In a time where around us, there’s a lot of racism and xenophobia, including from the nation’s leaders, reading a book about individuals viewing the United States through the eyes of someone born outside the country is even more important. Leah Franqui’s America for Beginners takes readers on a journey with her main character, recently widowed …
When you want to make progress on those big, scary, hairy audacious goals, it’s sometimes not enough to break them down into small manageable pieces. Sometimes, you have to really get into the habit of working on them. For example, I’ve been working on a 31 runs in 31 days challenge as part of getting …
Sometimes, you just really need to read a book that you can’t put down, especially when there’s a lot of news going on and you need a break. Enter The Immortal Gene by Jonas Saul to fill this role. When you pick up the novel, you think it’s going to be a normal detective novel, but in …
Most of us have seen a “dead girl show.” This is what Alice Bolin calls a TV show that centers around the dead girl body, usually there in order to propel a male narrative forward. Twin Peaks, NCIS, and Law and Order are all examples of television programs that center around, usually, a dead girl. But Alice …
When I was 22, I went through a series where one thing happened after another. It was not a great year…and then I turned 23, and I can’t help but mention the Blink 182 song that goes “No one likes you when you’re tweeeeeeentythree…” I was a single momma of a 2-year-old, I had a …
ᐧThe Lost Vintage by Ann Mah is the perfect book to review here. Kate wants to become a wine expert, and so she is getting ready for her third attempt at taking the Master Sommelier’s certification test. But before that happens, she loses her job. So, she does what any of us would do when …
*This post contains affiliate links. That means if you click on a link and make a purchase, I will receive a small percentage from that sale at no additional cost to you. Little Miss Ladybug is the only one of my children who has not had something I’d made to wear yet – and seeing …
When I moved to Kansas fom California, I went through a bit of culture shock. It was more of a culture shock than moving to Illinois from California was for graduate school or moving to Michigan from Illinois was for my Ph.D. program. I wasn’t really expecting to discover so much…old school thinking, particularly among …
A couple of months ago, I ran my first 12k race. At around mile 6 (the race is 7.46 miles long), I started to question why I’d started the race. I wanted to know what made me think I could do such a thing – I was tired and ready to be done! I kept …
When I am old, I plan to still be writing. It would be pretty awesome to be surrounded by literary legends. In The Bar Harbor Retirement Home for Famous Writers (And Their Muses), This fun novel takes readers on a fun ride through the eyes of Alfonse Carducci, a literary genius who has decided it’s time to …
