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Review Date: 3/21/2007
no charm included
Review Date: 2/9/2015
Beautiful Ruins is a beautiful book with a beautiful title and a beautiful cover. I was so very pleased that the inside matched the outside. Complex and flawed characters are supported by the changing scenery, and connections that span years and oceans surprise and delight. I highly recommend this one.
Review Date: 6/22/2015
Beneath the Bonfire: Stories is a collection of ten short stories with a weaving of common threads: all the tales are set in the midwest, nature plays an important role, and the characters are beautifully painted with colorful brushstrokes and definitive lines. I enjoyed some stories more than others, but together they all created a complete picture. Butler writes with an easy, poetic style, capturing the reader's nostalgic imagination.
Review Date: 5/16/2015
This is my second Jonathan Tropper novel and it has sealed me as a definite fan. I love his honest and unapologetic style. His novels are real--but surprising--and oh so witty. I laugh, I cry, my mouth drops open in shock. From the beginning, the reader feels like they are careening down from the top hill of a roller coaster, the story gathering momentum as they traverse the twists and turns, coming to a stop only after the last line of the novel. The Book of Joe is a grown-up book for those of us who come from small towns with all those small town secrets.
Review Date: 3/3/2015
I was a mixtape expert. Or so I thought. I spent hours searching for the best songs to reflect my complicated teen-age emotions. This fun book brought back all those old memories. Intriguing stories, nostalgic photos and playlists will have you digging for your old tapes. If only I could have made a career out of creating mixtapes...
Review Date: 9/15/2010
This is the most comprehensive lesson planner I have found. I use it every year!
Review Date: 1/4/2016
The perfect little book to read on Christmas break! Heartwarming and sweet, but with a deeper message behind it. Snuggle up with a warm blanket and a cup of hot coffee while you read this one!
Review Date: 9/13/2011
I thought this book was beautifully written. The writing style reminded me of Edith Wharton's, while the love story reminded me of classics, such as Pride and Prejudice. I will definitely be reading more from this author.
Review Date: 6/26/2012
Oh how I love the writing style of Eva Ibbotson! Some may say it's too descriptive or too flowery, but I find it enchanting. Yes, her stories may be predictable but that is what I enjoy about her. I know I will be swept off my feet into another world.
Review Date: 9/3/2020
Wow. I've seen Dangerous Girls recommended over and over again. It's been waiting on my shelves for a few years. I finally picked this one up, and now I understand the hype. I didn't want to put it down, furiously turning pages until the shocking end. The author does such a good job showing each character in a suspicious light, there's no way to even make a guess as to who the killer is. And while not one of these privileged teens was very likable, I was okay with that. The perfect beach or summer read!
Review Date: 10/3/2010
I wanted to read this book after seeing the movie that left me with many unanswered questions. I was not disappointed. This is an intriguing and inspiring story of The Bielski Partisans and how they survived! I couldn't put it down!
Review Date: 12/27/2022
Every Summer After by Carley Fortune has been one of my most-anticipated reads of the year and I felt confident it would be a novel I would love in all its angsty glory. Readers, I wasn't wrong. While it's a plot that isn't unfamiliarâit's even one I've read many variations of beforeâI greedily devoured every word. I'm still not sure with what magic Carley Fortune has wrought this second chance summery goodness, but she made the best-friends-to-lovers story new again!
Reading Every Summer After was a menagerie of emotions. My heart warmed, broke, and soared multiple times while reading this love story. It's my favorite kind of love story: simple but with complicated outcomes. Friends who fall in love may seem like a simple plot, but as Shakespeare told us, âthe course of true love never did run smoothâ. Our characters are dealing with big emotions they're not sure what to do with, pasts that complicate things, and hurts that haven't been healed.
Persephone (Percy) and Sam are the best of friends and have spent their summers inseparable at their neighboring lakeside cottages since they were young. Not only did I fall in love with this story, the setting of Barry's Bay, Ontario in Canada (the author's very real hometown) had me dreaming of warm, sunny days lounging by the water, quick-moving thunderstorms, and the carefree days of youth when we had hours of time with our friends.
Fortune does such a good job immersing me into the tale, I could smell the lake, hear the water lapping, and feel the sun on my skin. She transported me back to my youth when love was new and full of possibilities and the heartbreak was all-consuming.
Every Summer After is told from Percy's point of view, alternating from the past to the present, slowly revealing what has lead to our characters' rift. Usually I like having both points of view, but I didn't miss it in this one. It added to the building tension and mystery of their story.
Percy and Sam are compelling characters, as are all the side characters, each one adding to the story, well-rounded and believable. From Sam's brother Charlie, to Percy's best friendsâDelilah in the past and Chantal in the present. I so wanted to hang out with Sam and Charlie's easy-going mom Sue, a young single parent running the family's local restaurant after the death of their father. I particularly wanted to try the pierogies she was known for. It was especially hard falling for a character when I knew it was her death that has brought Percy back to Barry's Bay.
All the characters are flawed, and Every Summer After does a great job examining those flaws, reminding us that no one is perfect, everyone makes mistakes, and forgiving each otherâas well as ourselvesâis what it takes to live life to its fullest.
There's so much more I could say about this one, so many plot aspects I'd love to discuss, but it's impossible without giving away spoilers. And everyone should go into it the way I did, not knowing anything except it's a love story about friends in the summer at the lake.
