As my birthday looms heavily, I find myself anxious in a way I have never been before, mainly because I’m becoming affected by societal pressures to define myself in two main ways: Wife. Mother. Entering the last year of my mid-thirties, I am neither yet a wife nor a mother, and I now feel like I am running out of time–even though I had not given myself a deadline or ever really desired to define myself by those two roles. While it is easy to say, […]
Trigger Warnings Come with Provocative Poetry
I only became aware of Rupi Kaur this past Friday, when, after sharing a few of my favorite poems with my students in recognition of National Poetry Month, one of my seventh grade girls came up to me at the end of class, put the book in my hands with a smile on her face, and said, “Read this.” I opened the book and quickly closed it because I had landed on a page of a line drawing that was sexual in nature. My quick thought? […]
I’m a Survivor: A Memoir of Abuse
While Why Me? is a harrowing retelling of Sarah Burleton’s mother’s abuse, the snapshot structure of this memoir lacked a narrative thread that would allow for emotionality on the part of the reader. As is, I felt like a voyeur–a powerless one–who stood aghast but still engrossed. Read the full review.
The Ultimate Betrayal
After thirty-eight years of marriage, Eleanor Anderson’s illusion of an idyllic life and marriage crashes into reality after she wakes up and finds her husband dead from a heart attack. It is after the funeral that she learns and acknowledges that her husband had never really been her own…. Despite my dislikes, The Other Wife earned three stars. The concept of the story is good and my biggest takeaway is significant: A woman’s sense of happiness, identity, and worth should not be based on the man […]
Yes, I Do Feel All Out of Sorts
At the halfway point of reading Aurélie Valognes’s debut Out of Sorts (2016), my mind took me to Rose’s dream sequence in the Golden Girls’ season 1 episode “A Little Romance.” It was a farcical scene that brought on much laughter mostly because of the brilliance of the four lead actresses. As an audience member, I could follow along because the set up had been clear. I was in on the joke. That wasn’t the case when I got to the midpoint of Out of Sorts. I started to […]
The Casanova of Cass County
All of the books in the pile were for my classroom library, and I was $4 short from getting the loyalty stamp card at my favorite independent book store. So back to the shelves it was so I could meet the minimum $30 purchase stamp. It took a while, but I finally settled on an author and genre of romance I had never read before: Beverly Jenkins and African-American historical romance. The selection, Jewel, turned out to be a satisfying one. Read the full review.
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