I've had my eye on Phillipe Diederich's Diamond Park for a while, ever since it came into The Wandering Jellyfish Bookshop, and man it did not disappoint! Flaco is our narrator, a senior in a Texas high school who's dream is to become an artist, but that's not what people from his neighborhood go on [...]
This review was written for the Left Hand Valley Courier, in partnership with Inkberry Books and will appear in the Nov. 22 edition of the paper. You all are getting a sneak peek! I don't read memoirs very often, which is a shame because they are so unique and interesting. That's certainly the case with [...]
I don't think I've read a book from the aughts for a while now, but when my good friend told me that I "simply must read The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks," I took her word for it. She has great taste. Let me start by saying that I greatly enjoyed E. Lockhart's coming of [...]
Inkberry Books came through with yet another fascinating story. Justin Courter’s The Heart of it All is a little bit mid-life-crisis, a little rebellious and extremely engaging. This review originally appeared in the May 25th edition of the Left Hand Valley Courier. (and here's the vlog!) We first meet narrator John Ritter shortly after he’s [...]
I honestly wasn't sure what to expect when I picked up Jane Kuo's upcoming middle-grade novel In the Beautiful Country (IBC). While I totally trust my recommenders at The Wandering Jellyfish, this book--it's a novel in verse and I just haven't read a lot of middle-grade as of late--was so far out of my comfort [...]
Hot Damn! I didn't know what to expect from D. T. Moorhouse's debut novel Purple Shadows, but it sure surprised and captivated me. (By the way, check out my vlog here!) This story takes place in a small UK township, possibly in Moorhouse's native Ireland. It follows a few weeks in the life of young Dean [...]
I always feel a little funny reading "coming-of-age" stories. Maybe it's because so many of them take place in high school and they don't reflect my experiences from around the same age. It's not even that I wish my experiences were the same, but I think it's hard to not put yourself in the character's [...]
When I first saw Heddi Goodrich's Lost in the Spanish Quarter on the bottom shelf of my library's "new books" section, I was instantly drawn to the bright colors of the cover. However, with a little time, I soon realized that it wasn't simply bright colors, but a scene of the apartment in the Spanish Quarter. [...]
Very rarely do I come across books that are simultaneously a long read and a quick one as well. But it would seem that Philippa Gregory has a talent to write such novels. This time, I read her novel The Queen's Fool, which takes place after her other novel The Boleyn Inheritance (but was written before). It follows the [...]
Do you ever feel like you see or hear something for a reason? I couldn't help but feel that way while reading Sandra Cisneros' novel Caramelo. I first read Cisneros as a freshman in high school and have been eager to read more of her work ever since. Caramelo--like all of the books I've read thusfar since [...]
A Little Bit of Happiness 