Pick this one up when you won't be distracted, because it's hard to put down. I especially recommend reading it outside, which only enhances the experience. I will definitely be picking up a physical copy of Every Summer After to add to my shelf for rereading. Preferably to take on vacation at a lake.
Reading Every Summer After was a menagerie of emotions. My heart warmed, broke, and soared multiple times while reading this love story. It's my favorite kind of love story: simple but with complicated outcomes. Friends who fall in love may seem like a simple plot, but as Shakespeare told us, âthe course of true love never did run smoothâ. Our characters are dealing with big emotions they're not sure what to do with, pasts that complicate things, and hurts that haven't been healed.
Persephone (Percy) and Sam are the best of friends and have spent their summers inseparable at their neighboring lakeside cottages since they were young. Not only did I fall in love with this story, the setting of Barry's Bay, Ontario in Canada (the author's very real hometown) had me dreaming of warm, sunny days lounging by the water, quick-moving thunderstorms, and the carefree days of youth when we had hours of time with our friends.
Fortune does such a good job immersing me into the tale, I could smell the lake, hear the water lapping, and feel the sun on my skin. She transported me back to my youth when love was new and full of possibilities and the heartbreak was all-consuming.
Every Summer After is told from Percy's point of view, alternating from the past to the present, slowly revealing what has lead to our characters' rift. Usually I like having both points of view, but I didn't miss it in this one. It added to the building tension and mystery of their story.
Percy and Sam are compelling characters, as are all the side characters, each one adding to the story, well-rounded and believable. From Sam's brother Charlie, to Percy's best friendsâDelilah in the past and Chantal in the present. I so wanted to hang out with Sam and Charlie's easy-going mom Sue, a young single parent running the family's local restaurant after the death of their father. I particularly wanted to try the pierogies she was known for. It was especially hard falling for a character when I knew it was her death that has brought Percy back to Barry's Bay.
All the characters are flawed, and Every Summer After does a great job examining those flaws, reminding us that no one is perfect, everyone makes mistakes, and forgiving each otherâas well as ourselvesâis what it takes to live life to its fullest.
There's so much more I could say about this one, so many plot aspects I'd love to discuss, but it's impossible without giving away spoilers. And everyone should go into it the way I did, not knowing anything except it's a love story about friends in the summer at the lake.
Pick this one up when you won't be distracted, because it's hard to put down. I especially recommend reading it outside, which only enhances the experience. I will definitely be picking up a physical copy of Every Summer After to add to my shelf for rereading. Preferably to take on vacation at a lake.
Review Date: 9/19/2017
Rape is a difficult subject to tackle, and the author does a good job of not dancing around the difficult parts. In Exit, Pursued by a Bear, the main character, Hermione, doesn't remember being raped because someone gave her a drugged drink. So while she's told she is a victim, she doesn't remember it and she doesn't feel like one. It's definitely a different twist, and her strength was refreshing. My only complaints were sometimes I found the story a challenge to follow because of the writing style or word choice (possibly because the author is Canadian??), and with it being set in Canada, I had a difficult time with the cities and locations.
Exploring Adventure Fiction: Wonderful Wizard of Oz/On the Far Side of the Mountain
Author:
Book Type: Paperback
1
Author:
Book Type: Paperback
1
Review Date: 7/15/2006
Contains excerpts from "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" by L. Frank Baum and "On the Far Side of the Mountain" by Jean Craighead George.
Review Date: 7/15/2006
Exploring Autobiography from the Literature and Writing Workshop Series by Scholastic. Contains three stories, "Breakthrough to the Big League" by Jackie Robinson, "The Invisible Thread" by Yoshiko Uchida, and "The Moon and I" by Betsy Byars.
Review Date: 7/15/2006
Includes "Come With Me to the Edge of the Sea" by William M. Stephens, "The Tree" by Judy Hindley, and "The Bat in My Pocket" by Amanda Lollar.
Review Date: 7/15/2006
Contains articles on Breaking News/New Features and Feature Stories.
Review Date: 7/15/2006
Exploring Science Fiction reader from the Literature and Writing Workshop Series by Scholastic. Contains three Science Fiction stories: "A Wish Named Arnold" by Charles de Lint, "Little Green Men" by Barry B. Longyear, and "The Flying Machine" by Ray Bradbury.
Review Date: 7/15/2006
Contains "The Hickory Toothpick", "Ol' Paul the Mighty Logger" by Glen Rounds, "A Tale of a Dog's Tail" by Harold W. Felton, and "Johnny Appleseed" by Anne Malcolmson.
Review Date: 6/15/2012
This is the third book in the Fever series. My review is for the entire series. I picked up the first book with no idea what I was getting into. I thought it was just another paranormal romance. The plot sounded intriguing. I ended up reading the whole series in 5 days...and then starting over to reread it. I read through it so fast the first time I missed some twists and clues. Well, and I just was so consumed I wasn't ready to say goodbye. I have no idea why this series is so addictive. I don't typically read romance novels, and actually had no clue when I started that this was one. I could have done without the detailed sex scenes. I'm just one of those readers who likes to leave more to the imagination. But the plot and characters sucked me in. Like everyone else I became enamored with Barrons. Who was this man? I still feel some things were left unanswered but I'm okay with that...for now. So, I advise you start this series when you don't have much else going on. Be prepared to be a little obsessed.
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