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Ranking The Mother-Daughter Book Club
Home for the Holidays: Home for the Holidays takes top spot for being one of the few holiday novels that I’m interested in. Yeah, I confess I’m not a magical Christmas fan. But this one makes me feel the spirit. It also has the riveting addition of Becca having a POV after three years of being in the club. With the secret santa exchange and the hilarious prank at the end (I literally had to put the book down I was laughing so hard) and the big confession bonding moment that allows the girls to let go of the past and embrace the present, it’s just one the best book in the series for me.
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Do you ever wonder?
Do you ever wonder what happens to authors who somewhat drop off the Earth? For example, Fiona Dunbar who wrote the Lulu Baker series and several other children’s books pretty much finished output 12 years ago. While she’s still active enough on twitter so people know she’s alive, I still wonder about other authors.
Like Rhonda Stapleton who wrote the Stupid Cupid trilogy. I really enjoyed it and well that’s it from her. No way to find her on the internet among the hundreds of Rhonda Stapletons in social media. Which is too bad because I thought she could come up with more fun books.
But I always found it fascinating, these people who complete their dream to write a book and then go back to their lives from before.
Anyway if anyone has any thoughts to add, feel free to comment.
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Book Highlight: Every Body Looking
This has some commonalities with Elizabeth Acevedo’s The Poet X following a girl’s coming of age story featuring first gen problems in verse form.
However, Ada’s story takes a different track. Her name in Igbo means “first child” befitting how she shoulders the expectations and pressures of everyone else, trying to be a good Catholic girl. She is more than aware of the standards she’s suppose to follow, to be quiet, to be submissive, to pray.
But college is where she begins to find her path, and follow her passion to dance and feel in control of her body and find the courage to be herself.
With the verse, there is minimal text but the implications resonate as readers learn about her fraught relationship with her mother whose toxic bonds she must learn to cut, her father’s smothering religiousity that trap her and scare her to swallowing the secrets and traumas she experience.
There is a slight romance but that is simply a sweet unfolding in the background as she navigates her isolation and her boundaries. Additionally, through flashbacks and present-day, Iloh also touches on small town racism and loneliness in comparison to her time at Howard.
A quick, thoughtful read of an introspective coming of age.
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Celeb-inspired mysteries
Now I’m not talking about books written by celebrities but books where these celebrities solve mysteries in their every-day lives. Like these below.
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My Bonny Light Horseman Review
Jacky Faber is back on the continent gaining glory, admirers and enemies by the dozens. We last left Jacky in a state of contentment, reunited with her Jaimy with plans to marry, and crossing the seas trading coal and ballasts for Faber Shipping Worldwide but good things never last for our favorite adventuress. Finally she’s going to answer to British Intelligence.
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Cynthia Leitich Smith Interview
Cynthia Leitich Smith is the award-winning author of Hearts Unbroken, Sisters of the Neversea and Ancestors Approved among many others. She also serves as falculty for the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA program and curates the Heartdrum imprint for HarperCollins . She kindly took the time to answer my questions about representation, creating her imprint, story process and more. She also provided the images for this interview. 1. While there’s a call for diversity in literature these days and an audience for these stories, what was it like in the beginning for you to break into this industry to share your stories focusing on your heritage?
My first book manuscript, JINGLE DANCER, sold in the late 1990s and was published in 2000. My first three books—including INDIAN SHOES and RAIN IS NOT MY INDIAN NAME—sold in quick succession thereafter.
While they all feature Native protagonists, I don’t think of them as being about heritage per se. To me, JINGLE DANCER is about a tradition passed down intergenerationally, INDIAN SHOES is a collection of daily life stories about a boy and his grandfather; and RAIN IS NOT MY INDIAN NAME is about beginning to heal after sudden loss.
That said, I was blessed to connect early on with Rosemary Brosnan, with whom I still work at HarperChildren’s. She’s one of the few long-time advocates of inclusion within the editorial branch of the publishing industry.
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Mississippi Jack Review
I last left Jacky Faber free from the vicious slaveship Bloodhound only to be taken into British custody just as she was about to reunite with Jaimy Fletcher. Luckily, a masterful performance by the faithful Higgins gets her out of that bind. Unfortunately, she can’t hide out in her beloved Boston with all the authorities swarming about so she heads out to the wild frontier where man knows no law nor sheriff.
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In the Belly of the Bloodhound
At last I return to sea-faring adventures of one impulsive Jacky Faber. Last seen fleeing the Great Battle at Traflgar with a pricy bounty on her head, Jacky escapes back to Boston, leaving her beloved Jaimy Fletcher behind. While she intially plans to be a girl and continue her learning at the Lawson Peabody School for Young Girls, it is not too long before she returns to sea and is in over her head.
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Art Books
Aren’t art books great. You get more insight to some of your favorite shows or movies, see background art in full lush color, creator commentary, insight to production ideas and unseen art. It’s amazing to see how much thought and detail that goes into production.
Obviously art books are objective since they usually cater to either very eager art fans or the audience of the particular work. So, comment below. What art book do you love? Which ones are you looking forward to? I, for one, am looking forward to the The Art of Ducktales coming this fall.
Comment below!
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The Mad Girls of New York Review
Since interviewing Maya Rodale, I’ve been eager to get my hands on her historical fiction novel on one of the U.S.’s most famous roving reporter in one of her most famous pieces-“Ten Days in a Madhouse” and finally the library has come through!
And you can see the heart of the story in the dedication and the first quote: For women who help other women
Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity-Psychiatrist of suffragist Alice Paul.
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Rachel Reads & Reviews 