I’m continuing to explore young adult fiction now that I work with teens every day, and this book was fantastic. It’s written in what felt like a very real teenage voice, and I sometimes felt I could be reading about my own fears and uncertainties as a teenager. Aristotle (Ari) is a lonely, reserved teen…
This week’s Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl) is our most anticipated books coming out in the first half of 2026. I’m tweaking this a bit to show the books I’ve received as advanced review copies (ARCs) through July. Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for providing these! Some of these are…
I hope you had a happy holiday season and are looking forward to the new year. This week’s Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl) is the best books I read in 2025. I had a lot of trouble narrowing down this list. Some years, there are a few books that rise far…
This is my first time doing this meme where you have to fill in these prompts using only books read this year (and without repeating any). You can also find examples at BookerTalk and 746 Books. Have you done this or something similar? Feel free to add your link in the comments.
2025 is a wrap, and I can’t say I’m sorry to leave it behind. It was a difficult year, one of changes and uncertainty and loss. I had surgery, I grieved for my father, I lost my career, I spent four months unemployed, and I started over again in a new job. There were highs…
I completed this year’s “Reading Jewishly” challenge to read 10 different types of books with Jewish main characters, and I’m so glad I did, because I learned a lot and discovered some wonderful new authors. This was the first year I’ve focused on Jewish books, which I mainly did to honor my dad, but it…
Happy holidays, readers! I hope you’ll have a nice holiday with family and friends, whatever you’re celebrating. This week’s Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl) is “bookish wishes.” So even though I may not get these in my stocking, here are some of the many books I wanted to read this year, but…
I loved Sandlin’s GroVont trilogy back in the 90s, which begins with Skipped Parts, so I was happy to get an advanced copy of his latest book. My feelings about it are mixed. It’s snarky and clever while also being a relatively light read that includes murder, book banning, and religious extremism. The only downside…
Sometimes my reading seems to come, unintentionally, in themes. For example, over the summer I read a lot of books about “difficult women” – women who strayed from the emotional confines of marriage and motherhood. Lately I seem to be reading about complicated families – biologically as well as emotionally. In these books, there’s the family…
I’m full of feelings about this book. It’s long, unwieldy, going back and forth across time and place with little transition – but it’s also powerful, dramatic, and at times beautiful. I set out to read a book that took place in Israel, and I can’t imagine a novel that could tell me more about…
This is the second book in “The Crinoline Academy” series, and I enjoyed this one more than the first (Rules for Ruin). This was mainly because I related more to Nell than I did to Effie, the heroine in the first book. Nell is reserved, a schoolmaster who is thrust outside her comfort zone. Where…
Happy holidays, readers! November was a month I focused on finishing books for challenges. I read a lot of nonfiction, which was helpful in completing the Nonfiction Reader Challenge and I enjoyed participating in Nonfiction November. I have a few books left for my challenges, but I hope December can be more about reading for…
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