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- Feb 19
- 3 min
Safia Elhillo's HOME IS NOT A COUNTRY - Finding a Way to Inner Peace
by Ashley Dickson-Ellison (@teachingtheapocalypse) Thank you to #partner NetGalley for the advance copy of this book, Safia Elhillo's Home Is Not a Country. This one comes out on March 2nd! In this YA lit novel in verse, teenager Nima explores what her life would be like if she were a different daughter and friend. Living alone with her mom and separated from the homeland where her mother grew up, Nima feels that she doesn't really belong anywhere. She clings to the music and
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- Feb 12
- 2 min
Tracy Deonn's LEGENDBORN - A Brilliant Balance of Fantasy and Reality
by Jen Moyers (@jen.loves.books) "Everything has two histories. Especially in the South" (230). It has been a while since I read a book like this one that so perfectly bridges a brilliant fantasy world with immediate, super-resonant social issues. Tracy Deonn's Legendborn is a masterpiece. Bree Matthews is 16 and trying to move on from her mother's death. She's built a wall to contain her grief and has escaped with her best friend Alice to an early college program at UNC. On
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- Feb 5
- 3 min
Elizabeth L. Cline's THE CONSCIOUS CLOSET - A Real Eye-Opener
by Sara Voigt (@meaningfulmadness) Admittedly it has taken me awhile to read this book. I actually started it over the summer (summer 2020--a tough time for us all) and I read the first few chapters and really liked it, but then my entire reading life fell by the wayside (which has been chronicled (lamented?) on the pod. So, at the start of 2021, I made a promise to myself to try to learn more this year in what I am reading and, in turn, try to be a better citizen of the wor
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- Jan 29
- 4 min
T. J. Klune's THE HOUSE IN THE CERULEAN SEA - A Beautiful Story about Finding Your Home
by Ashley Dickson-Ellison (@teachingtheapocalypse) This phenomenal book, T.J. Klune's fantasy novel The House in the Cerulean Sea, was one of my favorite reads from 2020. I was thrilled to see that this one also just won an Alex Award as one of the ten best adult books that appeal to teen audiences with the Youth Media Awards from the American Library Association. Linus Baker lives a quiet, routine-oriented life with only his curmudgeonly cat, Calliope, for company. As a low
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- Jan 22
- 3 min
Ashley Schumacher's AMELIA UNABRIDGED - A Book about the Magic of Books
by Jen Moyers (@jen.loves.books) Thanks to Partner NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the digital ARC of Ashley Schumacher’s Amelia Unabridged in exchange for an honest review. The book will be published on Tuesday, February 16. A certain category of books is magic for book lovers: books about the magic of books. (As my students would say: how meta.) Ashley Schumacher’s Amelia Unabridged offers that precise type of magic. Had I not started this YA debut novel at 11:00 on a sch
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- Jan 15
- 2 min
Jane Harper's THE SURVIVORS - An Atmospheric Mystery
by Sara Voigt (@meaningfulmadness) Happy Friday! Today, I am here to write about Jane Harper's most recent release, The Survivors. (Thanks to Libro.fm #partner for my audio copy of this book!) One of my favorite things about Harper's work is her ability to write the setting of the story as an almost main protagonist in the story. Every book I have read of Harper's has had a strong atmospheric tone throughout the whole book. The Survivors is no different. Harper establishes th
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- Jan 8
- 4 min
Randi Pink's ANGEL OF GREENWOOD - The Greenwood Massacre of 1921 from the Perspective of Teens
by Ashley Dickson-Ellison (@teachingtheapocalypse) Randi Pink's Angel of Greenwood was my first full book of 2021, and what a great way to start the year! I was thrilled to see this book, and as soon as I saw that it was historical fiction and covered the Greenwood Massacre that took place in Tulsa, OK, in 1921, I knew I wanted to read it. That event is something I personally knew very little about until well into my adult life, and I was excited to see this important and tr
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- Jan 1
- 2 min
Emma Lord's YOU HAVE A MATCH - A Compelling, Parent Trap-Adjacent, YA Romance
by Jen Moyers (@jen.loves.books) Thanks to Partner NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the digital ARC of Emma Lord’s You Have a Match in exchange for an honest review. I’m also thrilled to have read this with @lovearctually! The book will be published on Tuesday, January 12. I missed out on Emma Lord’s first book, Tweet Cute, but I’m definitely going to read it now. I could not have loved this second book, You Have a Match, more. It is such a brilliant YA read, dealing with
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- Dec 18, 2020
- 4 min
Sofía Segovia's THE MURMUR OF BEES - A Beautiful, Whimsical Story about the Power of Love
by Ashley Dickson-Ellison (@teachingtheapocalypse) Wow. This one will definitely be one of my top reads of the year. I chose this, Sofia Segovia's The Murmur of Bees, as my book in translation pick for the Modern Mrs. Darcy challenge, which is the reading challenge I participated in this past year. Segovia is a Mexican author writing in Spanish, and her work was translated by Simon Bruni. (Check out our reading challenge episodes from the beginning of 2020 where we shared our
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- Dec 11, 2020
- 3 min
Kate J. Baer's WHAT KIND OF WOMAN - A Beautiful Poetry Collection about Being a Woman and a Mother
