Oona Out of Order. Dear Ijeawele. The Children of Willesden Lane. The Family Upstairs. Suburban Nation. Happy City.
books
3 Good Novels
The Last Anniversary. Dominicana. A Student of Weather.
The kid’s book was the best: Book reviews
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon. Recipe for a Perfect Wife. Good As Gone. Home from Nowhere.
Lillian, Frankie, and Americans Like Me [book reviews]
Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks. Harmful to Minors. American Like Me.
What I’m Reading in 2022
Guess what I got for Christmas: MORE BOOKS! Here are reviews of ones I've already read: Class Mom. Let's Pretend This Never Happened. Convenience Store Woman. Runaway Ralph. The Tiger's Apprentice. The Enchanted Castle. A Prayer for the Earth.
Growing Sustainable Together, Ramona’s World, and The Vagina Bible [book reviews]
In the past few months, I've mostly been rereading novels I had read before--most notably, I was already midway through Snow Crash [reviewed here] when Facebook announced its intention to create the Metaverse, so that was chillingly appropriate! Let's hope we don't all catch a brain-stem virus. Anyway, I also read two excellent nonfiction books … Continue reading Growing Sustainable Together, Ramona’s World, and The Vagina Bible [book reviews]
Mysteries, Dogs, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Wes Moore [book reviews]
No Flying in the House. Ribsy. You Learn by Living. The Searcher. The Other Wes Moore. Still Life. Glass Houses.
Forgotten Secret Darkest Midnight Book Reviews
The Forgotten Door. Mary Poppins. The Darkest Hour. The Secret Lives of Church Ladies. At Home in Mitford. The Midnight Library. The Glass Castle.
Book Reviews and Hope for the Future
Drawdown. The House at Riverton. Glittering Images. The Tortilla Curtain.
Book Reviews: Racism, Scandals, and Cults, oh my!
The Color of Water. Such a Fun Age. Reputation. Girl at the End of the World.
The Upstairs Room and other pandemic reading
As the novel coronavirus that attacked Earth in 2019 continues into 2021, we're still staying home a lot of the time and seeing hardly anyone outside our family, and it's really getting old! Yes, I was able to write a cheery article about celebrating holidays with just your household, and I mean every word of … Continue reading The Upstairs Room and other pandemic reading
Reading My Way into 2021
A Trick of the Light. No More Dying Then. Ask Again, Yes. A Circle of Quiet. The Trouble with Goats and Sheep.
Catching Up on Book Reviews
Small Animals. The Marvelous Land of Oz. Started Early, Took My Dog. The Trespasser. Kind of Kin.
Say Goodbye to Plastic book review
This room-by-room guide gives great tips for noticing plastic in your lifestyle and finding alternatives. Even busy families can make choices that cut 3/4 of their plastic garbage!
What to Read During a Pandemic
This is hardly a comprehensive list of what's best to read while staying home and staying safe--but some of these books turned out to be applicable to our current situation! Now that we've been enduring locked-down life for four months, I'm thinking that the next book to read now has one or more of these … Continue reading What to Read During a Pandemic
Bricks and Balloons
Food Fix is a book published at the right time: It went to press before coronavirus hit the United States, yet without mentioning the pandemic at all, it explains very clearly how the problems with our global food system addressed in this book are worsening the spread of the virus and its deadly effects! Read … Continue reading Bricks and Balloons
Pandemic Perspective: A Pail of Air
About ten days ago, I read my newly six-year-old Lydia a science fiction short story that she's since asked her father, older brother, and me to read again and again. It's available free to read online: "A Pail of Air" by Fritz Leiber. My father read this story to me many times, beginning one night … Continue reading Pandemic Perspective: A Pail of Air
Two Good Books About Education
Enduring the pandemic has gotten me rereading familiar books more than I'm reading new books. When the stay-home order began, I had the idea of rereading the first six volumes of the Outlander series (the ones I own), knowing that a long book full of adventures helps time pass more quickly. I did read the … Continue reading Two Good Books About Education
Book Reviews All Over the Place!
I've been reading a whole variety of books lately, both to myself and to my kindergartner Lydia. We Need to Talk by Celeste HeadleeA radio host and expert interviewer tells us "how to have conversations that matter" in this book that has a lot of good advice but might have worked better as a shorter … Continue reading Book Reviews All Over the Place!
Old Books I’ve Been Reading in 2020
Starting a new year, especially a new decade, always makes me want to look back at what's changed. I also love reading books to my kids that I and/or other relatives enjoyed when we were young. Here we have a book looking back at the 1920s that belonged to my paternal grandparents, a book that … Continue reading Old Books I’ve Been Reading in 2020
The Earthling's Handbook 