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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 2004 Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine. Life lessons. Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. […]
George and his sister Gemma are going on adventure with their Mumzie, a human child with blond hair and fair skin, to the local campground. The only problem? George says, “Exploring is NOT for me!” He has no interest in roughing it (he’s frustrated by his uncomfortable camp bed), even when all his canine friends […]
At one point, the speaker offers readers a quick framework for his musings, saying that this “story is a memoir in the form of a novel pretending to be a memoir.” After a life spent in Manhattan, where he faced the deaths of many friends from complications from AIDS, the gay storyteller and wanderer moves […]
by E.B. White illustrated by Garth Williams ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 15, 1952 The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often… Likes 11 Our Verdict GET IT A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative […]
by Melania Trump ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 8, 2024 A slick, vacuous glimpse into the former first lady’s White House years. A carefully curated personal portrait. First ladies’ roles have evolved significantly in recent decades. Their memoirs typically reflect a spectrum of ambition and interests, offering insights into their values and personal lives. Melania Trump, […]
by Chad Morris & Shelly Brown ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 3, 2017 Medically, both squicky and hopeful; emotionally, unbelievably squeaky-clean. A 12-year-old copes with a brain tumor. Maddie likes potatoes and fake mustaches. Kids at school are nice (except one whom readers will see instantly is a bully); soon they’ll get to perform Shakespeare scenes […]
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Laura Hughes ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2016 While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of… Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol. The […]
by Amy Tan ; illustrated by Amy Tan ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 23, 2024 An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds. A charming bird journey with the bestselling author. In his introduction to Tan’s “nature journal,” David Allen Sibley, the acclaimed ornithologist, nails the spirit of this book: a “collection of delightfully quirky, thoughtful, and […]
These inquisitive strands of commonalities form the basis for Gervais’ eclectic bilingual word book, a hodgepodge of animals, vehicles, everyday items, and natural phenomena. Each spread opens to a catalog of things—faithfully rendered via stencils and brushes against mostly solid color backgrounds—collected around a declarative statement in all caps. “THINGS THAT SMELL GOOD” boasts a […]
From the Girl of Fire and Thorns series , Vol. 1 by Rae Carson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2011 Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel,… Adventure drags our heroine all over the map of fantasyland while giving her the opportunity to use her smarts. Elisa—Princess Lucero-Elisa […]