by Ashley Dickson-Ellison (@teachingtheapocalypse) The first time I read a Kate J. Baer poem, my youngest child was still an infant. I was new to Instagram and still learning how stories worked on there; the poem had been shared by a beloved friend. (Don't all our best discoveries come from friends?) I remember feeling like the world rocked a little bit when I read those words—poetry can do that to you. Sometimes, it's like the poet, whom you have never met, can somehow see a
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- Dec 4, 2020
- 3 min
Book Review- Jenny Bayliss's The Twelve Dates of Christmas - A Fun Rom-Com for the Holidays
by Sara Voigt (@meaningfulmadness) The holidays are upon us! Woo-hoo! If you have been listening to the pod, you know that I have been deep in holiday reading since mid-October. I have read some fun holiday reads in that time, and one of my favorites is Jenny Bayliss's The Twelve Dates of Christmas. (Thanks to Putnam Books #partner for my ebook review copy! All opinions are my own.) I talked about this in this week's episode that focuses on Christina Lauren's In a Holidaze, b
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- Nov 27, 2020
- 3 min
Katherena Vermette's THE BREAK - A Multi-Generational Family Saga
by Jen Moyers (@jen.loves.books) Katherena Vermette's The Break, which was the focus of the most recent @readwithtoni buddy read, is a brilliant novel set in Winnipeg and centered on a tragedy at the heart of a Métis family. The novel begins with a family tree, and that was definitely a sign of things to come. The narration alternates between ten characters—mostly women—whose connections aren't immediately clear. As the book unfolds, Vermette reveals gradually the subtle thre
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- Nov 20, 2020
- 3 min
Julie Buxbaum's Admission - A Book with Nuance
by Jen Moyers (@jen.loves.books) Thanks to partner NetGalley for the digital ARC of Julie Buxbaum’s Admission in exchange for an honest review. The book releases Tuesday, December 1.
“Even villains are allowed nuance.”
The college admissions scandal of 2019 inspired Julie Buxbaum’s Admission, which focuses on high school senior Chloe, the daughter of television star Joy Fields. Chloe and Isla, her younger sister, have grown up with wealth providing everything they needed, b
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- Nov 13, 2020
- 3 min
John Green's TURTLES ALL THE WAY DOWN: A Study of Character
by Sara Voigt (@meaningfulmadness) Friends, first of all, I must say, I love John Green. I love some of his books more than others, but what I like about his writing is that he doesn't rush his characters. He develops them, and the story follows. Often his books aren't super plot driven, but instead are a study of how characters, many with quirks and oddities, relate to people, themselves, and their environment. Green's most well-known work is probably The Fault In Our Stars,
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- Nov 6, 2020
- 2 min
Hena Khan's AMINA'S VOICE - A Powerful Own Voices Middle Grade Read
by Ashley Dickson-Ellison (@teachingtheapocalypse) I loved this beautiful story so very much. In Amina's Voice by Hena Khan (which would be appropriate for upper elementary students as well as middle or high), Amina is starting middle school. She has the struggles every kid that age has -- where does she fit in? how does she adjust as her friends change? -- but she also has struggles related to her specific experience as a Muslim Pakistani American child of immigrant parents
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- Oct 30, 2020
- 3 min
Claudia Rankine's JUST US: AN AMERICAN CONVERSATION - A Book I'll Re-Read
by Jen Moyers (@jen.loves.books) Thanks to Partner NetGalley for the digital ARC of Claudia Rankine’s Just Us: An American Conversation in exchange for an honest review. The book is available for purchase. I will need to read Claudia Rankine’s Just Us again. I think it is brilliant and important and thoughtful, but I know that there’s more to absorb, more to contemplate. I read it too quickly this time, wrestled with the format of the e-book (I’m definitely going to buy it i
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- Oct 23, 2020
- 3 min
Samantha Silva's MR. DICKENS AND HIS CAROL - A Charming Christmas Novel
by Sara Voigt (@meaningfulmadness) Samantha Silva's Mr. Dickens and His Carol is a delightful imagining of how Charles Dickens's iconic Christmas classic, A Christmas Carol, came to be. The story follows Dickens in the weeks before Christmas as he struggles to write a Christmas-themed story to satisfy his publishers, who are dismayed at the dwindling sales of his latest book. As the pressure mounts to meet the Christmas deadline, a cast of recognizable, yet not quite totally
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- Oct 16, 2020
- 3 min
Virginia Soenksen's THE TITAN STRAIN - A Compelling Science Fiction Read
by Ashley Dickson-Ellison (@teachingtheapocalypse) A fast-paced story with complex characters, some fascinating turns, and a bit of a mystery... that's what you get with Virginia Soenksen's The Titan Strain, the first book in her Genetics Chronicles series. This series also includes The Osiris Contingency and The Ragnarok Resolution, which just released in September! In this science fiction novel, the protagonist Liane has some superhuman qualities that have made her an idea
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- Oct 9, 2020
- 2 min
Nic Stone's DEAR JUSTYCE - A Worthy Companion to the Brilliant DEAR MARTIN
by Jen Moyers (@jen.loves.books) I've shared my love for Nic Stone's Dear Martin all over the internet—I think it is such a powerful foundation for conversations with teenagers about police violence, racism, and justice. I'm sure it will be no surprise, then, that I was INCREDIBLY excited to see Nic Stone's announcement of a sequel, Dear Justyce. (No worries! This will be a spoiler-free review of book two.) Dear Martin's protagonist is Justyce McCallister, a Black teenager w
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