White Smoke by Tiffany D. Jackson is fun book that ties in a lot of topical issues like prisons, blended interracial families, poorly treated mental illness, veganism, peanut allergies, predatory televangelists, drug use and gentrification into a spooky ghost/horror story. The ending was incredibly abrupt. Bizarrely so. I got it from the library and truly … Continue reading
I had some high hopes and mixed feelings about The Temple House Vanishing by Rachel Donohue. On the surface it ticked all of my “summer reading” boxes: A book set the late 1990s where a sixteen-year-old girl and her teacher disappeared from a remote Catholic girls’ boarding-school housed in a cliffside old mansion in Ireland? … Continue reading
I really don’t know how I came across this book. It was on my reserves from library so at some point I must have suggested they purchase it. I vaguely remember reading an earlier book of hers and enjoying it well enough. Sometimes the lag between reading about a book and it actually coming out … Continue reading
I found A Spy in the Struggle a little puzzling. The concept was unique and I like how it touched on real issues and was topical (there is even a Covid-19 reference) but the main character was so flat. Her thinking was very black and white and childlike. It was very difficult to believe she … Continue reading
I have not had great luck with books this month. Even ones I really looked forward to like the new Meg Wolitzer didn’t really grab me. I must have started and stopped a dozen books this month. I had high hopes for Then She Was Gone. I’ve read Lisa Jewell’s books since college. Back then … Continue reading
Another YA book! What has gotten into me? I had tried to get this on Netgalley but was refused (I have a 97% rating! What more do they want?) but saw it it was available immediately for the Kindle through the Maryland Library eLibrary Consortium so I downloaded it. I really prefer to read on my … Continue reading
The Hate U Give caught my eye back before it was released in late February thanks to the 2Pac reference in the title but I just was able to download it to my Kindle from the library this week. It was as good as I hoped. The story of Starr, a black girl going to … Continue reading
I’ve read a few books the last couple of days but Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa was my favorite. Translated from Japanese, it is the story of a reluctant dorayaki (a type of pancake filled with sweet bean paste) chef who against his initial impulse hires a woman in her mid-70s to help out at the dorayaki … Continue reading
I’ve read that The Best Kind of People has been optioned by Sarah Polley as a movie and reading it, I can totally see why that would happen. It almost reads like a script as-is (Zoe Whittall does write for television so that makes sense)–a valued member of the community and high school teacher who … Continue reading
Computer problems plagued me again this week. We’ve had awful internet issues since we moved in this house in 2005 and since we live in Baltimore City we have little choice as to service providers. We finally bought a new desktop for me to work on (our old one was so noisy and … Continue reading
Rachel Reads Books 