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The Lunar Chronicles: Gone Rogue Review
The conclusion to Wires and Nerve has Iko and her resentful new collegue Liam Kinney to face Alpha Steele’s threats once and for all. The prologue/recap starts the book with an action movie tone that gives readers a hint of one hell of ride coming up.
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Book Highlight: Brown Girl Dreaming
Just as I never read the children classic author, Ronald Dahl, I hadn’t gotten to Jacqueline Woodson. Until now!
Her memoir mixes prose and poetry as she chronicles her childhood in five parts: Part 1, i am born which covers her childhood in Ohio and her parents’ separation; Part 2, the stories of south carolina which is her time in South Carolina with her beloved grandparents as her mother adjusts to single life and finds work in New York as well as the civil rights movement shifting the position and opportunities for African-Americans; Part 3, followed the sky’s mirrored constellation to freedom where she tackles homesickness and adjustment to New York and her new brother while also discovering the power of words; Part 4, deep in my heart, i do believe continues her journey to writing and storytelling while dealing with grief and beginning to see the complexities of adulthood in the 70s; Finally Part 5, ready to change the world is just as it says as Jaqueline begins to dream for bigger boundaries and stories to write.
I can’t quite put into words how moving it is. It’s just genuine. Very thoughtful and honest as she describes the good memories of sitting at her grandmother’s lap as she brushed her hair and her sister told stories as well as the grief and confusion of moving to a new state and being made fun of, and family rifts. It foretells her interests in writing and its power to change a life. It also serves as a time capsule of the progress of civil rights and the pride Jacqueline gained as a black girl, believing she is equal to anyone not because of her skin but because she was a human being.
The book I read was given additional poignancy by including family photos and seven additional poems.
With her precise word choice that brilliantly conveys a soothing lilt to the history of one family that can resonate with everyone. I’ll leave it with this quote from her Author’s Note:
“I am often asked ifI had a hard life growing up. I think my life was very complicated and very rich. Looking back on it, I think my life was at once ordinary and amazing. I couldn’t imagine any other life. I know that I was lucky enough to be born during a time when the world was changing like crazy-and that I was part of that change. I know that I was and continue to be loved. I couldn’t ask for anything more.”
“Ordinary yet extraordinary” is the perfect way to describe Woodson’s writing.
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Liana De la Rosa Interview
Liana De La Rosa is a an avid romance reader turned writer who seeks to add diversity into the beloved Victorian/Regency era along with all the tension and class conflicts among other tropes it entails. She kindly took the time out of her busy schedule to answer my question, discussing her start into romance, favorite books, what readers can expect in her upcoming series and more. 1. Why does the Late Regency/Victorian era appeal to you (and why do you think it appeals to so many others)?
I think popular pieces of media, be that novels by Jane Austen or Charlotte Bronte or historical dramas, have made the Regency and Victorian eras recognizable and familiar, and yet an escape at the same time. In so many ways, the social commentary is similar to our own, and yet the Regency/Victorian eras are draped in a gentility many modern day readers perhaps aspire to, even while ignoring all the horrors that same gentility masked. That juxtaposition is why I enjoy writing stories during these times so much.
2. Since you wrote your first book on a dare from your husband, how did you dive into it, going from reader of romance to writer of romance?
I first researched the websites of authors I admired. I distinctly remember reading Elizabeth Hoyt’s and Lisa Kleypas’s websites, and each recommended aspiring writers to join RWA (Romance Writers of America), which I did! It was such a useful resource when I was getting started and wasn’t quite sure what to do next, aside from write the book.
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Gilded Review
We’re back in Meyer’s fairytale world and this time she thoroughly delves into the tale of Rumpelstilskin, creating a distinct new world that unexpectedly fits in with the Halloween season considering the haunted castles and undead creatures that populate it.
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The Mark of the Golden Dragon Review
This is one of Jacky’s shorter adventure being under 400 pages but is stuffed to the brim with exploits as only Jacky can do.
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The Wake of the Lorelei Lee Review
The irrepresible Jacky Faber is back at it again. Her debt to the Crown seems all squared away until the dasteredly Biffil and Flashby team up to bring Jacky’s good name to the dirt of the gallows. Luckily, her many friends (and admirers) come to her aid during the trial. Not enough to get her free but instead of the hangman’s noose, she and her beloved new brig the Lorelei Lee are being transfered to the Crown’s possession to bring convicts to populate New South Wales, Australia!
