sleep in anti-gravity pods with slick outer shells and vinyl interiors, our limbs held by Velcro straps, our torsos bound by cuirasses…
The Ghosts of Rose Hill
Title: The Ghosts of Rose Hill Writer: R.M.Romero Publishing House: PeachTree Teen Date of Publication: May 3rd 2022 Rating: 5 stars ‘’Lopez means: son of Lope, son of wolf. But it’s the Lopez women who have always howled the loudest. They had to be fierce and stubborn to survive.’’ ‘’They fled the pyres (the flames…
How We Disappear: Novella & Stories
Title: How We Disappear:Novella & Stories Writer: Tara Lynn Masih Publishing House: Press 53 Date of Publication: September 13th 2022 Rating: 5 stars ‘’Yesterday I found myself in St. Servaasbasiliek, and lit two candles. Organ music wended its way into my history, drawing forth doubts. It is music – caught, held, and shot back down…
Minor Hauntings (Chilling Tales of Spectral Youth)
Title: Minor Hauntings: Chilling Tales of Spectral Youth Writer: Various edited by Jen Baker Publishing House: British Library Publishing Date of Publication: April 29th 2021 Rating: 5 stars ‘’Many years ago there stood at the corner of the street leading out of Upper Kennington – lane a great red-brick mansion, which one very wet evening,…
Amanda Gorman (Little People, Big Dreams)
Title: Amanda Gorman (Little People, Big Dreams) Writer: Maria Izabel Sanchez Vegara (illustrated by Queenbe Monyei) Publishing House: Frances Lincoln Children’s Books Rating: 5 stars “There is always light. If only we’re brave enough to see it. If only we’re brave enough to be it.” Amanda Gorman A little girl from Los Angeles adores reading….
Chill Tidings
Title: Chill Tidings Writer: Various, edited by Tanya Kirk Publishing House: British Library Publishing Date of Publication: October 16th 2020 Rating: 5 stars ‘’At the edge of the dark sky, sprinkled with stars, a faint band of cold light heralded the rising moon. How different from the grey light of dawn, that ushers in the…
Sunless Solstice: Strange Christmas Tales for the Longest Nights
Title: Sunless Solstice: Strange Christmas Tales for the Longest Nights Writer: Various (edited by Lucy Evans and Tanya Kirk) Publishing House: British Library Publishing Date of Publication: October 21st 2021 Rating: 5 stars ‘’Like any other boy I expected ghost stories at Christmas, that was the time for them. What I had not expected, and…
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