In the spirit of Halloween (not the pop-up store), this diversion, and our upcoming book chat Zoom, will focus on all things spooky. I will use the idea of spooky loosely here to include: ghosts, vampires, gothic, witches, horror, and things that goes bump in the night. I must start by saying I … [Read more]
The Cat Who Saved the Library by Sosuke Natsukawa
For at least the first half of this book, I liked it more than The Cat Who Saved Books. The main character, Nanami, is fierce and compassionate, and Tiger the cat seemed to be less of a jerk than in the first one. I'm not sure if this is legitimately the case or due to how the narrator was voicing … [Read more]
The Wedding People by Alison Espach
This is actually my second time reading The Wedding People by Alison Espach. I read it for the first time last summer, having never heard of it, but having found it in my local used bookstore. And I loved it. So when “E” of my book club, R.A.G.E, chose it for her selection, I jumped at the chance to … [Read more]
The Winner's Curse (The Winner's Trilogy #1) by Marie Rutkoski
CBR18 Bingo: Justice - Arin and his co-conspirators rise up against the occupying forces and enact justice upon them. She remembered how her heart, so tight, like a scroll, had opened when Arin kissed her. It had unfurled. If her heart were truly a scroll, she could burn it. It would become a … [Read more]
The Thicket by Joe R. Lansdale
Did Joe R. Lansdale have Peter Dinklage in mind when he wrote the character Shorty’s look, or was I projecting? Maybe a bit of one, a lot of the other. You see, the novel, The Thicket, only came to be on my TBR list because I had seen the movie starring Dinklage. I won’t go into that too much, … [Read more]
With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo
This is my first Elizabeth Acevedo and I’m happy to report that the hype is real. I think that I’ve been putting off reading Acevedo because I’ve become a little allergic to YA and I was afraid that it would prevent me from enjoying her work. But Read Harder has a task for reading a YA book by a … [Read more]
Stangers by Belle Burden
I make my return to CBR after a long absence due to wrapping up grad school, graduating, and recently starting a new job, so there have been a bunch of life transitions that left me both reading less and also having much less will to write reviews. I contemplated just waiting until January and … [Read more]
