Book Review: The Invention of Wings

Sarah Grimké is headstrong and opinionated and when she is given her own slave on her eleventh birthday, she rejects the gift on principle.  After she learns she cannot exactly do that, she and the young girl, Handful, establish a relationship built upon the idea that they should be seen as equals.  With Sarah’s help,…

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Book Review: Crazy Rich Asians

The “rich” in this novel’s title is a vast understatement.  These are people who own five homes, fly only on their private planes, and spend $250,000 on a single dress.  It’s absurd…which is exactly why I lapped up ever juicy page.  I had no idea that this level of wealth existed, nor does Rachel Chu when…

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Book Review: The Family Fang

Annie and Buster Fang grew up as part of their parents strange performance art.  As soon as they could, they busted out of their childhood homes and tried to forge their own paths as an actress and writer, respectively.  Turns out, being forced to participate in weird performances didn’t train them to lead normal, well…

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Book Review: At Bertram’s Hotel

When it was becoming apparent that I was becoming a real bookworm and bored with the novels around me, my Mom introduced me to Agatha Christie.  I fell in love with her mysteries and the gradual unraveling of secrets.  It had been years since I had read anything by Christie, but when I saw one…

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Book Review: The Arsonist

Frankie Rowley describes herself as “temporizing.”  Though she has steadily held a job as an aid worker in Africa, she never felt it was her true home.  In search of something more permanent, she visits her family in New Hampshire, unsure if she will leave. The town of Pomeroy, New Hampshire is a sleepy town…

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Book Review: China Dolls

Three Chinese girls meet on the streets of San Francisco and immediately link themselves together for the next ten years.  They have little in common other than their desire to escape their current lives and the hole that is missing from never having real friends.  Grace, a wide-eyed innocent, has left her small, Midwestern town…

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Book Review: The Goldfinch

“The Goldfinch” is intimidating.  It is a 771 page hardcover that really weighs down my tote bag on my commute to work.  I think that’s the reason I put off reading it for so long.  But “long and heavy” is no longer a valid excuse when the novel is on every best list and then…

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Book Review: Reconstructing Amelia

When Amelia commits suicide by jumping off the roof of her elite New York City prep school, things don’t quite add up for her mother.  Amelia was happy and never showed any of the signs, but Kate doesn’t start asking questions until she gets a mysterious text from a blocked number telling her Amelia didn’t…

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Book Review: Me Before You

Louisa never ventured out of her small English town and was content working at a small café and spending time at home, doing nothing particularly exciting.  Will, on the other hand, was constantly venturing out.  He lived a fast life in London, making tons of money and spending his free time bungee jumping.  Then he…

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Book Review: Go Ask Alice

“Go Ask Alice” has been used for years as a teaching tool for middle and high school students.  It is a supposedly real account written by “Anonymous” (to maintain authenticity) that is gritty enough to caution young people against using drugs.  Enough people told me how moved they were by the story that I decided…

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