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Raising the Horseman Review
Another book for the October season, the town of Sleepy Hollow revolves around All Hallow’s eve and hauntings all year round thanks to the town’s illustrious Van Tassel family and the legend of the Headless Horseman. It’s a small town, and a bit of a tourist trap not the natives like outsiders much despite relying on tourism.
Kat Van Tassel, the teenage descendants of the First Katrina feels stifled in the place. Every woman in her family is called Katrina, and they’re all expected to stay in Sleepy Hollow tending to the hearth and providing the rest of the town with jobs, crops and celebration. But Kat wants to travel, she wants to go to college and maybe become a writer even though she hasn’t confided that dream to anyone. But she’s torn with following her dreams and her family’s, hell the whole town’s, expectations that she’ll stay at home and marry her childhood best friend like all the Katrinas before. That fate of being trapped in this tiny town terrfies her more than all the ghosts in the graveyard.
It is during one fight about her desire to go to college that her mother gives her the First Katrina’s diary and Kat realizes how much her ancestor’s life and her current life converge to one and she wonders, is history repeating itself, will she travel Katrina’s same fate?
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An Illustrated History of Notable Shadowhunters & Denizens of Downworld
This illustrated history promises to give you a behind the scenes peek into your favorite Shadowhunter and Downworlder characters from Clare’s hit fantasy series. Which it somewhat succeeds.
I’ll admit the amazon summary may have oversold it as I was eagerly flying through the pages to see a complete Shadowhunter family tree as I am often confused by its many tangled branches. It was not in there so that was slightly disappointing.
The behind the scenes peeks are just little trivia tidbits like Camille Belcourt’s brief time working as a supernatural milliner or Jace’s talent at playing piano. Not much in new insights to the world or their psyches.
What really makes this book shine compared to the Shadowhunter Codex which provides a much more comprehensive guide and history to the world is Jean’s art.
Her flower cards inscribed with the flowers’ meaning that often has a symbolic relationship with the character associated are just gorgeous to look at. It’s the whole point of the book.
If you want more adventures in the series, this book will disappoint but if you want to collect them all and enjoy Jean’s art, this book is for you.
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Book Highlight: Young, Fearless, Awesome
This delightfully inspiring book encourages kids to chase after their dreams and break boundaries no matter their age through the stories of these icons.
Some you probably know like Anna Frank and Greta Thunberg but it also features some new ones like Samantha Smith who wrote to a Soviet leader and became a peace ambassador (and yes I now realize that Golden Girls episode that dealt with the same exact storyline was based on real life) and Carlos Acosta, the first black principle dancer for the Royal Ballet.
It also shows some kids that were important subjects to course cases like Claudette Colvin in Browder v. Gayle that brought an end to bus segregation in Montgomery. There’s also Ryan White whose name is given to the Ryan White CARE Act to fund AIDs diagnosis and treatment.
Though it is primarily for elementary school students, it doesn’t shy away from the harshness of some of these activists’ lives, for example, Igbal Masih was a child slave who escaped and fought for children’s rights only to be murdered for his activism when he was twelve. It’s tragic but important that his story is known and all that he accomplished in his short life.
The book also poses questions at the end of each section such as what to do if someone is being bullied, following your passion despite parental pressure etc. Modern day problems that are answered with quotes or reasonable assumptions based on the person’s life as to how they would tackle the issue. It also features a quick quiz of which activist you are most like.
While I enjoyed all the people featured here, I couldn’t help but feel that Tawakkol Karman was a bit out of place. It’s a book about young activist but most of her important protests and non violent resistance during Arab Spring occurred when she was adult. Arguably, she still fits because she was the youngest person to recieve the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011, but it still felt out of place as all the others are in their teens or at least 18 when they made their big differences which was in the theme of the book.
Anyway, that’s a minor quibble as it is overall, a very informative and inspiring
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A Carribean Heiress in Paris Review
Originally I was going to put this with the rest of my reads for Hispanic Heritage Month post, I loved it so much I had to spill all my thoughts here and now.
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Rachel Reads & Reviews 