Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan HarperCollins, 1985 58 pages For most of my childhood, my family attended a church that had a lending library. Among the books were novels about pioneer-era mail-order marriages, which I completely devoured. They were trite and fluffy reads, but through them I caught a glimpse of something serious: … Continue reading Sarah, Plain and Tall
Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos Farrar Straus Giroux, 2011 341 pages I have a thing for dark humor. I'm also a fan of period fiction (sometimes truly historical, sometimes not) and stories with a strong regional flavor. Give me a book, TV show, or movie that combines the two, and I'm in heaven. … Continue reading Super Secondaries: The Ladies of Norvelt
The Help by Kathryn Stockett G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2009 451 pages Starting with today's post, I've added a new age category: young women. Books under this heading are appropriate for the age group I like to think of as "grown-up girls." They're mature teens and college students, the oldest of the next generation of women. … Continue reading Grown up Girls: The Help
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley Random House, 2009 373 pages I think it was in one of my college lit classes that I first heard the term "antihero." Before that point, I had encountered the character type but had never had a name for it. For those who aren't … Continue reading The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
Little House in the Big Woods and others by Laura Ingalls Wilder; ill. by Helen Sewell (first editions) and Garth Williams HarperCollins, orig. pub. 1932 I was trying to decide what to post today--something I've stockpiled? or a freshly written review? what age group or genre?--when I realized that I would be posting right before … Continue reading The Gift of Inspiration: The Little House Books
Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai HarperCollins, 2011 272 pages The Vietnam War is kind of a nebulous area in my historical understanding. I know something about it--but only from an American perspective (how and why the U.S. got involved, our casualties, protests on the homefront). I know virtually nothing about the war … Continue reading Inside Out and Back Again
Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse Scholastic, 1997 227 pages I first read Karen Hesse's Out of the Dust several years ago (maybe around 2005?) and remembered it as an inspiring book, good fodder for Read Like a Girl. What I didn't remember is that it's also one of the rawest, heaviest books I've … Continue reading Out of the Dust
