Where’d You Go, Bernadette is a perfectly fine book. I think a lot of people like it a lot. It’s the story of Bee, a teenager in Seattle, whose mother Bernadette disappears one day. Most of the book covers what leads up to her disappearance, while the end talks about the aftermath and the efforts to find her. I found this book quite engaging and finished it in just a few days. I liked the format (it’s mainly a series of emails sent between different […]
“You don’t feel like smiling? Then what? Force yourself to smile. Act as if you were already happy, and that will tend to make you happy.”
This book is tough. It’s centered around an emotionally devastating premise — the untimely death of a teen girl — and the tension of that mystery unfolding is coupled with a stark examination of gender politics and middle-class family dynamics. It’s the type of story that doesn’t let the reader breathe easily, as it seems too real, and, for many of us, too relate-able in a lot of ways. One minute, you feel deeply for James or Marilyn Lee, struggling with being an outsider and […]
Who knew buying a small town on eBay would lead to finding your purpose in life
I had the fortune of visiting The Ripped Bodice to see Beverly Jenkins speak about her new historical romance novel, Breathless. After the event, I was kindly invited to join the LA chapter of Mocha Girls Read book club. I’m so thankful Ms. Jenkins and my favorite bookstore introduced me to a lovely book club group! Having an in-person book club kept up my motivation to read more books to review for Cannonball Read. 🙂 Bring on the Blessings by Beverly Jenkins was the February selection and much needed palette cleanser […]
“I didn’t know you this morning, and now I don’t remember not knowing you.”
Natasha is desperately trying to keep her family from being deported, after her father, an illegal immigrant got a DUI and attracted the police’s attention. She’s been in the USA since she was six and barely remembers her life back in Jamaica anymore. She’s doing well in school and loves science and technology. She certainly doesn’t believe in love at first sight, or fated mates or fairytale endings. Even after she meets Daniel on a crowded New York street and he insists that they are […]
“I don’t believe anyone who is legitimately interesting can be popular as a teenager” Mel went on. “Or ever, maybe. Popularity rewards the uninteresting.”
3.5 stars Elise Dembowski has always been painfully uncool at school, and spends an entire summer pretty much studying up on how to become popular, spending much of her savings in the process on a new wardrobe, without any success at all. Things may in fact have gotten even worse for her. In a moment of despair, she cuts herself pretty deeply, and while bleeding, calls a school mate, who naturally freaks out and has paramedics sent to Elise’s house. After this event, Elise’s divorced […]
The Review of the Great Books
I really, really liked Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend, which is an incredibly blase way to compliment a book so raw and confrontational and, well, brilliant. The remaining three books in the Neapolitan Novels series build on the strong momentum established by the first and, in the process, continue to be some of the most poignant reading I’ve experienced in ages. The feelings that these books provoked in me were strong and visceral, inflamed and tender in their ebb and flow. These are not feel-good […]
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