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Losing the Artist Within
When I was twelve years old, I thought I would be an art teacher when I grew up. Perhaps I would illustrate children’s stories, maybe create great paintings. I loved to draw and thought that whatever I did, it would involve art. I was always drawing, doodling and creating. I filled notebooks with images. I would draw pictures and sell them to my classmates for twenty-five cents (unknowingly filling the stereotype of the struggling artist.) With a good friend I co-wrote and illustrated a “magazine” or two that may or may not have included less than kind fictional stories about a fellow classmate (which may or may not have landed me in Sister Patriciana’s office,…
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What I’m Reading Wednesday: “A” is for the Alchemist
Happy Wednesday to you! If you have children, you are likely deep in the throes of back-to-school chaos. Mine kids are madly trying to finish up the math workbooks assigned for summer work and looking over their reading logs to make sure they have accounted for every day of reading – the latter being much easier to keep up with as my kids love to read. Both of my kids are big fans of serial books and I am excited to introduce them to a new series created by James Larson – The Winnie and Winslow Adventure Series. The first book in this series, recently released, is “A” is…
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What I’m Reading Wednesday: Never Google Heartbreak
It’s time for What I’m Reading Wednesday! Yay! Are you looking for a light beach read? If you are a fan of British authors Sophie Kinsella and Helen Fielding, check out Never Google Heartbreak by Emma Garcia. I think we’ve all been there (or had a friend that has been there) – dumped and going through all the stages of loss: grief, denial, (including bad fashion choices and the inevitable badly timed haircut). This is the story of Vivienne Summers who leaves her boyfriend (fully expecting him to chase after her, of course) after he has postponed their wedding – for the third time. When he doesn’t, she loses herself in grief and…
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What I’m Reading Wednesday: The Summer Middle-Schooler Edition
Both of my kids are avid readers, and while for my eight-year-old any book involving princesses, fairies, or animals having an adventure, she’s in. My ten-year-old is a tougher nut to crack. Historically he hasn’t been a fan of science fiction/fantasy, so no amount of reasoning could get him to try the Harry Potter series or any of the other YA fiction in that genre that I love, although I have seen some Rick Riordan find their way to his shelves. He’s a big fan of sports fiction, with books by both Tim Green and Mike Lupica filling his shelves, and he does like fiction that’s either compelling (like Michael Morpugo’s War…
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On Putting Myself First . Or Fifty-second.
I suck at putting myself first. Or second. Or fifty-second, for that matter. Is this a mom thing? Or just me. As I lay on the table at my physical therapy appointment on Wednesday, the therapist attacking my leg (technically, my iliotibial band, which I still haven’t actually located anatomically yet) with what looks like a bumpy rolling-pin stick of evil, commenting on how this really is one of their more torturous tasks – which I would wholeheartedly agree with if I could get my gritted teeth to separate, instead grunting in agreement – and I had to ask myself: “How did it come to this?” From my twenties to mid-thirties, I…
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What I’m Reading Wednesday: Vanished
Are you a mystery fan??? Well, this week’s pick is an excellent, stay up late ’til ya’ finish romantic thriller: Vanished by Kendra Elliot. Fans of Carla Neggers, Lisa Jackson, Nora Roberts and/or Karen Robards will love this book as Elliot successfully meshes an intense mystery/thriller with a blooming romance. Initially, the story is about an eleven year old girl abducted on her way to school, but it proves to be much more complicated than that. The cast of characters is a complexly intertwined bunch. The missing girl turns out to be the stepdaughter of Mason Callahan’s ex-wife. (Got that?) On the surface, he, his ex-wife, her new husband and HIS ex-wife seem to…
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What I’m Reading Wednesday: The House We Grew Up In
This week’s pick is a family drama by British author Lisa Jewell, titled The House We Grew Up In. A compelling, complex family drama that was so very different from the book description (you might wonder if I’m just rubbish at reading the description, but no), I was quickly drawn into both the story and the family members. The happy scene depicted in the opening pages proved to be a stark contrast to the later lives of the inhabitants of the Bird House. When tragedy strikes on an Easter Sunday, the family falls apart, but while the blame for this is put on the tragedy, it turns out to…
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What I’m Reading Wednesday: Alias Hook
Wahoo! It is Wednesday, and I have a fun book for you today! This week I want to tell you all about Alias Hook by Lisa Jensen. If you are a fan of Wicked by Gregory McGuire and other reinvented fairy tales, and are a fan of historical fiction, I think you will really enjoy Alias Hook. As you might have guessed, Hook, born James Benjamin Hookbridge, is himself the Captain Hook of Peter Pan lore. But have you ever wondered how, in Peter’s world where one never grows up, just how did Captain Hook end up in Neverland. In Barre’s original tale, Hook’s story ends as he is eaten by his…
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What I’m Reading Wednesday: The Girl With All The Gifts
I’ve been on a bit of “dystopian fiction” bender lately. I promise that I’m going to be changing gears next week, but before I do, I’m ending with a big BANG. This week’s pick is the just-published The Girl With All The Gifts. Let me start by saying that I was totally mistaken about what this book was all about. You might even say that I was tricked. I was led to believe that Melanie, the bright young girl that gets strapped in a wheelchair every morning (guns pointed at her all the while) in order to be wheeled off to class had some sort of dangerous but desired supernatural…
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What I’m Reading Wednesday: Close to the Broken Hearted
We’ve had some really lovely early summer weather, perfect for curling up on the screened porch with a glass of ice tea and a good book. This week’s recommendation is the soon-to-be-released novel Close to the Broken Hearted by Michael Hiebert. I really loved Close to the Broken Hearted. Michael Hiebert’s second book did not disappoint. Twenty-two year old Sylvie was deeply traumatized as a child when she saw her baby brother shot to death in her father’s arms. The man who killed him, Preacher Eli, was sent to jail for the crime…but he has just been released. She is now a single mother with a three-month old yet-unnamed baby girl,…
