Category 2017 Books

Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson
Back in November of last year I attended NCTE’s huge annual conference. If you’re unfamiliar with NCTE, it stands for the National Council of Teachers of English, and their annual conference is a pretty big deal. The first time I went, in 2016, I referred to it as “the big one,” and my friends and family mocked me […]

2017 Wrap-Up
In just a few short days, 2017 will be over and we’ll all be venturing into 2018 together! I thought today I’d share my 2017 wrap-up, including my top ten books of the year, my favorite blogging successes, and some other fun moments and memories from the last twelve months. Best Books of 2017 The […]

Artemis by Andy Weir
In 2015 I read Andy Weir’s bestselling debut novel, The Martian, and later that year the film starring Matt Damon came out. I loved the novel and the movie, so I was excited when Weir’s second novel, Artemis, came out in November. I used an Audible credit to download the audio performed by Rosario Dawson. What I loved […]

Poems by C. S. Lewis
If you’ve been following along on the blog recently, you’ll know that I’ve been trying my best to keep up with the Writer’s Digest poem-a-day challenge for the month of November. I enjoy reading and writing poetry, and every now and then I even review books of poetry for you–in case you suddenly discover a […]

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
I’m 85% sure that I have read this novel in the past (I went through a pretty major Agatha Christie phase in middle school), but there’s this 15% of me that keeps thinking If I’d really read this book in the past, wouldn’t I have remembered the amazing ending?

Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave
If you’re a fan of books like Atonement, The Book Thief, All the Light We Cannot See, or The Kite Runner, I can’t recommend this book highly enough. It was suspenseful, emotional, and true-to-life, which, if you ask me, are three hallmarks of good historical fiction!

October Update
Happy Halloween! It’s been well over a month since I’ve written a blog post, so tonight I decided that I just couldn’t let the month of October pass without at least adding something new to the blog. While my absence here can be partly explained by some really amazing things that have happened in October, the […]

Gilead and the Gift of Fiction
There is a song by Sara Groves called “Add to the Beauty” that I try to listen to at least once every morning–either while I’m getting ready to leave home or while I’m driving up I-75 to work. Over the years this song has become a daily reminder of some of the things I value […]