Month: April 2018

 

Spring is here! If you want the perfect Teen Romance novel then look no further! Run Away With Me my Mila Gray will make your heart swoon. Seven years after a horrible event that caused Jake McCallister to move away and Emerson Lowe to lose her credibility in their small town, the former best friends reunite on Bainbridge Island. But the future of their romance depends on their ability to confront a difficult past – Can Emerson forgive Jake for moving away in her time of need?

Mila Gray is always good for a steamy romance with a twist and this is just another example. Happy Reading!

I don’t get to read Adult Novels too often, but Dietland by Sarai Walker is one of my favorites. It is also one of the many to get the Hollywood treatment. A series based on the novel will premiere in June on AMC. 

The book is about Plum Kettle who does her best not to be noticed, because when you’re fat, to be noticed is to be judged. Or mocked. Or worse. With her job answering fan mail for a popular teen girls’ magazine, she is biding her time until her weight-loss surgery. Only then can her true life as a thin person finally begin.

Then, when a mysterious woman starts following her, Plum finds herself falling down a rabbit hole and into an underground community of women who live life on their own terms. There Plum agrees to a series of challenges that force her to deal with her past, her doubts, and the real costs of becoming “beautiful.” At the same time, a dangerous guerrilla group called “Jennifer” begins to terrorize a world that mistreats women, and as Plum grapples with her personal struggles, she becomes entangled in a sinister plot. The consequences are explosive.

This book is not for the faint of heart. There are graphic descriptions but also there is amazing satire and humor. In the age of the #MeToo movement, this is the perfect read.

  Written by a pair of authors who go under the name Karen Perry, “Girl Unknown” is set in Ireland. David and Caroline are a married couple with 2 children.  One day a young woman tells David she is his daughter from a former relationship before he was married.  Their lives are upended by this news and the scarring behavior of this new member of their family.  Caroline is hesitant to open her home to this stranger. David feels guilt and anticipation along with memories of the long ago romance with the girl’s mother.  However, is this girl as innocent as she seems? What are her true objectives in seeking David out at this time in her life?  Told from alternate perspectives with an unexpected, twist ending, “Girl Unknown” is an entertaining thriller.

I attended a Preschool Storytime workshop today given by our library system. It was presented by Dr. Betsy Diamant-Cohen, a well seasoned educator  and author in the field of early literacy. She covered different ways to transform a storytime for preschoolers, including using the same book (along with other varied titles) for as many as six weeks in a row. Since repetition is an important method that helps children learn, we discussed different ways to present a picture book besides a straightforward reading of it. These included re-telling the story using the illustrations as prompts, re-creating the environment of the story while children act out the story and a parent videos them for future viewing, using manipulatives (scarves, bells) while re-telling the story, singing songs that pertain to the story, and using a fake microphone to “interview” children’s reactions/emotions regarding characters in the story. These methods all highlight different skill sets and illustrate Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences or competencies.

All the Wind in the World is a touching, dystopian(ish), magical realism (ish) novel about two main characters – Sarah Jac and James. The two of them have been working fields for years now harvesting the plant used to make tequila, trying to save up some money. They run from the last farm where they worked, only to come to another one, and while there, Sarah Jac makes a mistake that could cause them to be killed, so they jump on a train and run – to another farm.

Sarah Jac and James are in love with each other, but they dare not let anyone know. Not after what they’ve seen happen to other couples who work the fields. So they tell everyone they are cousins, and do what they can to keep their love a secret while working to earn money to get away from all that, someone beautiful and happy, somewhere that will allow them to live together, wrapped in their love for one another, without ever having to stand out in a hot sun and work in a field ever again.

As they go about their days, trying to make things livable for themselves for the time, new obstacles arise -Sarah Jac is told that instead of doing the harvesting, she will be giving riding lessons to the daughter of the owner of the farm. At first, she doesn’t want to, but when she realizes that if she takes the job, it will mean less farming time and maybe even spending more time with James (who is looking into trying to get a job inside the house as well), she decides it might not be so bad.

However, when James starts spending more time with the sickly daughter of the owner, Sarah Jac is left to fend for herself…and it makes her wish they had decided not to keep their love a secret.

 

Filled with beautiful desert descriptions, full-bodied characters, and a complex sense of what is right and wrong in this world make for a wonderful (and unusual) story.