A series of circumstances led me to reread Amabelle’s story as narrated in The Farming of Bones by Edwidge Danticat. For me, the story underscores the important role literature plays in forcing us to think of the human side of historical events, in this case, as it relates to the very hot topic of immigration.
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Review-In Plain Sight (Return to Love Series Book Two)
Nikki Alvarez thinks Montserrat just might be the place where she can piece together her fractured life and finally turn her back on her secret past. She has three supportive friends, Roxie, Bella, and Monique, who featured in the first book in Golden’s Return to Love Series (Love’s Sweet Joy), and a growing attraction for Dane Maartens, a police man whose…
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Review – With Grace
Written in Hillhouse’s strong poetic voice, With Grace spins a magic-laden story of the universal battle between good and evil. But it is far from ordinary. An involved tale, With Grace takes the reader on a series of twists and turns as Hillhouse explores the limits of human capacity for tolerance and meanness. Hillhouse skilfully evokes her Caribbean setting and the illustrations,…
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YA Review -Dreams Beyond the Shore
In Dreams Beyond the Shore we find seventeen year old Chelsea at a crossroads in her life, left to decide whether to be the dutiful daughter her politician father expects her to be or to follow her own dreams to be a writer. Dreams Beyond the Shore is the winner of the 2016 Burt Award for Caribbean Literature
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YA-Review Liana’s Dance
Sixteen-year-old Liana is a student at a boarding school in northern Pakistan when religious extremists attack and capture several students. She manages to escape and then, along with one of her teachers, she executes a dangerous plan to rescue her classmates. I got my copy of Liana’s Dance on NetGalley and gave it three stars.
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YA Review – Down to Dirt (Dirt and Stars Book 1)
Recommended read. Mara was born and raised on Tombaugh, a space station inhabited only by the brightest and best humans and where these humans live uncontaminated by earth’s gravity, sun, and polluted atmosphere. So she’s very unhappy when her parents force her to spend time with her aunt, uncle, and cousin on Earth, or ‘Dirt,’ as it’s called on Tombaugh.
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Barberry Hill – Review
No, I’m not reviewing my own book. I just received the Kirkus review of Barberry Hill and was quite pleased with the reviewer’s thoughtful comments. I glowed on reading “She skillfully captures Jaden’s grief, anxiety, feelings of abandonment, fear, and other stormy emotions, as well as the rhythms of friendship and dialogue among teenage boys…. “Fresh, well-described setting and vibrant…
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The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie – Review
When eleven year old Flavia discovers a man dying in her back yard she finds herself in the middle of a dangerous search to discover the killer. This is not a quick read. The author lays out scene-an estate in a small rural town in Britain in 1950- and plot at a measured pace and in great detail.
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A United Kingdom-Movie Review
I must confess I don’t watch a lot of movies, I much prefer to read a book. However, I was intrigued by the preview of this movie and I am a big fan of David Oyelowo (sigh). I found the story fascinating. A true story in which the marriage between Prince Seretse Khama of Botswana and a white Londoner is thwarted by the…
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Review-Rain Falls on Everyone
I received this book free on NetGalley. Theo is one of the lucky ones. Rescued from the midst of the Rwanda genocide by an Irish humanitarian, he’s raised in Dublin from the age of seven. He never forgives himself for his father’s actions in the war and even as he puts a face on trying to fit in to life…