books
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Book originally read and reviewed end of April, 2026. According to the book, “moon of the crusted snow” refers to the month in deep winter where the air is so cold, it freezes the very surface of the snow, creating a crust on top as what remains below stays powdery and light. This season –…
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One spring in the city of Golden, a man named Theo moves onto the Promenade. He is eighty-six years old, brought to town on some kind of mysterious business, and he’s not sure how long he’s going to stay. He becomes a regular at the coffee shop The Chalice, because they serve the finest espresso…
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The same friend who recommended El Deafo in response to my concerns about accurately and sensitively writing a Deaf character also told me about Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness, and Liberation by Eli Clare. In this case, the purpose of the recommendation was two-fold. On one hand, it was in response to my desire to…
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This was a book club pick for May 2026, which is when I originally read the book and wrote this review. I loved it so much I include a little homage to it in my own novel – graffiti of cockroaches in an alley. “Art is what we leave of ourselves in other people.” This…
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When Mouse, a thirty-something editor with a dog named Bongo, gets a call from her father asking if she’s willing to clean out her recently deceased grandmother’s house, she doesn’t hesitate. Her father never asks her for anything, so the moment he does, she’s ready to answer. That’s just what family does. He warns her…
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The other day, while having a writing session with a good friend of mine, I talked at length about my efforts in writing my novel, which includes a Deaf protagonist. I mentioned how I messed up a significant part of my first draft relating to her, and how I had to spend time researching the…
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Originally read and reviewed beginning of June, 2026 This graphic novel is the autobiographical story of George Takei’s childhood in the Japanese internment camps of World War II. It discusses, with simple yet evocative illustrations, the journey Takei’s family went through, and the broader story of the internment camps’ inception, development, and eventual disbandment. Also…
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Anthologies can be tricky. On the one hand, they’re an excellent guarantee of variety along a theme. On the other hand, you can’t count on every story being one that will resonate. I’ve read anthologies where literally every single tale included was an absolute banger, and I’ve read others where I was, for the most…
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We’re working backwards through reviews I’ve written over the past year and change. This review was written 29 May, 2026. I just finished reading The Bone People this evening. Since then I’ve had a shower and enjoyed an ice cream sundae, all while turning it over in my mind. The story lingers, and invites consideration.…
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I first read Braiding Sweetgrass as part of the assigned reading in my Creative Writing MFA program at Queens University of Charlotte, though I had heard about the book and been wanting to read it for some time before that. Still, I didn’t expect to encounter it in a Fiction course – the book is…
