Zora, the Story Keeper by Ebony Joy Wilkins
I read a book. I thought about it so I could write a review. And then I wondered, is this something I can do justice to? I mean, there is nothing hard about Zora, the Story Keeper. It is a story about a girl, Zora, and her beloved Aunt Bea. And in the end, after their beautiful times together, where they told stories, and costumes are worn, Aunt Bea passes away, so it is also a book of grief and holding onto the stories Aunt […]
The Minus-One Club by Kekla Magoon
Oof, this book is messy and emotional. At it’s center The Minus-One Club is a story of grief and finding your way forward after the death of a loved one, but it is also a story of friendship and identity. Kermit just lost his sister after a drunk driver hit her car head-on, and now he has to go back to school and try getting back to “normal.” But he finds an anonymous note in his locker inviting him to a secret meeting, where other […]
A Heart That Works by Rob Delaney
Comedian and actor Rob Delaney moved from Los Angeles to London with his wife and family to write and star in the tv series Catastrophe. They settle in, but when their youngest child, who had been born in London, is a year old, he is diagnosed with a brain tumour. He dies aged two. The book relates, beautifully, the stages of Henry’s life. The initial culture clashes that come from being Americans in the UK; navigating the intricacies of the NHS for his birth; the […]
Spare by Prince Harry
Honestly, where to begin with this one considering the amount of ink already spilled about it and the endless interviews. I am coming at this from the point of view of someone most interested in pre-WWI royalty, and as someone who is interested in the generational reverberations of child abuse. I am not that invested in who is right in the current generational struggle or really in any of the individuals in this book, and I tried to approach my reading with a fairly open […]
Ronan and the Endless Sea of Stars: A Graphic Memoir by Rick Louis
CBR15Passport New Authors to me Ronan and the Endless Sea of Stars: A Graphic Memoir is a bittersweet story of living with a child who has an incurable condition. It is spiritual, realistic, and surreal all at once. Sometimes the tone is a bit on the romantic side, but it is a forgivable offense as this is a love story to the child as much as a memoir of the fathers. I have never been a mother, though an aunt three times (plus various “adopted […]
After you'd Gone by Maggie O'Farrell
After boarding a train from King’s Cross to Edinburgh on a whim to see her sisters, Alice Raikes makes an abrupt about turn and heads back home. Shortly after, she steps in front of a car. She’s taken to hospital, but she’s in a coma and it doesn’t look good. What did she see at that Scottish train station that made her leave so suddenly? Had she tried to commit suicide? Shifting points of view, from Alice’s present, to past, to her family’s thoughts and […]
