Happy New Year, Germies, and welcome to our 3rd annual reading challenge! The past two years I’ve given you checklists to complete over the course of the year with different genres and authors and such so that you might read a little more diversely than you would have without it. This year, I’ve gone a […]
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I have decided to reopen that book— the one I abandoned, early last summer, heeding the advice of Suzy and Barbara, and the New York Times reviewer who crowned it absorbing, enthralling, and a host of other superlatives I didn’t feel when I banged it shut in the middle of page 32. “You’re right,” Suzy […]
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Teen Read Week is here, and I had the pleasure of interviewing Kendare Blake, author of the Three Dark Crowns series. Kendare Blake has authored several book series, and she generously shared her expertise and knowledge of the inner workings of writing as well as the journey her writing has taken her on. Make sure to […]
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First there were four, and now there are three. Three teenagers, Emma, Henri, and Alex, are all stranded on a deserted island that has no clean source of water, no substantial source of food, and, as the three have concluded, no plausible way to get rescued from the tropical dungeon. With their pasts still haunting […]
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First off, let me say that I’m not one of those people who believes everything happens for a reason. At least not in the sense that “reason” exists as some greater life plan mysteriously at work behind the scenes. I didn’t get into the college I wanted, and I’m sure that, in the traditional sense, […]
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In school, I didn’t understand why one student got 90% and another student got 50%, even though I knew that they both knew the content very well (and were reciting it to me from first to fifth period). These differences in scores can be blamed largely on understanding context. Context refers to why, where, and […]
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A reader’s day starts with words. They open their eyes in their beds with their first thought being how many pages they can get through today. The reader sitting at their breakfast table, bright eyes scanning across the page of a hardcover with vigor. A new book, the same routine. But if you could see […]
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Escapism. [noun] Defined in the Oxford Dictionary as: “The tendency to seek distraction and relief from unpleasant realities, especially by seeking entertainment and engaging in fantasy.” I am, by definition, an escapist. I leave behind my sorrow and mood. I sink beneath the urge to brood. Run as far as I can from the feelings. […]
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I breathe the words More deeply than I breathe air They come to me, making flowers grow in my lungs They are beautiful, but how should I breathe with them there They rush in suddenly like clouds in the summer Bringing a storm with them I love the rain… But I am afraid of the […]
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