• cover image for braver than you think, featured book in What I'm Reading Wednesday Redux
    book review,  Books

    What I’m Reading Wednesday, Redux

    I’ve been doing so much reading and not enough reviewing – at least, not here on the blog. Between my own writing (which was going well, and now is – not) and reading and life in general, I feel both overwhelmed and behind. (Is it possible for the year to have passed both quickly and painfully slowly at the same time?) Reflective of my brain, the blog feels both overweighted with book reviews and also…empty. What I need is consistency, and a schedule. So with that, I’m bringing back “What I’m Reading Wednesday“. With this, I can – at a minimum -share with you some of the good stuff that…

  • book review,  Books

    Books to Help Understand Anti-Racism and Race

    Wanting to be a better white ally means learning about systemic racism. To do that, we need to dig a little deeper into U.S. history, because we’re simply not taught it fully in school, at least in a way that we understand the nuances and all that shaped how we ended up where we all are today. As the fantastic graphic above by illustrator Jane Mount shows, there is no shortage of books that talk about race and racism. Non-fiction offers a direct (and often blunt) path to understanding. Fiction provides an excellent means to see and feel things from a different perspective. Putting both together marries the factual aspects…

  • Books

    I Miss You When I Blink by Mary Laura Philpott

    I have been looking forward to reading Mary Laura Philpott’s memoir I Miss You When I Blink. Needless to say, I nearly did a backflip (ok, it was a mental backflip – I’m the girl who broke her foot doing laundry, after all) when Netgalley provided an advance copy for review purposes. As always, all opinions and typos are my own. Mary Laura Philpott’s memoir I Miss You When I Blink is a collection of essays that are honest, heartfelt, relatable and frequently laugh-out-loud funny. Sitting down with these stories is like sitting down with a friend who gets you. She’s going to tell you what you need to hear…

  • Thursday Things
    Books

    Thursday Things

    With spring break behind me, I’ve got a lot of things rattling in my head. Most of it isn’t enough for a full post, but are loosely related. Thursday Things is a bit of a brain dump – a bit of what I’m excited about, a bit of what has me frustrated, and it all took place during spring break. Oh, and there are affiliate links in this post. I talk about those, too. Kind of. Shh. • • • In Which I Get On My Soapbox and Rant About Coaches and Vacations Last week was spring break for our school district. We didn’t go anywhere because we are rule…