The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
I first read this book when I was a teen and remember liking it. At the time I probably liked the movie more because it starred many of the teen-crush pack. I also remember being particularly struck that S.E. Hinton had to use her initials to publish so that people would not know she was a woman and discount her work. I came across this book again in a box of books I have been saving for my kids for when they became a bit […]
Nimona by Noelle Stevenson
Man, I really wish Monopoly (oh wait- World Domination) had a trebuchet. I’m usually the shoe, but I would LOVE to be a trebuchet. It has been perpetually gray here in New Hampshire for the last…oh jeez, three weeks? I needed something familiar to hunker down with while waiting for the sun to return, and while shuffling around my house I remembered LittlePlat‘s recent Nimona review. A great review about a great book? Just the spark I needed! Thank you, LittlePlat, and thank you to […]
I Hope You Get This Message by Farah Naz Rishi
Jesse, Cate, and Adeem are all just trying to survive- even before they catch wind of an alien planet’s message to earth: you will all be destroyed in seven days. Our main trio holds a treasure trove of teen torments between them: absent parents, the desire to be loved, the inability to accept care, the need to be anywhere other than where they are. Everyone is attempting to find someone who does not necessarily want to be found, and I was worried that we’d being […]
As a 16 yo, I didn’t experience a first love. A couple of crushes, but none of them were anything more than an occasional glance in the lift, or a quickening of pulse when they appeared in front of me. To read Rainbow Rowell describe it so minutely in normal-speak without being elaborate is a welcome peek into a world when feelings run amok, you barely understand what’s happening and yet you feel so much (so – much like my current mid-thirties, GOTCHA, dumb-ass […]
The Lumberjanes fill me with so much joy it is hard to encapsulate on the page. I want to sing about it from the rooftops, and I just might do so, to get more people reading these powerful comics. I first heard of this delightful series from the Literary Disco podcast, my go to source for reading material. I don’t read a ton of comics/graphic novels, so I sort of put it out of my mind, and I am kicking myself squarely in the butt […]
In the Cannonball Read Facebook group, someone awesome posted an article called “The best books of 2016 list you get when you combine 36 “Best Books of 2016” lists.” The Girls is 6th on that list, appearing in 10 of the 36 “Best Books of 2016” lists combined for the “ultimate list.” It’s okay. Here’s what it has going for it: it’s completely real. Here’s what it has against it: it’s not new. The Girls is the story of an older woman reminiscing about that […]
