Selected Reviews Ali Wong’s Dear Girls​: Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets & Advice for Living Your Best Life - I was about two minutes in to listening to Ali Wong's Dear Girls (I listened on Scribd) when I realized this would be an earbuds-in production. Raunchy and real, Wong's memoir goes full on with words that I hope my boys don't say. I loved it!!!! Wong is writing here to her daughters, sharing her life experience and advice for her girls as they grow. She addresses every

Stephen and Owen King's Sleeping Beauties - "We could go on like this forever. He said, she said. The oldest story in the universe." Stephen King is consistently one of my favorite authors--his storytelling ability never fails. His recent novel with his son Owen King falls solidly within his oeuvre. Real-world issues combine with fantastical problems (in this case, women are falling asleep only to be cocooned in silky webs). The Kings take on feminism, the male tendency to vi

Jacqueline Woodson's Harbor Me - I just finished reading this book with Jonathan (it was my second time through). I'm not sure what he thought, but (as he pointed out to Kirk) I cried at least twice and teared up more. He was disappointed in parts because there wasn't enough action, but I think it grabbed him eventually. We had some good, though difficult, discussions about Tamir Rice, about ICE, about how much we love our dogs, about drunk driving. And the writing! The sente

A. S. King's Everybody Sees the Ants Lesléa Newman's October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard Jason Reynolds's Long Way Down Gary D. Schmidt's Orbiting Jupiter Nic Stone's Dear Martin Angie Thomas's The Hate U Give #yalit #readthisnow #bookishfaves

A Couple of Quick Looks Angela Duckworth's Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance - I thoroughly enjoyed Duckworth's book. Though I'd listened to her TED Talk and heard her interviewed several times on the Freakonomics podcast, this expansion of her theories and discoveries is thought-provoking. Chip Heath and Dan Heath's The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact - This was just great. I really enjoyed the Heath brothers' perspectives and th

Here's a selection of mini-reviews; books are linked for purchase. Alex North's The Whisper Man - I finished this Book of the Month pick in record time, encouraged by all of the Bookstagram buzz about just. how. creepy it is. And I really loved Alex North's The Whisper Man, though I wasn't *quite* as creeped out as I'd hoped/feared. Though it migrates between a variety of perspectives, at the center of the novel are Tom and Jake Kennedy, a father and son who are mourning the